Services
About My Clients
Have you ever been told that you're the "Black sheep" of the community or your family, "Whitewashed", "Too South Asian", or "Not Brown enough"? Maybe you're not South Asian, but you feel like you don't belong in your community. You belong right here! I go by "The Bad Indian Therapist", because as someone who was raised Indian and Catholic, I've also been called these things too. Sometimes it makes us feel isolated, and we withdraw from the world. It doesn't have to be that way!
My Background and Approach
My goal for YOU is to help you tackle your unhealthy sense of shame, guilt, and self-disgust or self-hatred. I'm here for you to self-actualize your worth and stand up for yourself! But ultimately, I'm on your side and I'm here to be your sounding board if you need to vent. This can be YOUR safe and brave SPACE. I practice Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), traditional talk therapy, Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), to help you develop the skills and tools to address anxious thinking and relationship conflict. I take a trauma-informed approach to therapy, and we focus on your past, present, and future here. If you have anxiety, depression, PTSD, or an eating disorder, you don't have to suffer alone. I know it sounds cliche to say, "You're not alone", but as someone who has worked with "misfits" and "black sheep" for 4 years now, you are not a bad person and you are not your trauma.
My Personal Beliefs and Interests
You've spent so much of your life trying to be the "good Indian" or the "good (fill in your identity here)" and realized it no longer works for you. Your culture is only a small part of who are, it is not WHO you are and you deserve to go on with yo' bad self! It took me a while to realize that I'm never going to be good "enough" in anyone's eyes. Growing up in a small South Asian religious household, I was aware of the lack of freedom for women, people who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community, and people who have darker skin or are associated with Blackness in our community. Anytime I or anyone I loved didn't "fall in line" with what was expected of us, it was almost like we were "cast out", or at the very last, nasty things were said. I make change by approaching uncomfortable conversations about race, gender, and sexuality in my culture and in my family. There's no such thing as someone everybody likes. We're always going to be "bad" to someone. Let's be "bad" together!