This month’s Speak Real Podcast episode is a nod to May being mental health awareness month as well as Asian heritage month in Canada. Varinder Kaur Paul, Creative Lead and Speaker at YouthSpeak, sits down with Shivani Gupta, Clinical Social Worker and Psychotherapist, who is the first mental health professional to be featured on this podcast. They discuss recognizing and healing emotional trauma and abuse that is often overlooked and can be left out of the idea of abuse altogether, awareness of mental health, the common lack of its acknowledgement as well as certain stigmas in the South Asian community specifically, and the role parent-child dynamics play in mental health and emotional well-being.
In this conversation, Varinder comes from the perspective of lived experience with healing the self-image, processing overwhelming emotion and building a relationship with the self, speaking somewhat for the youth that are listening and struggling in the way she once was, and Shivani brings the value of a Psychotherapist who offers the validation and education of these stresses as well as coping tools and big picture strategies for both youth and parents of these youth who may be struggling.
Varinder and Shivani are both part of the community of Indian diaspora in Canada and share their knowledge on intergenerational trauma, meaning trauma transferred between generations. In this case, specific to immigrant parents and children of those immigrant parents, in how their relationship is impacted by various factors of that life experience and how better understand these barriers.
One of the main takeaways of Shivani’s messaging, is that a person’s greatest strength lies within themselves, and that power should be used to validate oneself whenever necessary, as the base building block for overcoming obstacles and healing from challenges. Varinder echos this, when describing her own experience of realizing that she had to learn to accept whatever emotion she is feeling, regardless of external validation or invalidation, in order to support herself through anything and everything.
We highly recommend giving this episode a watch if you have an interest in the following topics:
- Psychological invalidation
- Negative core beliefs
- Depression and anxiety
- Yoga and meditation/breathwork
- Listening to emotions
- The subconscious mind
- How trauma is stored in the mind
- Advice and support for youth and parents
YouthSpeak is proud to have open conversations about these topics to allow youth, who may be struggling, to feel less alone and to encourage youth to reach out when in need of help, through the resources available to them.
