South Asians in Therapy: Challenging Norms and Taboos
The South Asian diaspora’s initial reluctance to seek help was perhaps aggravated by high expectations of a privileged minority group in the United States, casting anyone who didn’t fit that squeaky-clean template as a failure. Nita Batta, a licensed psychotherapist who practices in both New York and San Francisco, offers her own spin on the sentiment. “A lot of [South Asian] folks grew up with fear or shame to control children’s behavior. Chances are, those [children] learned how to people please at an early age to avoid getting in trouble. Especially if they were encouraged to worry about what others would think of them,” she added, hinting at a ubiquitous catchphrase that resides rent-free in many a Hindi-speaking home: log kya kahenge? What will people say?
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