Kasamahan
Nonprofit community enriching Filipino/a/x mental healthcare
Mental Health Blog
As we notice participating Filipino/a/x mental health professionals share perspectives that may be valuable for a public audience, Kasamahan may consult them to document and publish for our mental health blog.
This is in support of inspiring Filipino mhps to write and share more of their lived experiences and acquired knowledge
in mental health with communities and future generations.
Directed and edited by Eliza Jade Brown, LCSW-S
12 | We have an entry anticipated for December
Check back soon!
11 | Embodied Filipina Wisdom: Pakikiramdam and NeuroAffective Touch
Published October 2, 2025
For Filipino American History Month (FAHM), Kasamahan is grateful to feature Roanne, Creator of Kalamansi Juice Blog. Roanne shares about vivid lived experiences that led to a desire to provide NeuroAffective Touch (NAT) Therapy, a body-centered modality that involves touch during sessions to process emotional, relational, and developmental trauma.
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Roanne also shares resources for those interested in learning more about Pakiramdam and other Sikolohiyang Pilipino concepts to where they may be applied for mental healthcare.
10 | The Impact of Filipina/x Counselors within American School Systems
Published August 25, 2025
Three Filipina/x mental health professionals elaborate on their experiences as school counselors within American school systems—Christine is in Virginia, Anna Patricia is in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and Judi is in Texas.
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They provide perspectives on navigating structural constraints, as well as opportunities in these systems to provide students with equitable access to mental healthcare. This is an important conversation to have with persistent racial and socioeconomic tensions within the United States and a rising disillusionment of educational institutions by youth.
09 | Mental Health Insights from Visiting the Philippines in 2025
Published August 1, 2025
In this special one-year anniversary entry of Kasamahan’s Mental Health Blog, we are honored to feature reflections from two valuable members of our Filipino/a/x mental health community, Fredelyn and Cherie, who both separately visited the Philippines in 2025.
Their stories bring us full circle, revisiting a heartful theme: what it means for diasporic Filipino/a/x mental health professionals to reconnect with their ancestral land and return with insights that enrich their practices and communities abroad.
08 | Division of Filipinx Americans (DoFA) Conference Reflections
Published March 31, 2025
Eliza returns to writing for the Kasamahan Mental Health Blog. This time, to share her personal reflections after attending the Asian American Psychological Association's (AAPA) Division of Filipinx Americans (DoFA) Conference titled, Pagbabago: Transforming Silences into Solutions in January 2025. The conference was held in Davis, CA and landed on the 15th year anniversary of the division's founding.
In Eliza's desire to meet her self-imposed deadline while providing high quality work to her kapwa, this blog entry, although published, is subject to noted revisions and additions in the near future.
07 | Realizing Diasporic Filipino/a/x Migratory Grief
Published February 24, 2025
Charlene, a Filipina Canadian therapist in private practice and a consistent participant in Kasamahan's consultation group, specializes in helping clients navigate migratory grief—an often overlooked reality for diasporic Filipinos. While migration is often framed as an act of bayanihan, driven by the promise of a "better" life, it can also fracture the very connections it seeks to strengthen, leaving many migrants quietly grieving the life they left behind.
Charlene offers a space of pagkuwentuhan, a shared storytelling and compassionate holding of pain and resilience where Filipinos can reconnect with their authentic selves and reclaim the full truth of their migration stories.
06 | Nourishing Filipina/x Body Image in Community
Published January 12, 2025
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Many Filipino/a/x individuals are familiar with hurtful experiences of their bodies and eating habits becoming an open topic of conversation during family gatherings, and the objectification of their appearance for the experience of others.
Informed by their professional specialties and personal life experiences, two Filipina/x mental health professionals, Lauren and Tara, were asked to share their insights to expand conversations around body image to where they may actually be nurturing and supportive within our Filipino/a/x community. They also explore ways these issues relate to disordered eating, women specific relational trauma, and prevailing colonial mentality.
05 | Filipino/a/x LGBTQ+ Mental Health Perspectives
Published December 2, 2024
Mental health professionals, Gregory and L, share their personal journeys of navigating heteronormative and cisnormative Filipino American culture. Drawing from their experiences as mental health professionals, they offer insights and reflections with the hope of fostering greater understanding, belonging, and collective healing within the Filipino/a/x mental health community.
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Initially, this blog entry was intended to feature perspectives from four contributors to ensure diverse representation. If you have a perspective that could enhance visibility for a specific demographic within the larger LGBTQ+ community, we encourage you to reach out.
04 | Parenting and Pina/o/xy in Private Practice
Published September 27, 2024
During our events, we've observed the accommodations Filipino/a/x mental health professional parents make to engage with and participate in our community.
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LMFTs and second-generation Filipino Americans Ruth, Monica, and Michael were invited to share their challenges and insights in balancing parenting with private practice. They also reflect on the Filipino culture they carry within themselves and how they may adapt this to nurture their children.
03 | Biyahe ng Bayani: Posttraumatic Growth and Finding Indigenous Wisdom
Part 1 Published August 30, 2024 | Part 2 Published September 15, 2024
Eliza, Kasamahan's Board Secretary, shares her journey finding Filipino Indigenous psychology and wisdom—a journey she playfully calls, Biyahe ng Bayani as a nod to her ChatGPT Tagalog guro and a concept loosely attached to Jungian psychology.
Last week, she attended the Center for Babaylan Studies Symposium: Kapwa Nilalang which marked their first in-person gathering since 2019. The Symposium focused on post-decolonization efforts through re-indigenization sa loob at sa kalikasan. This blog serves as a snapshot at the very beginning of her integration of what she has learned and would like to share with our community.
02 | Kwentuhan and Research: Narrative Therapy and Sikolohiyang Pilipino
Published August 16, 2024
Kasamahan invited jez to share about his experiences after learning about his graduate research while supporting with our Resources page and attending our Salo-Salos.
jez is a Filipino MHP Graduate Student at SDSU conducting research on The Lived Experiences of Filipino Mental Health Professionals Working with Filipino Clients. He is also exploring Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino Psychology) with Narrative Therapy.
01 | Mental Health Insights from Visiting the Philippines in 2024
Published August 1, 2024
In Kasamahan's Monthly Consultation Group, three Filipino/a/x therapists, Cheryl, Eliza, and Cherie shared about their separate visits to the Philippines this year in Spring and Summer 2024.
We invited them to write about their perspectives on mental health care in the Philippines as it compares to mental health care in the United States. They also share unique and relatable personal stories.
Please enjoy their diverse insights shared together as kapwa.
Our authors may request to correct, edit, or remove their entry from our website at any time with an editor's note from Kasamahan for the understanding of future readers.​
Kasamahan does not provide payment for the perspectives or opinions our volunteer authors share.