Managing Familial Expectations for Young Adult Asian Americans
By: Angelica A.
Embedded Files
This therapy card deck aims to address what emerges when familial expectations are placed on young adult Asian Americans. These cards intend to better understand the individual's unique life experiences through guided prompts that explore the cultural roots of these expectations and the complex feelings that arise when navigating or meeting them. These prompts also encourage reflection on the individual's own identity, values, and aspirations.
Description:
Description:
My main goal for this therapy card deck was to formulate it so that it can reassure and uplift young adult Asian Americans, as familial expectations can adversely affect mental health. This resource promotes open conversations, processing and understanding emotions, and self-reflection. It integrates multicultural counseling approaches, making it a great starting point for understanding the client’s family dynamics and cultural context. This can then be used to provide tailored, strengths-based, affirming, and validating therapy while considering the complexity of the client's cultural background. Connecting to an article from the Asian American Journal of Psychology, "Family perfectionism, shame, and mental health among Asian American and Asian international emerging adults: Mediating and moderating relationships," this deck aims to address and understand how clients grappling with expectations from their family can be affecting their mental health and well-being. These cards also asks clients about ethnic belongingness and support, as this can help in mitigating these negative feelings.
For Counselors:
For Counselors:
This card deck was made to facilitate conversations that could be difficult to have with a client regarding familial expectations and their cultural influences. Many Asian Americans are confronted with complex cultural values, such as honoring their family and interdependence. This is all part of collectivist culture, which is starkly different from Western cultural norms that value independence. These cards help to respectfully explore these dynamics. With this in mind, these cards carefully and thoughtfully prompts the client to discuss their life experiences. Throughout these different discussions, it allows the client to self-reflect and be introspective on their own values and beliefs about their culture and pathway. These cards offer a variety of activities, giving the client the option to write their answers down if they don’t feel particularly comfortable elaborating on them. I purposefully structured it so that the client can set boundaries and control the pacing of self-disclosure. This is to establish a safe and trusting space between you and your client, as discussing family matters can be difficult. The last stage of this card deck involved practicing self-compassion. It allows the client to brainstorm ways they can reframe their familial expectations to make them more manageable or set boundaries. It emphasizes how they can still honor their family without losing self-agency. You and the client can then work together to put this into action, prioritizing the client’s confidence in the plan. This can hopefully reduce the pressure and psychological distress. Overall, this deck helps young adult Asian American clients and counselors to explore and discuss the emotional outcomes of navigating and meeting familial expectations.
References:
References:
Wang, L., Wong, Y. J., & Chung, Y. B. (2018). Family perfectionism, shame, and mental health among Asian American and Asian international emerging adults: Mediating and moderating relationships. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 9(2), 117–126. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000098
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