Oct 8, 2024
As the daughter of immigrants, Sahaj Kaur
Kohli grew up understanding what it means to straddle multiple
cultures at once. She wrestled with questions like what it meant to
forge one’s path, establishing personal values while embracing
one’s origins; if prioritizing mental health meant a rejection of
culture; how to set boundaries and engage in self-care when family
and community are so important. Even after becoming a therapist
herself, she saw those same gaps in the mental health world,
leading her to wonder, like so many children of immigrants: what
about us? Kohli’s latest book, But What Will People Say?
Navigating Mental Health, Identity, Love, and Family Between
Cultures, weaves together personal narratives with
research.
She offers advice and tools for everything from navigating generational trauma, guilt, and boundaries, to breaking down stigmas around therapy and celebrating cultural duality. While mental health is arguably less stigmatized than before, models can often be individualistic and Eurocentric. Kohli aims to both democratize and decolonize the way we think about mental health and self-help, shifting the paradigm, incorporating community building, and speaking to those who are left out of the dominant narratives.
Sahaj Kaur Kohli, MaEd, LGPC, is the founder of Brown Girl Therapy (@BrownGirlTherapy), the first and largest mental health and wellness community organization for adult children of immigrants; a licensed therapist; and a columnist for the Washington Post’s advice column Ask Sahaj. Sahaj’s words and work have been featured in Today, Good Morning America, CNN, TED, The New York Times, HuffPost, and more. Sahaj also serves as a consultant, educator, and international speaker. She has sat on panels and delivered workshops and keynotes for nonprofits, higher education institutions, and the White House. This is her first book.
Ruchika T. Malhotra is the best-selling author of Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work. Ruchika is also the founder of Candour, an inclusion strategy practice. A former international business journalist, Ruchika is a regular contributor to The New York Times and Harvard Business Review and a recognized media expert on inclusive leadership and workplace culture. She is working on her next book, Uncompete: Dismantling a Competition Mindset to Unlock Liberation, Opportunity, and Peace.