Culturally Centered, Online Therapy for
South Asian, Indian, and Desi Adults and Couples
If you identify as Desi, South Asian or part of the Indian Diaspora, you have come to the right place.
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Whether this is your first time in therapy or you have had previous experiences in therapy where you felt misunderstood, you have come to the right place.
As a South Asian immigrant, I understand the complexity of navigating multiple identities. I specialize in creating a space to process and embrace what that feels like. When you enter into a therapy relationship with me, you will be working with someone who has the lived experience to understand who you are and where you're coming from. I believe our cultural context is essential to helping you feel seen, understood, and safe. |
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Aside from my extensive training and credentials in psychotherapy, my therapeutic approach honors the complexity and intersectionality of who you are, how you feel, and what you want and need from your life. I speak conversational Hindi/Urdu.
Does this sound like you?
- You feel exhausted, tense, anxious, and maybe, resentful trying to please everyone in your life.
- Are you tired of code-switching and leading a double life? Flipping between your Desi / South Asian identity and American identity, acting one way with your family and a different way with your friends and at work. You are longing to integrate your identities, but you don't want to disappoint or hurt your parents/family.
- Are you hiding parts of yourself? Do you feel uneasy, uncomfortable, or shame having to hide parts of yourself from your parents / South Asian community: your clothing choices, your dietary choices, your friends, and your choice of romantic partner.
- You feel paralyzed and unable to make choices for yourself. You are stuck and unable to move forward in your life.
- From the outside, your life looks good. You have a career, a partner, maybe even kids and a mortgage. But inside your feel empty, lost, or like an imposter.
- You and your partner are from different cultural backgrounds. One of you is Desi / South Asian. You want to learn how to navigate and communicate around cultural norms and family expectations to connect more deeply.
What you want the most is to feel your authentic self, to feel at ease and comfortable in your own skin and with your life choices.
If this resonates with you, I can help you.
If this resonates with you, I can help you.
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I have extensive experience working with Desi/South Asian clients on issues related to immigration and dislocation and adjusting to new cultural norms, gender roles, and belief systems. When you share your experiences with me, I will listen with warmth, compassion and understanding. I provide a safe and nurturing space in which we can explore your personal and family history, you can grieve the loss of your ancestral homeland, and you can create and embrace a new home in America that feels secure, comforting, and joyful. I help you explore and define your new identity by finding the balance between your native and adopted culture that feels true and celebrates both. I help you feel empowered to make choices — career, partner, lifestyle — for a joyful and fulfilling life, while staying connected to your family and roots, so you feel whole and feel a sense of belonging and interrelatedness.
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Americans who identify as South Asian, Indian or Desi experience particular challenges in adapting to conflicting social norms and values between their — or their parents’/grandparents’ — South Asian culture and the dominant American culture.
Whether you immigrated to the United States or your parents/grandparents were the ones to immigrate, the immigration and acculturation process for you and your loved ones is complicated, physically demanding, and emotionally and mentally confusing and unsettling. Often times, family members may not be aware, or if aware, do not talk about the impact of dislocation, such as loss, grief, isolation, alienation, and confusion. |
You / your family endeavor to hold on to aspects of your South Asian culture and lifestyle: language, diet, attire, rites, norms, values, family and gender roles, etc. while attempting to adopt American ideals and cultural norms. Bridging this gap between native and adoptive culture causes distress and anxiety. If you are a first- or second-generation South Asian / Indian American, your family’s expectations for you to adhere faithfully to desi customs and values challenges your desire to fit-in as an American and causes emotional distress and confusion around your cultural and ethnic identity. You feel "different" — no longer Indian and not American. This creates intergenerational conflict as well as internal mental anguish. Strained family relationships worsen your sense of isolation due to feeling torn by your allegiance to your family and your need to feel a sense of belonging, to embrace America as your new home.
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Kavita Agarwal Comoglio, MA, LMFT 119728
Online Therapy for South Asian / Desi Adults and Couples Phone: 510.629.0131 ©2014-2024 Kavita Comoglio All rights reserved |