The Intersections of Fil-Am History Month:Featuring Dr. Kevin Nadal & Lia Mancao
The Intersections of Fil-Am History Month:
Featuring Dr. Kevin Nadal & Lia Mancao
Written by Bethany Leal, Social Media Ambassador
October is a big month: World Mental Health Day, LGBTQIA+ History Month, National Latino Heritage Month, Indigenous Peoples Day, AND Filipino-American History Month, marking 435 years since the first Luzones Indios landed in Morro Bay, California.
We had the pleasure of meeting with distinguished professor, author, and president of Filipino-American National Historical Society, Dr. Kevin Nadal – as well as therapist, writer, and group practice owner, Alyssa “Lia” Mancao, LCSW. On Therapin*y Thursdays, we talked about the many ways in which Filipin@/xs can benefit from developing their psychological understanding of Filipin@/x American History and their culturally-unique experiences through assisted healing (vis-a-vis seeking therapy, ancestral healers, and mental health practitioners). Here are where these conversations intersected:
Before we begin, it is important to acknowledge that the term “intersectionality” was first coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, a Black woman, and to acknowledge the systemic oppression, struggle, and erasure of Black women in society.
#1: Filipin@/x-Americans & Mental Health
The journey into mental health varies; in Dr. Kevin Nadal’s experience, he experienced stigma while seeking therapy as the topic was rarely discussed, which he navigated through support from his Pinay mother. Even so, finding the right therapist was rather difficult because people weren’t trained to talk about race, culture, gender, and sexuality in the late-90s and mid-2000s, so it took becoming a therapist to learn the possibilities of what it could become. He was inspired by a high school teacher to pursue a career as a psychologist – a non-traditional pathway for Filipin@/x who are often pressured to go into nursing or medical school – where he was mentored by Latinx and Black women throughout grad school. “I knew that our communities were powerful and erased from psychology,” Dr. Kevin Nadal remarks, “once you get that push, the sky is the limit. You all have the opportunities to achieve greatness and be a voice for our communities.” He reminds folks that even if your family discourages you from pursuing healing or a career in the mental health field, there is still a community out here to support you through this.
Lia Mancao started prioritizing her mental health in high school. She was very aware of anxiety and stress. Her parents were supportive in talking about mental health and finding the right help. This increased in college where the conversations about mental health were more prominent. She fell into her work by accident, knowing she wanted to work around community organization and advocacy, and her academic career happened to fall into clinical work which she fell in love with through internships. A common experience among Filipin@/x when seeking mental health support is being turned off the experience by working with practitioners who don’t understand our unique struggles, which tend to get pathologized even when they are pretty normal experiences. Lia encourages everyone to screen the cultural competency of practitioners you seek to avoid this pathologization and discouragement. Ask and assess potential therapists: “what is your background experience on working with immigrants, children of immigrants etc? Have you ever worked with [Asians/Filipin@/x]?” She stresses to not be afraid of asking, “it’s your time and your money. It’s important to find a good fit.”
It is never too early or too late to start prioritizing your mental well-being. As we’ve said in the past, it’s like a gym membership for your mental health. At Therapin*y, we hope our directory of culturally-aware practitioners makes that push a lighter experience when seeking mental health solutions that are right for you.
DR. KEVIN NADAL
#2: Filipin@/x-Americans & Queer Identities
Dr. Kevin Nadal recalls that people (including therapists) were still overtly or covertly uncomfortable with queerness when he began his personal mental health journey and there is still much work to do beyond LGBTQ+ History Month and Filipino-American History Month: “People tend to forget about us. There is so much queer, trans Filipin@/x history that is not really acknowledged in our community. It is so important for people to acknowledge intersections more. For Filipin@/x queer and trans identities, how do we navigate this systemic oppression when it’s part of our history that was erased or minimized? It gets overlooked in an unintentional way. During Filipin@/x-American History Month, we look at the workers and wars but we don’t talk about our stories [as queer people] so people might not feel safe to come out. Therefore, it’s important for us to tell our stories. There are so many queer people in Filipin@/x and Filipin@/x-American History that we need to start talking about.” The babaylan are an example of this: “In the past, queer and trans people were revered in Filipin@/x society. The introduction of Spanish Catholicism and American Christianity took away, not just our land, but the landscape and spirit of our culture. That’s something we deserve to grieve.”
#3: Filipin@/x-Americans & Spirituality
Dr. Kevin Nadal attributes help from his ancestors as a guiding force to happiness in his life path. He stresses the importance of connecting with our ancestors, each other, and the land that we live on, and the ancestral guardians of that land. However, this tends to be framed as psychosis or schizophrenia in western psychology. He strives to re-construct traditional ways of thinking through his work. “We need to challenge the ways that western society approaches our spirituality, as it can be an integral part of our healing.”
He discusses the phenomenon of the “fallen Catholic” in our community that comes from our oppressive background. “We don’t have to turn ourselves away from the concept of spirituality or even religion; find a space that doesn’t come with the baggage or trauma and if your family doesn’t respect your boundaries, remember that you can always find chosen family.”
LIA MANCAO, LCSW
#4: Filipin@/x-Americans & Parenting
Dr. Kevin Nadal calls parenting the greatest challenge and greatest experience of my life. He has fostered patience, understanding, fostering empathy and forgiveness for his parents, and accountability for the past, while reconnecting with his native language to pass onto his children. He approaches parenting with the following excerpt:
“Never repeat cycles. Never yell at your kids just to yell. You never want your kid to experience what you did. I was blamed for things and carried feeling like everything was my fault into adulthood. With my children, I am constantly aware of that. All parents acknowledge that when we are at our ‘worst moment’, it’s important to regulate and remember our child selves – how we would’ve reacted. Kids are kids. Developmentally, we have to remember how to treat them. They’re never doing anything to intentionally hurt you – they’re a four year old. Even teenagers are like little adults. Being able to emphasize with that is important for parents. Remember – what did your inner child feel like when you were that age, experiencing that, and what can we do to empathize with them to break the cycles?”
#5: Filipin@/x-Americans & Community
As we mentioned above, Lia was initially drawn to a career in community organization and advocacy. “Filipinos are community-oriented: we rely on our family and the collective,” recalling memories of her close-knit family back home in the Philippines and addressing the importance of reconstructing conversations of loyalty, shame, and guilt when navigating any stressors in the community structure. Mancao has extended her work to offer accessible, online workshops for the global community available, through her website.
Talk therapy is a very westernized form of healing and sometimes “being one with someone, with spirit and with the kapwa” can be just as efficient. To Filipin@/x who are considering pursuing this work, Dr. Kevin Nadal says “you can do it for the people, the greater community, and you can tell your family [who might not support this] that you can make money while doing it.”
#6: Filipin@/x-Americans & Decolonization
Colonial mentality continues to weave its way through the Filipin@/x experience, evidently through the shame of indigenous Filipino features and prioritizing capitalism or “making money” over pursuing a calling. Dr. Nadal talks how decolonization is an ongoing process and the nuances in which it applies to our diasporic peoples – “we don’t have to apply western theories to match our experiences. We have opportunities to queer and disrupt how we learn about psychology to match our needs as queer, trans, Filipin@/x etc.”
Alyssa thinks about beauty standards when it comes to colonization and decolonization. “When you go [to the Philippines], the billboards don’t look like the indigenous Filipino. Philippine media enforces European features as more beautiful and this is what’s sold. When I think about decolonization, I think about coming back to our roots when observing the beauty standard.” We also talked about the oversaturation of mestiza and European features becoming the standard representations of our people in popular culture. “There’s a wide array of how we look compared to how we’re portrayed.”
Giveaway Winners: First Aid Kapwa Kit
On Therapin*y Thursdays #13 with Lia Mancao, we announced our First Aid Kapwa Kit giveaway on our Instagram Live and Instagram Live. This kit was curated by our community of Filipin@/x mental health practitioners, healers, artisans, and entrepreneurs to assist you in your personal self-care. The kit includes:
Therapin*y Self-Care Handbook, Sticker & Digital Wallpaper Kit
Suyomano Tagalog Originals Classes and 10% off all courses
Lavender & Loneliness Kinaesthetic Crystal Malas
Choice of: Inspire & Instruct Sound Bath, Cartomancy, or Human Design Reading
OR Inabel Uytiepo (Healing Is Giving & Wayfinding Collective) Self-Care Recording and Somatic Forgiveness Workshop