Eileen Drapiza-Dornan, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

05/11/2023

Seems there is a lesson in this: what we perceive as therapists sitting with our clients is likely influenced by what we understand (or think we understand) of their context. What if background color represents cultural context/intersectionality?

23/07/2022

The textbook will feature lessons on AAPI history and culture designed for high school students, college students and life-long learners.

14/07/2022

Do you ever find that your success makes you uncomfortable? There is this strange tension of wanting deeply to be successful, and yet when we attain it, we deflect, hide or even run from the recognition.

I’ve had to sit with this tension for months as people have offered congrats or celebration over the success of my book. It actually made my stomach queasy and uncomfortable in those moments. Instead of trying to ignore it or flippantly dismiss it, I have been chewing on this response for months.

For myself, I have noticed that success triggers deep vulnerability. Success when brought into direct, surface level conversation or awareness feels very exposing. I realize not everyone has this kind of response, but it made me wonder where and how this perception developed. The feeling that success, when acknowledge by others, almost makes me feel unsafe, exposed, or vulnerable. Sensations that I actively avoid. No wonder success can make me feel so much discomfort.

This led me to question, “Why?” From what I have surmised so far, I have realized that success is the other side of the coin of failure. When I can feel and touch success within my grasp, it also feels like failure or a “falling” from success is also possible. It is much more comfortable to exist in the mediocre, ambiguous zone of being neither a success nor a failure. That space I can live in without being triggered. It is also the space that my parents encouraged me to live within - successful, but not too visible. A safe space for an Asian American woman like me.

As people of color, we risk greatly in order to exist authentically in spaces. This authenticity often exacts a price on us and often it feels safer to hide, even our successes. But if I allow myself to sit in that vulnerable space sometimes. To fully internalize and receive the recognition, I also receive the gift of truly understanding all that it took from within myself AND my community to experience success. And that is such a beautiful and humbling experience to have.

So share with us: How do you relate to success? How have you learned to embrace it? Share with us a win that you’ve had recently so we can celebrate with you! ❤️

17/12/2021

By Louis Chan, AsAmNews National Correspondent Ellisa Sun moved to Nashville from California to chase her dream of becoming a full-time musician. Instead, she found her Asian American identity. Sun marked the moment of self-discovery with a new just-released song confronting anti-Asian hate, I’m F...

15/12/2021

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/12/13/wikstrom-scars-of-empire/?fbclid=IwAR0yt0i82bR--zUKSYI99Cbcf9VN8BH3e4Zm0_zYdGdc5koj1jEJrhmb9eI

Harvard’s legacy of empire and education is one haunted by loss; the instrument used to create this wound lies directly in the University’s hands. But without Harvard, I wouldn't be able to begin putting some of these pieces together.

08/11/2021

To highlight National Adoption Month, we meet Grace Shu Gerloff. She’s a transracial adoptee and third-year doctoral student at Michigan State University studying the Asian American diaspora.

05/11/2021

Efforts seen as a way to stop anti-Asian hatred in the United States

14/10/2021

Thought provoking podcast episode!

‎Programa Asians Do Therapy, ep. Linda Thai, LMSW. Unnameable Losses of Adult Children of Refugees - 3 de ago. de 2021

09/07/2021

What is it like to be Asian American when you’re invisible within it?

26/06/2021

Peloton instructor Emma Lovewell reflects on her journey to reckoning and reconciling with her Asian identity