Therapy for Adult Children of Immigrants

A space to navigate identity, expectations, and belonging — without doing it alone.

You’ve Been Carrying a Lot

Many adult children of immigrant and first-generation adults grow up learning how to figure things out on their own. You may have learned early how to translate — language, systems, culture — not just for yourself, but for your family.

You might recognize yourself in some of these experiences:

  • Navigating two cultures with different values, expectations, and rules

  • Feeling pressure to succeed — not just for yourself, but for your family

  • Being the first to graduate from college or enter a professional world no one at home knows how to navigate

  • Carrying responsibility for your parents, your children, and yourself — all at once

  • Learning U.S. systems without guidance, while being expected to “just know” how things work

  • Being told you’re “too Americanized,” while also feeling like you don’t fully belong

  • Feeling guilt for wanting rest, boundaries, or something different

None of this means something is wrong with you. It means you adapted to complex circumstances — often without enough support.

How Therapy Can Help

Therapy offers a space to slow down and make sense of what you’ve been holding — emotionally, relationally, and in your body.

In our work together, therapy can help you:

  • Understand how cultural expectations and systemic oppression have shaped your beliefs about yourself

  • Untangle responsibility from worth

  • Explore guilt, pressure, and self-criticism with compassion rather than judgment

  • Build boundaries that honor both yourself and your values

  • Feel less alone in navigating identity, belonging, and role strain

  • Learn how to care for yourself while still caring deeply about your family

This is not about rejecting your culture or your family. It’s about making room for you within them.

An Attachment- and Trauma-Informed Approach

My work is grounded in attachment-focused, experiential therapy (AEDP-informed) and integrates EMDR when helpful. This approach recognizes that many adult children of immigrants:

  • Had to grow up early

  • Learned to be capable, responsible, and self-reliant

  • Didn’t always have space to be emotionally held or supported

Therapy becomes a place where you don’t have to have it all figured out — where emotions are welcome, where your nervous system can settle, and where old survival patterns can soften.

We pay attention not just to thoughts, but to what your body and emotions are telling you, and how they make sense given your lived experience.

Honoring Culture and Complexity

This work holds space for both:

  • the strength, love, and resilience passed down through generations

  • and the impact of systemic oppression, migration stress, and unmet emotional needs

Not everything that gets passed down is trauma — there is also wisdom, care, and survival. Therapy helps you discern what you want to carry forward and what you’re ready to loosen.

This May Be a Good Fit If You…

  • Are an adult child of immigrant parents or first-generation adult

  • Feel caught between cultures, roles, or expectations

  • Carry pressure to succeed or take care of everyone else

  • Feel guilt when prioritizing yourself

  • Learned to be independent early, often without guidance

  • Want to feel more grounded, whole, and at ease in who you are

You don’t have to choose between honoring your family and honoring yourself.