Permission to Come Home - by Jenny Wang (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Strengthen your sense of well-being and embrace empowering new approaches with this invaluable investigation into mental health in the Asian American community.

Asian Americans are experiencing a racial reckoning regarding their identity, inspiring them to radically reconsider the cultural frameworks that enabled their assimilation into American culture. As Asian Americans investigate the personal and societal effects of longstanding cultural narratives suggesting they take up as little space as possible, their mental health becomes critically important. Yet despite the fact that over 18 million people of Asian descent live in the United States today--they are the racial group least likely to seek out mental health services.

Permission to Come Home takes Asian Americans on an empowering journey toward reclaiming their mental health. Weaving her personal narrative as a Taiwanese American together with her insights as a clinician and evidence-based tools, Dr. Jenny T. Wang explores a range of life areas that call for attention, offering readers the permission to question, feel, rage, say no, take up space, choose, play, fail, and grieve. Above all, she offers permission to return closer to home, a place of acceptance, belonging, healing, and freedom. For Asian Americans and Diaspora, this book is a necessary road map for the journey to wholeness.

"Dr. Jenny T. Wang has been an incredible resource for Asian mental health. I believe that her knowledge, presence, and activism for mental health in the Asian American/Immigrant community have been invaluable and groundbreaking. I am so very grateful that she exists."--Steven Yeun, actor, The Walking Dead and Minari
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Review Quotes

"Dr. Jenny T. Wang has been an incredible resource for Asian mental health. I believe that her knowledge, presence, and activism for mental health in the Asian American/immigrant community have been invaluable and groundbreaking. I am so very grateful that she exists."--Steven Yeun, actor, The Walking Dead and Minari

"Dr. Wang has been instrumental in my growth as a person, professional, and cultural expert."--Dr. Dana E. Crawford, founder, Crawford Bias Reduction Theory and Training, and scholar-in-residence at Columbia University in the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute

"In general, Asian experiences are either missing, misunderstood, or pathologized in Western conceptions of mental health. Meanwhile, in Asian communities, it is stigmatizing to even acknowledge mental health issues, much less talk about it. Dr. Jenny T. Wang has provided the rare and safe space for people to learn about, share, and to find resources, allyship, and validation on topics that are not discussed and not possible to discuss in real life."
--Dr. Sherry C. Wang, associate professor, counseling psychology, Santa Clara University

"This is a timely and insightful reconsideration of mental health in the Asian American community."--Publisher's Weekly

About the Author

Dr. Jenny Wang is a Taiwanese American clinical psychologist and national speaker on Asian American mental health and racial trauma in Asian American, BIPOC, and immigrant communities. Her work focuses on the intersection of Asian American identity, mental health, and social justice. She is the founder of the @asiansformentalhealth Instagram community, in which she discusses the unique experiences of Asian diaspora and immigrant communities. She spearheaded the Asian, Pacific Islander, and South Asian American Therapist Directory and its companion Canadian directory to help Asians seek culturally-reverent mental health providers.