Healing the Tigress: An AAPI Maternal Mental Health Podcast

Dr. Theresa Nguyen, a psychiatric nurse practitioner and researcher of almost 20 yeras, joins Healing the Tigress to discuss why Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities have been underrepresented in perinatal mental health research and how that gap can affect care for mothers and families. Drawing on her Vietnamese American background and her work in women’s and perinatal mental health, Dr. Nguyen shares how her personal experiences, structural inequities, and gaps in data shaped her research.Dr. Nguyen also gets personal with us about her own decision to be child-free by choice due to her own mental health struggles with anxiety and depression. We talk about how she has found the calm in day-to-day life and how EMDR therapy played a role. Our conversation also looks at how the model minority myth can obscure mental health needs, why treating all Asian Americans as one group can hide important differences, and what research has found about depression, anxiety, and thoughts of self-harm across pregnancy and postpartum. This is one of the reasons why data disaggregation amongst AAPI is so important and why her research always aims to do this with the data. Dr. Nguyen also discusses stigma, language and follow-up barriers, and why postpartum experiences may be harder to capture in research.The episode includes practical ways to improve support: building a more representative behavioral health workforce, practicing cultural humility, asking about suicide risk routinely, and using safety planning to help people navigate moments of crisis.More about Theresa:Dr. Theresa Nguyen is a second generation Vietnamese American Associate Professor in the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science at the University of San Diego and a psychiatric–mental health nurse practitioner since 2007. She has dedicated her career to women's and perinatal mental health across academic medical centers, community organizations, and private practice. Dr. Nguyen's research centers on advancing health equity for Asian American communities by focusing on data disaggregation and overcoming structural barriers to care, an impact recognized globally through honors such as her selection as a featured Junior Investigator at the 2025 Marcé of North America Biennial Conference. Alongside her clinical and equity work, she actively contributes to health policy research and promotes inclusive excellence to strengthen the nursing workforce and health professions education.Find more of Theresa:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theresanguyenphdpmhnpSend us your thoughts! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

What happens when the person telling everyone else’s story is quietly carrying infertility, burnout, anti-Asian racism, and becoming a first-time mom at the same time? Dion Lim reveals the private cost of being the public face of Asian American truth-telling—and why vulnerability, not perfection, is what finally opened doors.Peggy and Jasmine sit down with three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and author Dion Lim for a conversation that moves from identity and motherhood to the emotional toll of reporting on anti-Asian hate during the pandemic. Dion shares how growing up as the daughter of immigrants in overwhelmingly white communities shaped her voice, why speaking about her own pain helped others trust her, and how a breakdown on live television became an unexpected turning point in her career.You’ll hear Dion break down:Why shared experience is the key to getting communities to open upThe pressure of becoming “the” voice for AAPI stories during a global crisisWhat it was like to go through IVF while covering violent anti-Asian attacks and working on cameraWhy therapy finally worked when she found the right culturally aware therapistHow motherhood shifted her from chasing airtime to chasing impactThe body-image pressure, postpartum scrutiny, and “bounce back” expectations that followed her into public lifeDion also gets candid about the mental-health impact of carrying generational trauma, the loneliness of infertility, and the small but powerful practices that help her stay grounded now, including intentionality, joy, and setting her own pace. She explains why storytelling can change policy, how one of her reports helped influence hate-crime legislation, and why her new role gives her the freedom to do meaningful work on her own terms.This episode is essential listening if you’ve ever felt alone in motherhood, fertility treatment, cultural pressure, or burnout. It’s a reminder that healing often starts when someone is brave enough to say, “Me too.” More about Dion:Dion Lim is a three-time Emmy Award-winning TV journalist and author of Amplify: My Fight for Asian America. Some of her reporting has been featured on Good Morning America, 20/20 Nightline, ABC News Live. Her work has also been highlighted by PBS, NPR, USA Today and more. Now she is the chief strategist for Asian American voices and founder of Dion Lim Media.Dion was named to the Gold House A100 alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, and was invited by the Biden administration to the first AAPI Heritage Month celebration at the White House. She is a Dress for Success San Francisco honoree, and has received multiple commendations from the California State Assembly and the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office for AAPI and LGBTQ+ advocacy. Peninsula leaders also proclaimed July 31 as Dion Lim Day in San Mateo County.Find more of Dion:Website: DionLim.comInstagram: @dionlimtvSend us your thoughts! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

[This is a sneak peek version, but you can SUBSCRIBE TODAY for the full episode #5 at healingthetigress.buzzsprout.com!]Last year, we read The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, and we've been having a lot of discussion between the two of us since finishing the book. Because we are so invested in mental health topics, the topic of our children’s mental health is naturally really important to us too. This book talked about "How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness" by "overprotecting our kids in the real world and under-protecting them online."So in this episode, we wanted to discuss some of the things we’ve learned but also talk about some of the things we’ve done or plan to do with our kids surrounding the topics of using smart phones/screens and social media. If you haven't read the book yet, that's okay! In fact, we know the thought of reading it might be even more anxiety-inducing. We experienced it ourselves, and maybe this episode can ease you into some of the topics.But as we talk about in the episode, it's also not all doom and gloom. In fact, arming ourselves with the knowledge now can further empower us to change the narrative for our kids before they hit their middle or high school years. And if you are already at that stage, it's also never too late either. We also know that a big part of the discussion around smart phone and social media use is our own screen time use and that sometimes modeling that can be the biggest hurdle and challenge. There is no one size fits all, but we do think it is important to have the conversations with our community because this is not an individual problem to solve. We need community effort to battle it so none of our kids feel left out and hence causing parents to cave in. So we invite you to listen to our more personal takes on what we've learned and what we're hoping we can implement with our kids so that they can have a good hold and control on their own mental wellbeing without being controlled by their devices.We talk about:What our relationship was like with screens like in our youthHow that relationship with screens changed when we became adultsHow screen time and our thoughts about it has evolve over time from having babies to toddlers to school-aged kidsWhat we're working on or have worked on since reading The Anxious GenerationHow we're working with our community and people around us to help our kidsThe importance of real world experiences and less overprotecting in the real world and more vigilance in the online worldThis episode isn’t to judge or preach on what we think anyone should be doing because all families and needs are different, but we invite you to listen with an open mind and continue the ever evolving conversation with people around you too! Hope it sparks some good conversation!Resources mentioned:The Anxious Generation by Jonathan HaidtLook Up and Around! by Christine Chiu, LMFTSend us your thoughts!Send us your thoughts! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

[This is a sneak peek version, but you can SUBSCRIBE TODAY for the full episode #10 at healingthetigress.buzzsprout.com!]In this bonus episode, Peggy and Jasmine dive into the real realities of summer break for parents: the childcare scramble, the mental load of camp sign-ups, and the pressure to make every summer “magical.” They reflect on how summer has changed from their own childhoods, comparing camps, travel, family support, and the freedom of slower days at home. We also explore the history of summer vacation, why the school calendar looks the way it does, and whether it still makes sense in a world with air conditioning and modern family life. Along the way, we share honest takes on privilege, flexibility, boredom, screen time, and the challenges of balancing work with kids’ summer schedules.If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed trying to plan your child’s summer, or you just want to commiserate with other parents in the same boat, this episode is for you!Send us your thoughts! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

[This is a sneak peek version, but you can SUBSCRIBE TODAY for the full episode #9 at healingthetigress.buzzsprout.com!]As children of immigrants, Peggy and Jasmine both grew up speaking Chinese in their households and attending Chinese School on the weekends. In this episode, we share about our personal experiences learning Chinese and how/why the end results may have differed in our later years despite both of us attending the same length of schooling. We also talk about how our experiences may be shaping our journey to teaching our children the language now and some of the mental toll it has taken.This episode explores our personal desires to try to preserve our mother tongue but also the grief of letting some things go in the bicultural world our children are growing up in. We share what we have tried with our school-aged kids to teach them Chinese, as well as the things we don't want to sacrifice or compromise on. Jasmine has pivoted many times (and is doing so again)!A good companion episode to go with this one is Episode 38: Permission to Break Generational Cycles with Dr. Jenny Wang, who also shares about her daughter taking a hiatus from Chinese learning during the pandemic and the reasons why she chose to let go of pursuing language. So, should our kids go to Chinese school? Check out our Subscriber episode today and let us know if you have any thoughts! This is a conversation that has been ongoing and shifting between us for quite some time, and we welcome the discourse!Send us your thoughts! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month AND also, Happy Maternal Mental Health Month! May is always a big month because of these two things coincide and are also the basis of our podcast themes.We don’t usually do a season finale episode, but starting at the beginning of 2026, we had to make some shifts to think ahead for the future of Healing the Tigress. And after working it out amongst ourselves, we thought it was important to share it with you, our listeners. That’s what this episode aims to do: we want to be transparent about our process because it involves our mental health, and we have always wanted there to be less shame, stigma, and secrecy around mental health. So, tune in for the updates as we fill you in on some of the behind-the-scenes discussions we've been having about this podcast passion project of ours as we close out this season and head into summer. Above all, we thank you for coming along with us on this ride. It has been an honor and means everything to us that you've been supporting us these past 2.5 years! P.S. If you'd like to send us some "fan mail," please click on "Send us your thoughts!" below! 😘Send us your thoughts! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

[This is a sneak peek version, but you can SUBSCRIBE TODAY for the full episode #8 at healingthetigress.buzzsprout.com!]Besides for talking to each other about their perinatal mental health challenges like postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety during the early motherhood years, Peggy and Jasmine have also had many reflective talks over the years about the decision to have just one child or not. Having a safe space to contemplate is not often easy to come by, and we were lucky to have each other's company to discuss this topic in depth. It has taken a few years of being on the fence, but we are both finally in a space of peace with being One and Done. As Peggy describes in this episode, it truly involved doing some of our "richest inner work."In honor of National Only Child Day last month, we had wanted to do an episode on how we realized we were finally off the fence and confidently enjoying our single child life. So in this more personal Subscriber episode, we share more of this journey with you, including:When we started to think we might not want more children and what we had originally envisionedThe toughest barriers, thoughts, or grief to overcome, including misguided only child stereotypesOur most helpful reframes in arriving at this peaceThe moments when we started feeling at peace with being done having childrenWhether certain circumstances might have changed our decision or notWhat we've gained from this experience and decisionHow our mental health has shaped this journey and evolved as wellIf you're someone on the fence or looking for validation in choosing to be One and Done, this episode might resonate as we lay out both our unique journeys to getting here. Your family size is a very personal choice, and we aren't here to say any number of kids is better than another. We simply want to hold space for those in the One and Done community who feel misunderstood or misjudged and show  show how life can be incredibly joyful and complete on this side. Society seems to think that only children are lacking something. But in reality, this life we have now feels so fulfulling and abundant in love, and our families feel like exactly what they were meant to be. ❤️Other Resources:Jasmine's "One and Won" Substack newsletterEpisode 11: Behind the Choice of Being One and Done with Shannon Eng (@onlynotlonelykids)Subscribe today to get the full episode and access to all our other subscriber Bonus episodes too!Send us your thoughts! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

This episode dives into the topics of non-traditional paths to parenthood, as well as not settling for a partner if it doesn't feel like the right fit. Our guest today is Jen from @AsiansInBloom. Jen is a second-generation Taiwanese American woman and eldest daughter of immigrant parents, with degrees in Psychology, Speech-Language Pathology, and Human-Centered Design Engineering. Jen shares with us how she had always felt like a "late-bloomer" when she was growing up, though she doesn't like to refer to herself as that anymore. We talk about how she had tried following her parents' path laid out for her and when her timeline just didn't match up with their expectations, she started to question whether it was even a timeline that she really wanted too.We discuss the pressures of marriage and parenthood in Asian American households and how that could be a disservice to our mental health and the future generation's mental health as well. Jen also walks us through her journey to pursue two rounds of egg-freezing and what it entailed. She shares some tips that might help others who are considering it or going through it too, and mainly Jen wants to share her story so others felt less alone than she did when she was navigating the process without a partner or her family nearby.Please join us in this episode as we dive into Jen's exploration of a non-linear path in relationship to her Asian American identity!Find more of Jen:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asians.in.bloom/If you resonate with topics in this episode, you may also enjoy:Episode 53: Single Mom by Choice: Unexpected Joys Navigating Special Needs with Michele ElizagaEpisode 38: Permission to Break Generational Cycles with Dr. Jenny T. Wang, PhDSend us your thoughts! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Today's guest, Lana Marcucio, found us through last year's episode 40 that we did with Not a Tiger Mom Podcast's hosts (two neurodivergent moms raising their own autistic kids), and she connected with us in hopes of sharing her story too. In honor of April as Autism Awareness Month, we were thrilled to speak with her about her journey.Lana is a 1.5 generation Vietnamese/Chinese American mom of 3, one of which is a non-speaking or non-verbal daughter with Autism. She eventually turned to technology to help her daughter speak, as Lana has been a mobile app developer for many years prior to having kids. So when this mom couldn't find a software good enough for her daughter, she took to creating one herself.  Her daughter's name is Quinn and her app is called QVoice.In the episode today, Lana shares with us how discovering her children had varying disabilities actually led her to be a recovering tiger mom--hence her moniker of "Tigerish Mom" was born. She explains how tiger parenting did not work with her son who had ADHD, nor her non-verbal daughter who Lana would go on to learn had both epilepsy and autism. Between navigating new diagnoses and giving birth to a third child while also figuring out how or when to explain to her immigrant parents about Quinn, Lana was overwhelmed with the many things she had to juggle. We talk about how Lana had to break so many generational cycles and do the deep inner work to heal in order to foster the kind of relationships she truly desired to have with her children--including the softening of her previous tiger mom approaches. Lana also shares with us how being trilingual and using her own understanding of languages helped her to develop the kind of AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) application that would best help her daughter, who did not have strong receptive language skills.  We loved learning about the challenges and needs of language development in some neurodivergent children from Lana, as well as hearing how she tended to her own maternal mental health over the years with therapy and medications. Take a listen to this strong, inspiring mama's journey today!Find more of Lana:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/qvoice.app/https://www.instagram.com/tigerishmom/Website/App: https://qvoice.appYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@qvoice-appIf you resonate with this episode, you may also like:Episode 40: Neurodivergent Moms Raising Autistic Kids with Jenny Lai and Bettina Lopez-Lam from Not a Tiger Mom PodcastEpisode 36: Supporting Parents of Neurodivergent Children with Clarissa Chui, LCSWSend us your thoughts! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

For this year's National Infertility Awareness Week, we wanted to give the spotlight to a beloved friend, fan, and contributor to our podcast. Joining us today from her usual behind-the-scenes role is Emilie Chuong, the gracious Japanese/Chinese American photographer who took our podcast photos and headshots to help us launch Season 2!Emilie walks us through her infertility journey with her husband, which entailed all the tests and a year of IUIs before attempting to try IVF. But literally just before they were going to do their first IVF round, the pandemic shut down everything and "elective surgeries" like IVF were put on hold indefinitely. Two years later, they attempted again and Emilie walks us through the outcomes. We talk about what a huge financial burden IVF is and how Emilie decided she couldn't gamble yet another round, knowing what her chances might be. We discuss what other options they considered like adoption, fostering, surrogacy, along with the rare chances of getting an Asian-identifying child in some of these scenarios. Ultimately, Emilie explains that they arrived at the decision to embrace a childfree life, even though it was not truly by choice.Emilie shines a light on how being childfree can be abundantly joyful even while holding space for the grief of a life they once envisioned. On the other side of the journey to find peace in their life path, Emilie continues to find joy in capturing and preserving beautiful life moments of others. Thank you to Emilie for being vulnerable with our listeners in this episode about her personal journey. And an equally bigger thank you to her for taking some wonderful photos for our team!More about Emilie:Emilie is a professional photographer based in the Bay Area, specializing in portraits, couples, family, and event photography. She is 4th generation Japanese American, as well as 5th or 6th generation Chinese American. With a Bachelor's in Graphic Design from California College of the Arts in San Francisco and Oakland, she has always had a deep passion for visual storytelling. After Covid, Emilie made the intentional decision to fully dedicate herself to building her own photography business, capturing meaningful moments in her work. When she's not behind the camera with a client, you'll likely find her and her husband exploring a new corner of the world together, where, of course, she's still behind the camera, capturing it all.Find more of Emilie:Instagram: @emiliechuongWebsite: https://www.emiliechuong.comSend us your thoughts! Support the show✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)