Conversations With Your Chinese Auntie

Exploring Ancestry, Grief, and Healing with Nichole Lee

In this episode of Conversations with Your Chinese Auntie, host Patricia Petersen sits down with Nichole Lee, an internationally recognized trauma-informed multidisciplinary healer. Nichole shares her experiences of discovering her African heritage and dealing with profound grief after her mother's passing, and how these events shaped her into the healer and spiritual guide she is today.
The discussion covers themes of identity, community, and the importance of somatic and spiritual practices in navigating life transitions. The conversation delves into themes of grief, identity, belonging, and the necessity of support systems in healing. Patricia and Nichole also discuss the logistics behind organizing retreats and the value of clear communication within support communities.
Nichole also speaks about her upcoming retreats focused on grief release and receiving more joy and abundance in life.
Nichole's Website
Nichole's Upcoming Retreats
Connect with Nichole on Instagram
Bio:
Nichole is an internationally recognized Trauma-Informed Multidisciplinary Healer, Intuitive Guide, Spiritual Teacher, Speaker, Well-Being Educator, Retreat Host, and Podcast Host, offering a sanctuary for healing and growth.
She specializes in helping individuals in creating more authentic and fulfilling lives so they can live out their wildest dreams.
With expertise spanning across spirituality, positive psychology, neuroscience, energy healing, meditation & mindfulness, health & well-being, trauma-informed care, and 20 years prior experience in global business management consulting, Nichole offers a holistic approach to supporting her clients and audiences as they navigate their life journeys.
Her podcast, 'Transcending Identity,' with listeners in over 30 countries serves as platform for discussions on personal transformation and triumph over their challenges. Through her engaging conversations, Nichole illuminates the path for countless others, showcasing the power of personal stories in the collective journey towards living an authentic and fulfilling life.
At the core of Nichole’s mission is an unwavering belief that love and compassion are essential to healing the world. She believes that fostering love within ourselves magnifies the love we extend to others, igniting healing across communities and the world.

Navigating Cultural Journeys and Motherhood with Veena Chugh

Content warning: the conversation touches on sensitive topics like post-partum depression and thoughts of suicide.
In this episode of Conversations with Your Chinese Auntie, I talk to Veena Chugh, an author, certified yoga teacher, and mother, about her experiences immigrating from India to the United States.
Veena discusses the cultural adjustments she faced, shares her journey through postpartum depression, and the contrast between Eastern and Western parenting styles.
Veena's insights into self-care, the significance of staying true to oneself, and her personal struggles underline the importance of community and self-awareness.
 
The episode also delves into her professional background in HR, where she highlights initiatives on inclusivity and mental health practices. Veena shares her poetry, emphasizing the transformative power of writing, and offers valuable advice for immigrant mothers.
 
Bio: 
Veena has 20 years of corporate experience, including a decade in HR, and has led leadership roles across India and Indonesia. She is a certified yoga teacher and a coach. She has also served as a visiting Faculty member teaching human resource management in 2 institutes in Mumbai. Veena is a published Author who loves to write quotes and poems. She is in the process of compiling her second book.
 
Veena's Book
Follow Veena on LinkedIn
 

Trust and Surrender: A Conversation with Don Carter on Community, Fatherhood, and Transformation

Content warning: the conversation touches on sensitive topics like suicide.
In this Conversations with Your Chinese Auntie episode, Patricia Petersen hosts Don Carter, an entrepreneur, speaker, writer, and transformational coach. They discuss various topics, including Don's upbringing without a father figure, the significant role community played in his life and his journey to becoming a coach. They also delve into deep subjects such as following your heart, fatherhood, dealing with loss and change, and the transformative power of surrender.
Don's website & book
Bio:Don Carter has spent a lifetime pursuing service and protection, previously during a decade in law enforcement and now through working with emerging business leaders. His relentless journey has led him from healing hearts to radical new starts for black executives and entrepreneurs breaking through to their next levels of growth and success.
Don Carter is an author, speaker, business shaman and transformational executive coach who brings a vibe that generates life-shifting insights for his clients’ work and for themselves as human beings. Using principle-driven purpose, he helps high-performing individuals shift the focus from what seems wrong on the outside to everything right on the inside. By embracing transition and change as a necessary experience, it helps others grow into deeply authentic, fulfilled, and successful business leaders. 
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Community for Asian Women Starts September 30th

Home in a Lunchbox & Finding Your Path: An Interview with Author-Illustrator Cherry Mo

In this episode, Cherry Mo, author and illustrator of the picture book Home In A Lunchbox, discusses her experience of moving from Hong Kong to America and how it inspired her work. The conversation covers Cherry's creative journey, cultural integration, and struggles with anxiety.
We also talk about mental health awareness, the power of community, and the significance of food in Cherry's culture.
Follow Cherry on Instagram
Bio:
Cherry Mo  is the author-illustrator of her debut picture book, HOME IN A LUNCHBOX, published in June 2024 from Penguin Workshop (Penguin Random House). This book is inspired by Cherry’s personal experience of moving from Hong Kong to America at the age of ten. HOME IN A LUNCHBOX is "An Indie Next List Pick" for July and August, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and garnered starred reviews from Publisher Weekly and School Library Journal. Through writing and illustrating, she hopes to bring young readers a sense of comfort and belonging. She draws inspiration from her personal experiences and Chinese-American background. Cherry has a second picture book coming from Penguin Workshop (details are to be announced). 
 
Besides her creative work, Cherry is actively involved in a nonprofit organization focusing on self-awareness. She translates her practices of self-awareness into her author-illustrator work, and she hopes to continue creating meaningful stories that inspire children to understand themselves and assist others. See more of her work on www.cherrymo.com, or on X and Instagram @hellocherrymo.
 
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Community for Asian Women Starts September 30th

Navigating Cultural Boundaries and Asian Mental Health with Vera Cheng

Content warning: the conversation touches on sensitive topics like suicide.
In this episode, I welcome Vera Cheng, a seasoned social worker, psychotherapist, and founder of 'Talk Therapy with Vera.' We discuss Vera's immigration journey from Hong Kong to Toronto, her challenges with bullying and racism, and her career in mental health.
The conversation also covers the impact of anti-Asian racism, setting boundaries as Asian women, and the importance of internal validation. Vera shares her experiences with therapy and building a private practice, offering valuable advice for new therapists. The episode emphasizes the significance of self-care, community support, and addressing internal conflicts to lead a fulfilling life.
Follow Vera Cheng
Website
Instagram
Bio:
Vera Cheng is a registered social worker, psychotherapist, seasoned speaker, and the founder of Talk Therapy with Vera. With over 15 years of devoted work in mental health and racialized communities, she is a leading expert in mental health and anti-Asian racism, featured in renowned media outlets such as CBC NEWS, CP24 and CTV NEWS. In addition, she partnered with the Canadian Mental Health Association and featured in a provincial mental health campaign. As a Chinese-Canadian immigrant, she has honed her practice beyond therapy sessions into community engagement, advocacy and fighting against Asian hate. She is passionate about mental health awareness, primarily through anxiety, which she has struggled with. Sharing her journey helps reduce mental health stigma in the hopes of helping others overcome their struggles, too. Talk Therapy with Vera is deeply rooted in the "Healing Lens," with the anti-oppressive framework addressing anti-Asian racism through attachment, client-centred, self-compassionate and trauma-informed approaches. She engages with her clients collaboratively and empathically to improve their self-awareness and make positive, goal-directed life changes.
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Community for Asian Women Starts September 30th
 

Unconventional Bliss, Brown Papaya & Community with Isabel Bagsik

In this Conversations with Your Chinese Auntie podcast episode, we welcome Isabel Bagsik, a soulful brand designer and creative wellness guide. The conversation explores Isabel's journey, her lineage from the Philippines, insights into her work, especially with Brown Papaya, and her thoughts on building and finding community. The episode is rich with discussions on identity, ancestry, cultural intersection, and creative expression.
Connect with Isabel at unconventionalbliss.com/
Follow her on Instagram
Bio:
Isabel Bagsik (she/her) is a Soulful Brand Designer and Creative Wellness Guide. She helps heart-led healers, entrepreneurs, visionaries and revolutionary leaders like you to launch your innovative projects and get paid for your culture-shifting creative gifts. She designs authentic and attention-grabbing brand assets for your website and social media and helps you to prioritize the strategies that bring your creative visions to life while honoring your wellbeing in the process. Isabel’s unique methodology incorporates creative rituals, rest practices, and original, personalized design strategy. 
She spent 10 years designing for high profile businesses, brands like Google & Target, organizations like CAIR, LEAD Filipino, and University of California Davis, and changemakers like Stephen Curry and Michelle Obama. She also launched a successful magazine “Brown Papaya”.
During this time she also developed her wellness practices, leading her to discover an effortless and pleasurable branding process that she applied to successfully launching her current business! 
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Learn more about my offering, Community for Asian Women

What is Human Design? & Recovery from Eating Disorder

In this episode, my guest Shannon Keating discusses human design as a tool for self-discovery, a way to discover what makes you different from everyone else. She describes the five different energy types.
Shannon also shares her personal story of healing from an eating disorder, highlighting the importance of processing emotions, setting boundaries, and dismantling harmful societal beliefs related to body image. 
Bio: Shannon Keating is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP) and Holistic Life Coach for Women and Girls.
She studied Biology, Psychology, and Sustainability at the University of Denver. Following her undergrad, Shannon enrolled in a holistic nutrition program through the Nutrition Therapy Association (NTA) to become a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP).
Shannon’s business began with a focus on supporting women in balancing their hormones and healing their gut challenges using food as medicine, lifestyle practices, and intentional supplementation while simultaneously healing their relationships with food.
Shannon's Website
Follow Shannon on Instagram 
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00:00 Welcome to Conversations with Your Chinese Auntie
00:16 Discovering Human Design with Shannon
02:01 Shannon's Journey: From Nutrition to Holistic Coaching
09:47 Deep Dive into Human Design: Understanding Your Energetic DNA
18:44 Exploring the Five Energy Types in Human Design
27:17 Manifesting Generators: Navigating Life with Multipassionate Energy
38:08 The Unique World of Manifestors
44:37 Human Design in Relationships: Insight and Compatibility
49:10 Exploring Projectors: Navigating Energy and Guidance
56:48 The Unique World of Reflectors: Embracing Empathy and Openness
01:08:10 Navigating Recovery: Insights into Overcoming Eating Disorders
01:19:28 Cultivating Connections: The Power of Community and Inner Healing
01:27:10 Final Thoughts

Dr. Jennifer Mullan on Decolonizing Therapy and Sacred Rage

Content Note: Discussion of intent to die.
Have you ever read a book that made you feel seen and heard from the first paragraph? 
My guest today is Dr. Jennifer Mullan. In this episode, we discuss Decolonizing Therapy, Rage, Community, and more. 
Dr. Mullan's book, Decolonizing Therapy, is a love letter and a call to action for helpers, healers, and spaceholders struggling inside the mental health industrial complex. It's a must-read for all clinicians, especially white folks. 
Jennifer Mullan, PsyD, is a major disruptor in the mental health industrial complex. Her work is an urgent call to dive to the root of global and generational trauma to unlock the wisdom of our sacred rage. 
Dr. Jennifer Mullan birthed Decolonizing Therapy®, a psychological evolution that weaves together political, ancestral, therapeutic and global well-being. She is also the creator of the popular Instagram account @decolonizingtherapy and recipient of Essence magazine’s 2020 Essential Hero Award in the category of mental health. Dr. Jennifer Mullan is the author of “Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma & Politicizing Your Practice” which has ignited a fervent wave of acclaim and community support as a National Best Seller.
Follow Dr. Mullan:Website: Dr. Jennifer Mullan & Decolonizing Therapy®
Instagram
In this episode, other important links:
The originator & creator of Rest Is Resistance framework by Tricia Hersey
Tuckman's stages of group development
 

Healing Your Inner Child - Who's In Charge?

Okay, it's time to get real. You have probably seen posts on social media, or your therapist has told you that you need to heal your inner child. Maybe you’ve even done the work with them, but your inner child is still running and maybe ruining your life.
When new clients come and see me, and they share that they have done inner child work, I find that they missed one crucial step. Listen to this episode to find out what are some things you can do to start healing your inner child.
If you want to read more, here is my blog.
Be good to yourself and your inner child. 

Cultural Assimilation & Reclaiming Our Heritage

What a heartwarming conversation with my dear friend Thérèse Cator.
In this episode, Thérèse and I discuss the effects of assimilation on our bodies, healing, identity, and more. We also discuss how healing can emerge when we are in spaces where we can be in our full humanity and don't have to be in a state of hypervigilance.
Bio:
Thérèse Cator is the founder of Embodied Black Girl, a global community that centers the healing and liberation of Black women and femmes and communities of color. She’s also a mother, a Decolonial Leadership Mentor, a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, an anti-oppression facilitator, an artist and a medicine keeper from a deep lineage of scholars, medicine people and revolutionaries from Ayiti. 
Thérèse's work has been featured multiple times in both Forbes and Mashable, as well as Essence, Travel Noire, Jezebel, Authority Magazine, Mind Body Green, Motherly, and Yahoo News, among others. 
Over the past 15 years, she's worked with people from all backgrounds, and her work explores the intersection of spirituality, somatics and social change. Thérèse's work exists in the world to provide deep counsel and guidance to cultural shapers to heal intergenerationally, unearth their deepest expression of embodied leadership and birth revolutionary work and worlds. 
You can learn more at: www.embodiedblackgirl.com and www.theresecator.com and find her on IG @theresecator