Therapy for the AAPI community

Your culture, your family's story, the weight of what was never said. You shouldn't have to translate yourself just to be understood.

Therapy that doesn't account for who you are outside the room isn't fully seeing you. Your background, your community, the particular ways you've learned to move through the world as an Asian American or Pacific Islander: these aren't side notes. They are the work.

Most of our AAPI clients are in New York City — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens — with others across New York State and Florida. Sessions are online, so AAPI therapy in NYC here means no commute across boroughs and no waitlist for the one culturally attuned therapist in your neighborhood.

We offer culturally attuned online therapy for Asian American adults and children of immigrants in New York (including New York City) and Florida. Sessions are 50 minutes, with in-network insurance accepted in New York and Florida through Headway.

You might recognize:

Carrying your family's hopes alongside your own exhaustion
Feeling caught between two cultures' definitions of success
Guilt when you choose yourself
Achievement that never converts into feeling enough
Difficulty naming feelings that were never spoken at home
Being the family translator, mediator, or fixer
A quiet loneliness even when you belong on paper

What makes this weight heavier

Immigration stories and intergenerational sacrifice
Households where love was shown through duty, not words
Model-minority expectations at school and work
Racism and invisibility that accumulate quietly
Distance from parents who gave up everything

You don't have to choose between honoring your family and becoming yourself — therapy can hold both.

How therapy helps.

What culturally informed care means for AAPI clients

Many AAPI clients have sat with therapists who didn't understand the context they were living in: the model minority myth, the pressure to succeed without complaining, the unspoken rules about which emotions are acceptable. Our practice was founded by an Asian American therapist raised by Chinese immigrants — we know firsthand how much it matters to be understood in the fullness of who you are.

You won't need to explain the basics here. Your experience won't get filtered through a framework that doesn't fit.

What we might work through together

Intergenerational trauma and the weight of family expectations. The exhaustion of being a first-generation American or child of immigrants, belonging fully to neither world. The grief of immigration and what was lost or left behind. Identity questions around what it means to be "Chinese enough" or "American enough" by standards you didn't choose. Collectivist family dynamics when you've internalized individualist values, or the reverse.

The silence around mental health in many Asian families. The experience of high achievement alongside deep loneliness. You don't have to leave any of this at the door.

Start Your Therapy Journey

Sliding scale spots are currently open with Laila Siddiqui, MHC-I for clients located in New York — you choose what you can pay, from $30 to $80 per session. See fees & insurance.

Who you'll work with.

Tina Liu, LMHC-D

Founder & psychotherapist. EMDR-trained, culturally attuned, licensed in New York & Florida.

About Tina →

Laila Siddiqui, MHC-I

Mental Health Counselor. Works with teens and young adults in New York, under the clinical supervision of Tina Liu, LMHC-D. Sliding scale spots available.

About Laila →

Junli Xiao, MHC-I

Mental Health Counselor. Works with adolescents and young adults in New York, in English and Mandarin, under the clinical supervision of Tina Liu, LMHC-D.

About Junli →

Our clinical team is growing — new therapists joining soon.

Not sure where to start? Send us a note and we'll figure it out together.

AAPI therapy in New York City — common questions

Do you offer AAPI therapy in NYC?

Yes. We see AAPI clients throughout New York City — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island — by secure video, along with clients elsewhere in New York State and in Florida. You need to be physically in New York or Florida at the time of your session.

What makes the practice culturally attuned for Asian American clients?

Liu Mental Health Counseling was founded by Tina Liu, LMHC-D, a child of immigrants, on the understanding that cultural context shapes mental health. Family expectations, immigration history, model minority pressure, and the experience of translating yourself for others are treated as part of the clinical conversation, not a side topic.

Can I use insurance for AAPI therapy in New York?

Yes. In New York we're in-network with Aetna, Anthem BCBS NY, Cigna, Curative, Oscar, Oxford, United Healthcare, 1199SEIU, Carelon, and Highmark, with billing through Headway — so with an in-network plan you pay only your copay. Sliding-scale and out-of-network options are on the fees page.