Do I have to talk about my parents as villains?

No. Most of my clients love their parents and feel the weight of what they sacrificed — both things are true at once. This work is about understanding your story honestly, not assigning blame.

My childhood wasn't traumatic — can this still help?

Yes. You don't need a dramatic story to deserve support. Much of this work is with quieter inheritances: pressure, guilt, unspoken expectations, and the exhaustion of living between two sets of rules.

Therapy for children of immigrants

You were the translator, the buffer, the proof it was all worth it. This space is for the person underneath all of that.

Being the child of immigrants can mean carrying your family's hopes in one hand and your own in the other, and never feeling allowed to put either down. Therapy is somewhere to set the weight down long enough to ask: what do I actually want?

We offer online therapy for adult children of immigrants — first-generation and 1.5-generation — in New York and Florida. Sessions are 50 minutes, with in-network insurance accepted in New York and Florida through Headway.

You might recognize:

Being the bridge between two worlds — and feeling the toll
Guilt about wanting a different life than the one planned for you
Achievement as the only language of love you were taught
Difficulty resting without feeling you're wasting sacrifice
Translating — literally and emotionally — for your family
A self that shifts depending on who's in the room
Grief for versions of your parents you never got to meet

Where this weight comes from

Growing up as the family's cultural interpreter
Love expressed through sacrifice rather than affection
High stakes attached to every choice you made
Values from home colliding with values outside it
Being the responsible one too early

Being the first means writing your own map. You don't have to draw it alone.

How therapy helps.

What this can look like

Guilt that hums under every decision that's yours instead of theirs. Achievement that became the way love was measured, so rest feels like falling behind on a debt. Being the translator, the form-filler, the family's bridge to a country your parents crossed an ocean for — and learning to be a child second. Anxiety that reads as ambition from the outside.

Maybe you can't point to anything "wrong." Your parents worked hard. You were fed, housed, pushed to succeed. And still, something in you is tired in a way a vacation doesn't fix.

Why it isn't just "family stuff"

What gets passed down isn't only recipes and language. It's also what your family survived — and what they never got to grieve. Immigration involves real losses: places, people, versions of themselves your parents left behind. When that grief goes unspoken, it doesn't disappear. It shows up a generation later as pressure, silence, or loyalty binds that are hard to name and harder to question.

Understanding that context isn't about blaming your parents. It's about finally seeing the water you've been swimming in.

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.