« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Sahaj Kohli with Ruchika T. Malhotra

When Mental Health, Family, & Culture Intersect

This event has already occurred
Date:
Monday, September 23
Time:
7:30 pm PDT
Cost:
$10 - $35 Sliding Scale + optional $30 book add-on
Learn more about Sliding Scale tickets.
Event Audio

Venue

The Wyncote NW Forum
1119 8th Ave (Entrance off Seneca St.)
Seattle, 98101 United States + Google Map

Note: Town Hall events are approximately 75 minutes long.

Orange book cover with white text reading 'But What Will People Say?' and subtitle 'Navigating Mental Health, Identity, Love, and Family Between Cultures' by Sahaj Kaur Kohli. Abstract line art faces in pink and green are scattered in the background.
Buy the Book

But What Will People Say?: Navigating Mental Health, Identity, Love, and Family Between Cultures

The Elliott Bay Book Company

Buy Book
Headshots of Sahaj Kohli (with tan skin, long black hair, and dark green blazer) and Ruchika Tulshyan (with tan skin, shoulder length black hair, and floral patterned blouse)
Arts & Culture

How were you raised to think about mental health?

As the daughter of immigrants, Sahaj Kaur Kohli grew up understanding what it means to straddle multiple cultures at once. She wrestled with questions like what it meant to forge one’s path, establishing personal values while embracing one’s origins; if prioritizing mental health meant a rejection of culture; how to set boundaries and engage in self-care when family and community are so important. Even after becoming a therapist herself, she saw those same gaps in the mental health world, leading her to wonder, like so many children of immigrants: what about us? Kohli’s latest book, But What Will People Say? Navigating Mental Health, Identity, Love, and Family Between Cultures, weaves together personal narratives with research.

Read More

She offers advice and tools for everything from navigating generational trauma, guilt, and boundaries, to breaking down stigmas around therapy and celebrating cultural duality. While mental health is arguably less stigmatized than before, models can often be individualistic and Eurocentric. Kohli aims to both democratize and decolonize the way we think about mental health and self-help, shifting the paradigm, incorporating community building, and speaking to those who are left out of the dominant narratives.

Sahaj Kaur Kohli, MaEd, LGPC, is the founder of Brown Girl Therapy (@BrownGirlTherapy), the first and largest mental health and wellness community organization for adult children of immigrants; a licensed therapist; and a columnist for the Washington Post’s advice column Ask Sahaj. Sahaj’s words and work have been featured in Today, Good Morning America, CNN, TED, The New York Times, HuffPost, and more. Sahaj also serves as a consultant, educator, and international speaker. She has sat on panels and delivered workshops and keynotes for nonprofits, higher education institutions, and the White House. This is her first book.​

Ruchika T. Malhotra is the best-selling author of Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work. Ruchika is also the founder of Candour, an inclusion strategy practice. A former international business journalist, Ruchika is a regular contributor to The New York Times and Harvard Business Review and a recognized media expert on inclusive leadership and workplace culture. She is working on her next book, Uncompete: Dismantling a Competition Mindset to Unlock Liberation, Opportunity, and Peace.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle.

Upcoming Events

Today
See All Events