EP.131 - It's Good To Gup Shup - Dear Mental Health System: It’s Not Us, It’s You

Healing as South Asians often means navigating a mental health system shaped by whiteness — one that often fails to see us. After parting ways with a white friend who is also a therapist, I began questioning: is it that we resist help, or that the help we’re offered was never built for us?

And here’s the harder truth: many working within this system — including people of colour — don’t fully recognize how deeply whiteness shapes the frameworks we call “care.” Too often, this system offers a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn’t reflect our histories, cultures, or lived experiences. But unless those working in mental health commit to doing the deeper work — genuinely examining their own whiteness and how little is truly understood about clients of colour — these patterns will continue. Too many claim awareness but fall short of real accountability. The result? Many South Asians who need and deserve support are left unseen, underserved, or made to feel that healing is out of reach.

Often this harm isn’t intentional, but unless we do the deeper work, we risk reproducing it while trying to help. It’s a slippery slope. This Gup Shup is for anyone ready to rethink what true support looks like when we center our own voices and ways of healing. 

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In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.