Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Self-help, personal development & practical advice

BUT WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY?

Shaj Kaur Kohli

Navigating Mental Health, Identity, Love, and Family Between Cultures

A deeply personal, paradigm-shifting book from therapist, writer, and founder of @browngirltherapy that rethinks traditional therapy and self-care models, creating much-needed space for those left out of the narrative.

Sahaj Kaur Kohli grew up knowing exactly what it means to straddle multiple countries and cultures at once. As a child of immigrants, discussing mental health in her family and community would be routinely met with that all-encompassing question: But what will people say? Yet she found herself plagued by questions of her own: Can I establish my own values while embracing where I come from? Is prioritizing my mental health really rejecting my culture? How do I set boundaries and care for myself when family means everything? When she turned to therapy, she also consistently found the same gaps in the mental health world - leaving her to ask, like so many other children of immigrants: what about us?

While today's conversations are becoming increasingly open and combat shame and stigma, our mental health models remain largely euro-centric and focused on individuality. Through her work as a writer and now therapist, Sahaj has sought to challenge these long-held models, and create an inclusive space where everyone can truly heal. It took deep personal reflection, therapy, and a whole lot of trial and error for Sahaj to find her own way to understanding and acceptance, and to grow where she's planted. Here, she shows us how to get there, all the while reminding us that personal healing is inextricably connected to collective healing.

BUT WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY? elegantly weaves together personal narrative, anecdotal analysis, and comprehensive research, while offering advice on everything from navigating generational trauma and uncovering the lies we're told (or tell ourselves), to breaking down stigmas around therapy and celebrating cultural duality. Democratizing and decolonizing the way we think about mental health and self-help, Sahaj's incredible work is nothing short of a revolution.

Sahaj Kohli is the founder of Brown Girl Therapy (@browngirltherapy), the first and largest mental health and wellness community organization for 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, HuffPost, Katie Couric's newsletter, Mental Health America, and others. Sahaj has sat on panels and delivered workshops and keynotes at Amazon Inc., Google, Accenture, EA, among others.

Available products
Book Published 2024-05-04 by Penguin Life
Book Published by Penguin Life

Comments

UK & C: Penguin Life UK

For those of us who straddle cultures and countries, it can often feel like we don't really know who we are, where we belong, and what feels truly authentic to us. Sahaj Kohli understands this intimately and gives us language to understand our experiences, and tools to help us bridge our personal need for individuation with our cultural needs for community. For children of immigrants looking to do the intergenerational work of healing, decolonization, and collective liberation, this book is a must read.

Interview: Why children of immigrants experience guilt - and strategies to cope... Read more...

This wonderful book is a compass, a blueprint, a mirror, and a friend. Kohli gives language to what many of us feel but can't yet articulate. At times it was as if I were reading my own story, now equipped with the tools to understand and thrive in this confusing world.

"But What Will People Say?" is like a strong root, finding sunshine, weaving with other roots, pushing out and up... That is what Brown Girl Therapy and this book do: weave stories and therapy into a beautiful, colorful garden of community. It bridges gaps where Western mental health drops the ball. It is accessible, truthful and healing--what we need to decolonize our therapies and address our people's historical trauma.

For anyone who has had to straddle the gap created by immigration, and the complex intersection between duty, obligation, loyalty, independence, anxiety, and the drive to make our parents' sacrifices "worth it all" - Sahaj Kaur Kohli's beautiful book takes a loving, culturally informed, and holistic view. She compassionately shares her own story, and guides readers through the nuances and pain of assimilation, individuation, and mental health. How I wish I had this book back when I was trying to figure it all out for myself!

Universal yet wholly specific to each person's individual struggles, Sahaj writes with compassion and expert authority, guiding us along a path to honor where we come from, our communities, and ourselves. A heartfelt, thought-provoking, and deeply tender book that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. A must-read.

Sahaj writes with great insight, clarity, and an uncommon grace and warmth. There is a reason her work has struck a nerve, and this book approaches with nuance (and love) the complex and multi-dimensional challenges and blessings, heartaches and joys that we go through as we grow into ourselves. I wish I'd had it sooner, and you will too.

Sahaj has already been featured on a Buzzfeed article about making therapy less white Read more...

In her beautiful debut, Sahaj Kohli draws on her life-giving work as a therapist to challenge the stories we've been told to believe to win acceptance. With radical honesty and empathy, Sahaj breaks the traditional self-care model for community care, returning us to true belonging rooted in love.