Tag: mental health

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Kokoro Corner: Values-Centered Living

By Spencer Uemura

あけましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願いしす。(Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu. Kotoshimo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.)

Happy New Year to all! Thank you for your continued connection and involvement with our chapter of the JACL. We can’t do this work without you!

For this month’s Kokoro Corner, I wanted to discuss the importance of values-centered living that comes from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). To briefly summarize ACT, the goal is to accept difficult feelings, clarify values, and commit to take action in accordance with one’s values. When our actions are not directed by our values, we can experience fear, avoidance, as well as low mood and motivation.

In the past few months, I have noticed how my own fear has pulled me away from my values, and left me with greater avoidance and hopelessness. Specifically regarding the ongoing crisis in Palestine, I felt worse and worse as news of Israeli war atrocities increased while I continued to feel stuck. In recent weeks, thanks to kind conversation with friends and time for reflection, I’ve looked toward my values of Compassion, Connection, and Justice. I remember the impacts of WWII intergenerational trauma on our community, Japanese people in America and those still in Japan. Our people, too, have felt the pain of oppression and brutality, the sting of barbed wire and the horror of mass bombings.

We carry that pain in us, and that pain can flood back in from time to time. For me, that pain had left me feeling helpless and hopeless, a feeling like “shikata ga nai” or “it can’t be helped”, when there are very tangible ways for concerned citizens to advocate for change. By reconnecting with some of my deepest values, I’ve been able to care for my own pain that I’d been avoiding and see that the egregious violence upon Palestinian people is parallel to the abuses of power that our community has weathered in the past.

For those curious about how Nikkei groups are pursuing advocacy for the Palestinian cause, Tsuru for Solidarity (@tsuruforsolidarity on Instagram) and Vigilant Love (@vigilantlove on Instagram) are organizations that have been co-founded by Japanese Americans dedicated to solidarity, healing, and systems change.

In this new year, I invite you to consider your inner values and how you might let them guide your actions. Whether you have a value for Love, Spirituality, Courage, or Authenticity (to name a few) there are always ways to reprioritize those in our lives.

May our lives be firmly rooted in our deepest values.

*Please note this may or may not reflect the views of other members of the Portland JACL or Portland JACL Board.

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A Reflection on Sakura

By Spencer Uemura

It’s May and we are deep into Spring! It is around this time of year that I tend to feel a renewed energy for pursuing goals in my life that have laid dormant over the winter months. The world seems to blossom in a burst of colorful petals and birdsong as I also come to life again.

As I write this, I reflect fondly on my Hanami outing to see the sakura on the waterfront a few weeks ago. My spouse and I bundled up our infant daughter and went with some of her family into the blustery cold to see this year’s blooms. The waterfront was packed! I was both surprised and moved to see so many people out on a chilly weekday morning, doing something that feels so Japanese and so very Portland. The pom poms of delicate blush pink petals were so idyllic, I wished I was taller so I could see them up close.

However, it struck me that the crowds of people (and dogs and strollers) were noticeably dense around the cherry blossom trees, and lacking in the adjacent Japanese American Historical Plaza. The stones engraved with the experiences of our elders and ancestors sat lonely, overshadowed by the floral display just feet away. How many of the visitors learned that the trees were planted along the waterfront as a gift from Japan for the Plaza’s dedication? But maybe these are just my own assumptions about what I saw. Maybe I have my own feelings of guilt for not sharing this history with my White in-laws and my connection to it. Silencing myself felt safer than letting them know this deep part of my experience.

As a Japanese American mental health therapist, I feel like the month of May is my time to shine. It is designated as both Mental Health Awareness Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. As a response to fears of stigma and judgment, we can often hide our emotional experience and the impacts of our heritage. But in my professional role, personal life, and as a community member, I know the impacts that shame and silence have on our physical and emotional health. They can eat away at our self-esteem and challenge our resilience, exacerbating experiences like anxiety and depression, and leave us feeling lost.

We Japanese Americans are truly privileged to have an increasingly diverse community, full of intersecting and diverging experiences. These stories are vital to our strength. We cover a range of generations, from Shin-Issei recent immigrants to the Rokusei sixth generation descendants of immigration. We are multiracial and monoracial, bilingual and beginners, spiritual and secular. We are straight, queer, cisgender, transgender, and nonbinary. We exist across all of these experiences and identities, and we are here to stay.

So what are we to do? Maybe you’re like me, and you find yourself hiding parts of your heritage and cultural experience with others. Maybe you notice the ways that you try to put up a front, to convince others that life is not difficult for you. My encouragement is to start small and experiment with new ways of relating to those around you. This might mean sharing Japanese food with a friend who wants to try new food, opening up to a family member about some challenges in your life, or otherwise practicing making yourself more visible in your relationships. Like the waterfront sakura, your experiences are important and they deserve to be witnessed and appreciated. May we see each other and allow ourselves to be seen.

As before, I’m happy to be a resource for those who might have questions about mental health therapy. Seeking additional support can be a difficult but important first step, and I’d love to help if I can. Feel free to contact me at Spencer@pdxjacl.org.

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Koroko Corner: Values-Centered Living

By Spencer Uemura

あけましておめでとうございます。今年もよろしくお願いします。
(Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu. Kotoshimo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.)

Happy New Year to all! Thank you for your continued connection and involvement with our chapter of the JACL. We can’t do this work without you!

For this month’s Kokoro Corner, I wanted to discuss the importance of values-centered living that comes from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). To briefly summarize ACT, the goal is to accept difficult feelings, clarify values, and commit to take action in accordance with one’s values. When our actions are not directed by our values, we can experience fear, avoidance, as well as low mood and motivation.

In the past few months, I have noticed how my own fear has pulled me away from my values, and left me with greater avoidance and hopelessness. Specifically regarding the ongoing crisis in Palestine, I felt worse and worse as news of Israeli war atrocities increased while I continued to feel stuck.

In recent weeks, thanks to kind conversation with friends and time for reflection, I’ve looked toward my values of Compassion, Connection, and Justice. I remember the impacts of WWII inter-generational trauma on our community, Japanese people in America and those still in Japan. Our people, too, have felt the pain of oppression and brutality, the sting of barbed wire and the horror of mass bombings. We carry that pain in us, and that pain can flood back in from time to time. For me, that pain had left me feeling helpless and hopeless, a feeling like “shikata ga nai” or “it can’t be helped”, when there are very tangible ways for concerned citizens to advocate for change. By reconnecting with some of my deepest values, I’ve been able to care for my own pain that I’d been avoiding and see that the egregious violence upon Palestinian people is parallel to the abuses of power that our community has weathered in the past.

For those curious about how Nikkei groups are pursuing advocacy for the Palestinian cause, Tsuru for Solidarity (@tsuruforsolidarity on Instagram) and Vigilant Love (@vigilantlove on Instagram) are organizations that have been co-founded by Japanese Americans dedicated to solidarity, healing, and systems change.

In this new year, I invite you to consider your inner values and how you might let them guide your actions. Whether you have a value for Love, Spirituality, Courage, or Authenticity (to name a few) there are always ways to reprioritize those in our lives.

May our lives be firmly rooted in our deepest values.

*Please note this may or may not reflect the views of other members of the Portland JACL or Portland JACL Board.

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Deep Breaths into the New Year

あけましておめでとうございます！Akemashite Omedetou gozaimasu! Happy New Year to all of our members. I hope your holiday season had plenty of coziness and quality time with friends and family.

While the holidays and New Year can be a time of joy for many, it can also be a difficult time for many others, filled with the stress of travel or hosting, or a reminder of holidays spent missing beloved family who have passed away. A natural response to this is to find ourselves gradually overcome with worries or sadness, possibly dwelling on things that have happened in the past, or have yet to happen in the future.

To cope with this, I encourage my therapy clients to engage in mindful practices that draw the attention of the mind and body to the present moment, instead of the past or future. There are many ways to develop mindfulness, an active and open attention to the present, but one of my favorites is through breathing. By regulating and focusing on our breathing, our minds get a break from dwelling on distressing thoughts, and our bodies can begin to relax.

I teach a simple exercise called “4-7-8 breathing”, which goes as follows:

  • Close your eyes (if you’d like) and relax your body.
  • For 4 seconds, inhale deeply through the nose, letting the belly expand.
  • For 7 seconds, hold the air in your lungs.
  • For 8 seconds, exhale slowly through pursed lips (as if blowing out a candle).
  • Repeat as desired.

A few rounds of 4-7-8 breathing is often all that?s needed to help us center and refocus ourselves when stress or emotions start to cause distress. And because there are no tools required, this breathing technique can be practiced nearly anywhere, and adapted to your needs and physical ability.

May we breathe deeply so we can welcome all the New Year will offer!

Questions? Feel free to email me at Spencer@pdxjacl.org

-Spencer Uemura

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Healing From Community Trauma

Our community is strong, with deep roots in Japan and America. We have contributed positively to the present and future of this country, despite difficult circumstances. And last month, it was disappointing to hear that racist violence not only continues nationwide, but impacted a Japanese family as they were enjoying the Eastbank Esplanade. This is our community, these are our neighborhoods, these are the streets we walk.

Our minds and bodies remember the pain of the past,
and hearing about this unsettling event in the present can trigger a kind of emotional flinching reaction in which we are flooded with memories of similar events we have experienced. While many of us may have not experienced incarceration in World War II, it is natural to have a resurgence of memories from times when we have been bullied, isolated, or otherwise singled out based on our race. A common response is increased fear, isolation, and avoidance of things that remind us of the past.

An excellent solution for this community trauma is community care, where support is mutual and shared among members of a community. This type of support, in conjunction with policy change efforts, is vital to our healing and the prevention of similar attacks. So what can we do to respond to what happened at the Esplanade?

  • Recognize that it could be beneficial to talk about how you?ve been impacted by news of the attack.
  • Consider checking in with your Japanese American elders, family, and friends. How are they doing? How are you doing?
  • What are the places or events where you might feel some support and shelter in community? You might consider coming to Obonfest at OBT on Sat 8/6, or the Annual JACL Picnic at Oaks Park on Sun 8/21. Community spaces can be powerful reminders of our shared resilience and joy.
  • Mental health therapy might also be beneficial. For more information about how to seek therapy, please see my brief tips below or email me at Spencer@pdxjacl.org.

The recent attack is a frightening reminder of violence, but we are not strangers to coping with trauma. Repeated reminders to ?gaman? may have carried our community through the past, but we have the chance to make a new way forward.

May we lean into community in times of pain and fear, both giving and receiving care.

How to start therapy:

  • Helpful NPR article: Things to consider when looking for a therapist, where to start looking. https://bit.ly/NPRstarttherapy
  • Open Path Collective: Listing for therapists who offer lower cost, out-of-pocket options. Can filter based on a number of criteria. https://openpathcollective.org/find-a-clinician
  • Psychology Today: Online therapist listings, searchable based on insurance, therapist identity, therapy approach. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us
  • There may be other opportunities for mental health supports through an employer?s Employee Assistance Program, or other local low-cost options.
  • Other questions? Feel free to contact Spencer@pdxjacl.org.

Reporting incidents of bias and hate: https://bit.ly/ORBiasHotline.

Survivors or witnesses of hate crimes can use the hotline to talk to trained staff, receive a referral to law enforcement, or be put in touch with a social service agency. Interpreters available in 240 languages. Can report online or over the phone (1-844-924-2427).

–Spencer Uemura

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A Perspective on Resilience

By Spencer Uemura

Hello and Happy May!

The month of May has quickly become one of my favorite times of the year. It?s around now that the weather has usually started to get warmer, especially after the surprise snow that we got in mid-April.

But aside from the climate, each May brings two important celebrations: Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month and Mental Health
Awareness Month. Through Asian American and mental health related events, it is a time when Asian Americans of various backgrounds and experiences can be seen, uplifted, and celebrated.

Since January, you may have noticed a request for feedback in our newsletters, with a link to a survey about your experiences with wellness and mental health as members of the Japanese American community. Your responses have been invaluable and I extend my continued gratitude to those who have replied. One theme that arose is the strength of our ancestors that brought them through immigration, incarceration, and/or other pressures, but also the continued need for healing spaces in our community in the present. If you?d still like to share your experiences in the survey, I would love to hear from you! Please fill out the survey linked later in this newsletter, or reach out to me to arrange a time to talk.

As a Japanese American mental health therapist, I know that there are significant barriers for us to receive care, whether from the Western mental health system or different approaches. There can be an intense feeling of stigma against seeking help or acknowledging where we feel hurt or vulnerable.

These feelings can run deep, passed down generationally from those who did what they needed to do to get by. Inspired by those who have shared their stories about mental health, struggle, and resilience in the survey, I thought it was appropriate for me to share my own. I was a young boy when I started to have nightmares about what would happen to me after I passed away. Oddly enough, what kept coming to mind was a scene in Star Wars: A New Hope in which the protagonists get caught in a trash compactor and the walls begin to close in, threatening to crush them. In my mind?s eye, the walls would close until they finally met in the middle, and all that was left was darkness.

This sense of doom led to more feelings of depression and anxiety, and I didn?t know how to talk about what I was feeling, or who I could talk to. My parents were as supportive and loving as they knew how to be – I was fortunate to have their support to access mental health therapy – but they hadn?t learned how to talk about big emotions from their parents and their surrounding community. My parents did the best they could, and because this kind of intergenerational healing is incremental, they put me in a position where I can continue this work for myself.

The isolation I felt in those days led me to the field of mental health therapy. I wanted the tools to understand myself, the ability to support others who might be feeling as alone as I did, and I wanted to be able to help my people heal. I am still prone to depression and anxiety. Even as a therapist myself, it often takes me an embarrassingly long time to acknowledge I need extra support when life gets more challenging. Our feelings of stigma are deeply ingrained. But ultimately, there are many more ways to engage and invest in our own growth than just working with a therapist. Among many things, healing could mean attending cultural events, eating Japanese foods, speaking or learning the language, or spending time with friends and family.

May we continue the healing that our ancestors began for us.

Some things for your consideration during this APIDA Heritage and Mental Health Awareness Month:

  • We carry the pain of our ancestors, as well as the resilience that brought them through incredible difficulty.
  • Who are the people, past or present, who taught you strength and resilience?
  • What is something that you can do to foster that strength and resilience in yourself?
  • Our areas of vulnerability create opportunities for supportive connection.
  • Who are the people, past or present, who taught you the value of softness and openness?
  • What is something that you can do to foster that softness and openness in yourself?

Help guide our work!

Your very own PDX JACL Advocacy Committee has a goal to address Asian American Safety and Visibility as one of its priorities for the new year. Under this topic are the important mental health needs of the Japanese American community. We know that we cannot do this work for our community without receiving feedback from the community, so we would love to hear from you!

Sample questions:

  • How have your JA family/friends engaged with topics like wellbeing and mental health?
  • What are some phrases you have heard in the JA community response to hardship? (i.e. ?Shikata ga nai?, ?It can?t be helped?, ?It?ll be fine?)
  • What has your overall wellness and mental health been like during the COVID pandemic?
  • What are the needs that you see around you, related to mental health?

You may complete this anonymous Google Form or contact Spencer@pdxjacl.org to arrange a one-to-one conversation. Thank you in advance for your collaboration!