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There Are Not Enough Asian Therapists
Asian Americans need mental health services but cannot find fellow Asian Americans therapists. This is a problem.
When I sought therapy in the past, I tried to find a fellow Asian American female therapist. While there were many female therapists available in my area, I didn’t come across a single Asian American female therapist. All four of the therapists I have used over the last four years are Caucasian. When I stopped to think about it though, it was not a surprise at all that it was difficult to find an Asian American therapist.
A quick search for therapists on a mental health professionals directory revealed there are very few Asian American therapists compared to therapists of other ethnicities in several major cities in the United States. On the directory, run by the startup Zencare which aims to smooth the process of connecting to an online therapist, zero of the therapists in the directory for Seattle were Asian. 2% of therapists in the directory for Boston were Asian and it was 4% in New York City. Even though New York City fared the best among the three cities, it only had 16 female Asian therapists and 3 male therapists.
The lack of options in Asian American therapists means it may be more difficult for Asian Americans to get the specialized…
