Healing the Tigress
A podcast that focuses on conversations & stories around Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) maternal mental health, hosted by Taiwanese American mothers Peggy (LCSW, PMH-C) & Jasmine (PharmD, PMH-C) who are also postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety survivors.
Mental health is not talked about enough in our AAPI communities, and we want to break these stigmas especially for mothers and partners. As AAPI healthcare providers who personally struggled during postpartum and are now perinatal mental health certified, we want to see more representation of other AAPI parents who know how important it is to take care of our mental health.
We talk with AAPI guests about a variety of themes in mental health and parenting, particularly what that looks like through the lens of our culture within the Western world. There are also discussions with professionals in the field, to help our providers and allies. We're not afraid to talk about the hard things that might seem taboo. We hope this podcast reminds you that you are not alone in your struggles as an AAPI parent!
Healing the Tigress
Ep. 10 - "Untigering" in Motherhood, Parenting, and Reclaiming Identity with Iris Chen
You may know our latest guest as the popular "Untigering" on Instagram or from her book by the same name. Iris Chen is a recovering tiger mother, parent coach, and founder of the Untigering movement. After seeing the negative effects of authoritarian parenting and unhealthy cultural expectations in her own life, Iris is now on a mission to promote mental health, peaceful parenting, and self-directed learning, especially among Asian communities.
Because of our names and our ideas around the concept of the "tiger mom," we knew we had to get Iris on the podcast to have a conversation! In this episode, we talk with Iris about what she observed being an "American Born Chinese (ABC) raising Chinese Born Americans (CBA)" in China, after she lived there for 16 years. Iris has since returned to the U.S. and is continuing to raise her teenagers in ways that honor peaceful parenting and "unschooling," which we talk about as well.
We discuss how Iris got to experience a "third culture" living abroad and then in turn defining how she wanted her motherhood and parenting ideals to look. Iris goes over the pivotal moment when she realized she had to change her authoritarian ways of parenting because she realized there was actually neurobiological development at play in her children that she had to take into consideration.
We also talk about how mental health and parenting can be closely tied in motherhood, and how "untigering" is not just about how we parent our children now but also how we heal from the way we were parented. Additionally, Iris talks about how we're not abandoning all ideals and traditions of our culture. Rather, we are blending our parts and seeing ourselves as bi-cultural and creating our own culture.
Please join us in this rich conversation about the intersection of motherhood, parenting, Asian identity, and mental health with the inspiring Iris Chen.
Find more of Iris at:
Website: https://untigering.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/untigering/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/untigering
Book: "Untigering: Peaceful Parenting for the Deconstructing Tiger Parent"
If you enjoy our podcast and our mission to shine light on conversations and stories of AAPI mothers, please take a moment to leave us a review! Reviews help us become more visible and we really want this podcast to reach more AAPI mothers who may need it. You may also follow us @healingthetigress on Instagram and TikTok. Thank you for tuning in!
Note: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own. This podcast is not a replacement for therapy or professional/medical advice. If you need more support or advice, please reach out to your own medical professional who can answer your questions with your individual medical history and background in context.