Join us in this episode as we explore the inspiring journey of Michele Elizaga, a Filipina American single mom by choice. Michele shares her decision to embrace motherhood on her own terms and defy societal expectations of needing to be partnered to have a baby. It started on her 40th birthday in Costa Rica where she had a pivotal conversation with a good friend that led her to consider having a child without a partner and pursue fertility options.

What started as a wild idea turned into a fast-paced roller coaster as Michele navigated sperm banks, fertility tests and doctors, and then a shocking pregnancy with the odds stacked against her all in less than a year. She shares with us the unexpected joy of becoming a mother to a son with Down Syndrome and autism.

Michele's story is a testament to the power of choice and destiny and highlights the challenges and triumphs of raising a child with special needs. We talk about how being supported by her community was essential to Michele's journey, and we also talk about how Michele has utilized things like therapy and medications in different seasons to support her own mental health and ADHD.

We hope this episode offers hope and inspiration to anyone considering non-traditional paths to parenthood or wanting to learn more about it, as Michele exudes joy and possibility in our conversation that life as a single mom by choice to a child of a special needs is equally wondrous and amazing.

Find more of Michele:
Instagram: instagram.com/micheleelizaga
Story: Love What Matters

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In this episode, Stella Falkner shares her inspiring journey from postpartum mental health struggles to creating and founding Dowa, a platform that bridges community support with clinical care for mothers. We dive into Stella’s personal experiences through postpartum that led her to discovering she had complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and how she started healing from this. Stella tells us about how C-PTSD is different from PTSD because it arises from not one singular traumatic event but from an accumulation of prolonged, repeated, or chronic traumas that becomes woven into daily heightened feelings of being under duress.

We discuss how Stella was lucky enough to find a partial hospitalization program (PHP) that would take her in even when she was past a year postpartum, which ultimately felt so life-saving in her journey. We talk about the scarcity of dedicated postpartum mental health programs and the difficulties in accessing in-network support, shedding light on the broader mental health challenges beyond perinatal mental health disorders.

When designing her company, Stella was intentional about the way Dowa was set up. Stella introduces Dowa's innovative approach to maternal wellness, featuring a diverse provider network and support tools designed to break the stigma around seeking mental health help. The conversation highlights the critical role of community in maternal mental health and emphasizes the importance of finding safe spaces and culturally specific support, particularly for Asian American and Pacific Islander mothers.

More about Stella:

Stella Falkner is a Korean-American entrepreneur, mother, Certified Mental Health Peer Specialist, Postpartum Doula, Lactation Educator, and maternal health advocate. Her work centers on building technology that is deeply empathetic and grounded in the lived experiences of real families.

After navigating her own mental health challenges in motherhood and finding strength in the support of other moms, Stella founded Dowa — a platform designed to bridge community support with clinical care. She built Dowa to provide integrated support that addresses the full spectrum of motherhood: mental health, physical wellness, and the often overwhelming stress and anxiety that come with raising a child and tracking their development.

Website: dowahealth.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/dowahealth

Resources mentioned:
"What My Bones Know-A Memoir of Healing from Complex-PTSD" by Stephanie Foo

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✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

On today's episode, we dive into the often-overlooked topic of mental health among AAPI men. Our guest is John Wang, the award-winning author of Big Asian Energy. John with us shares his personal journey of overcoming burnout and redefining his identity, highlighting the cultural challenges faced by AAPI men in seeking mental health support and honoring where they come from without losing who they are becoming.

We explore the impact of societal expectations, the model minority myth, imposter syndrome, people-pleasing, and the importance of creating spaces for emotional expression and healing, particularly in the AAPI community. John shares about the Asian mens' groups that he formed (and facilitates) and about his journey into starting therapy and healing after reaching a breaking point right around the age of 30.

As a hopeful parent one day, John also talks about how he envisions raising his future children after doing a lot of inner healing to be the best and truest version of himself he can be. Join us as we discuss how AAPI folks can embrace their full selves and feel more seen in authentic ways in their lives!

More about John:
John Wang is the Taiwanese-Canadian award-winning author of Big Asian Energy (Amazon Editor’s Top 20 Best Business And Leadership Books 2025), podcaster, and a keynote speaker. John has been interviewed and featured as a leadership coach by NBC, CNBC, WSJ, TEDx, and Audible, and his insights on confidence and breaking limiting patterns have amassed over 25 million views on social media.

Find more of John:

🌍 Website: https://www.bigasianenergy.com
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnwangofficial/
🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnwangbae
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnwangofficial/
📖 Book: https://a.co/d/c0T1c8t
🎙️ Podcast (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/5M7T0HbKqNpJNuFRt3DUEH
🎙️ Podcast (Apple): https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/big-asian-energy/id1704004839

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✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

This episode delves into the critical topic of maternal mental health research and policy, especially as it pertains to the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. Our guest today features Cindy Herrick, a certified peer support specialist and Senior Editorial & Research Manager at the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health.

Cindy is a Taiwanese American mom of one who shares her personal journey through maternal mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, and perinatal OCD, and discusses the systemic gaps in research and policy that affect AAPI mothers. While Cindy never imagined herself doing policy work, through volunteering, she realized that she could impact so many more people if she focused her energy on the research and policies that could affect so many moms that fall through the cracks—like herself.

We also explore the pressing issue of maternal mental health within the AAPI community and what limited research has been done and is still currently being explored around AAPI moms, especially also around maternal suicide. The conversation highlights the importance of addressing these issues through storytelling, research, and policy change, and we hope it might inspire anyone to get involved in advocacy work.

Thank you Cindy for your time and dedication to maternal mental health awareness and even more so for our AAPI mothers!

More about Cindy:
Cindy has led the Maternal Suicide program at the Policy Center since 2018, and is an expert in maternal suicide, MMH screening, peer support, and researching MMH disorders from a holistic perspective. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Nursing Science & Healthcare Innovation at Arizona State University, where she also received her MA in Special Education. Her doctoral research focuses on maternal suicidality and mortality.

Cindy is a Certified Peer Support Specialist (CPSS) in the State of Arizona and is also certified in Perinatal Mental Health (PMH-C). She is a core member of the Arizona Department of Health Services’ Maternal Mortality Review Board (ADHS MMRC). Cindy is also on ADHS’s Arizona Maternal Mental Health Task Force, where she chaired the awareness workgroup. As a Peer Support Certification Expert Panelist for SAMHSA, Cindy advised on the development of a national framework and standard for peer support. Previously, Cindy served as the Strategic Partnerships & Campaigns Lead at the Policy Center, during which she routinely convened stakeholder events, led the national Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week Campaign (2018-2022), and served as the pharmaceutical advocacy liaison. Additionally, Cindy serves as a reviewer and reviewer mentor for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Cindy is currently the President of the ASU Edson PhD Student Organization and will serve as the 2026 Community Liaison Officer for Marce of North America Perinatal Research Society.

Connect more with Cindy:
Email: cindy.herrick@policycentermmh.org
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindyleeherrick

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In this episode, we had the extreme pleasure of interviewing New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, Joanna Ho. Many of you may know her from her children's books like Eyes that Kiss in the Corners or even her young adult novel The Silence that Binds Us.

Joanna tells us about how her passion for equity, inclusion, and social justice led her to eventually writing the dozen plus books she has published to date in an unexpected departure from her previous jobs. She shares how after becoming a mother she did not see the Asian American representation in books that she wished her child could see, so she took it upon herself to figure out how to become an author and write the books she wanted her child to have available.

We talk about how she stayed mentally strong when going through a divorce in the middle of the pandemic when her first book was being published, all while mothering 2 children and working as a high school vice principal. We dive into the heartwarming story behind how she decided to pursue dating after divorce and eventually re-married a friend she had known since middle school (and have another baby)!

We discuss themes of silence around mental health, racism, and social justice that affect the AAPI community and why books and community are revolutionary components. Joanna tells us how she drew upon the strength of her own mother and developed a better relationship with her mom after entering motherhood herself.

This conversation is rich with discussion around healing, self-love, and community in relationship to motherhood and mental health. We are so grateful to Joanna for the honor of this interview and we hope you'll love this conversation as much as we did!

***

Joanna Ho is a second generation Taiwanese/Chinese American mother of 3 who has received the Asian/Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature Honor, a Golden Kite Award, an Ezra Jack Keats Honor, and been finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She is a writer and educator with a passion for anti-bias, anti-racism and equity work. She holds a master’s from the Principal Leadership Institute at Berkeley and has been an English teacher, a dean, the designer of an alternative-to-prison program, a creator of educator professional development, and a high school vice principal.

She lives in the Bay Area, where she survives on homemade chocolate chip cookies, outdoor adventures, and dance parties with her kids. Keep your eyes open for more books to come!

Find more of Joanna at:

• Website: joannahowrites.com
• Instagram: @joannahowrites
• Podcast: Kidlit Happy Hour

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Last February (2025), we sat down with co-founders Soo-Jin Lee and Linda Yoon of Yellow Chair Collective as guests ourselves for the first time as a duo on the Yellow Chair Collective podcast! We focused on the topic of Eldest Daughters and the traits that typically embody. Linda and Soo Jin were gracious enough to share the podcast recording with us so that we could share it more directly with our listeners too at some point. And that is what today's episode is!

For those of you who are newer to Healing the Tigress and may not have listened to our back story before, this episode will also give you some insights (or refresh your memory if you've been a regular listener!) into how our podcast was born and what postpartum mental health challenges Peggy and Jasmine personally went through that led them here today. We also dive into how our birth order and Asian American Eldest Daughter traits may have contributed to any perinatal mental health disorders and how we eventually learned to get help.

Thank you to Soo Jin and Linda for inviting us as guests for this discussion and letting us be in the guest seats for once!

Yellow Chair Collective (YCC) is a psychotherapist group based out of California and New York, specializing in serving the AAPI community.

Find more of YCC:

• Entwine Community: ⁠⁠⁠https://entwinecommunity.org/⁠⁠⁠
• Yellow Chair Collective Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://yellowchaircollective.com/⁠
• IG: @yellowchaircollective
• TikTok: @yellowchaircollective

Original podcast episode from YCC Eldest Daughters Talk Series

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✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

For the final episode of the year, we have the pleasure of talking to another reproductive psychiatrist on the show! (Check out Episode 17 if you want more details on debunking myths for perinatal psychiatric medications). In this episode, we talk with Dr. Kristin Yeung Lasseter, a Board-Certified Psychiatrist based in Texas who specializes in Reproductive Psychiatry and Women’s Mental Health.

Dr. Lasseter opens up to us about her experience with postpartum anxiety after the birth of her first child while being a second year medical resident. We discuss what ultimately led to her decision to start medications and how she recovered. We also talk about medications and treatment for postpartum anxiety and insomnia and considerations during breastfeeding. Most importantly, Dr. Lasseter again emphasizes the risks versus benefits of using medications compared with the risk of untreated mental illness.

Dr. Lasseter is the Founder and President of Reproductive Psychiatry and Counseling, which hosts multiple psychiatrists and psychotherapists specializing in mental health across the reproductive life span, and treats people across the state of Texas. Dr. Lasseter is also Affiliate Faculty at The University of Texas Dell Medical School, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is a board member of the International Society of Reproductive Psychiatry. She volunteers time at Postpartum Support International’s Psychiatric Consult Line and raises awareness about reproductive mental health through speaking engagements and social media.

Find more of Dr. Lasseter:

• TikTok @the.repro.psych on TikTok
• Instagram: @the.reproductive.psychiatrist
• Websites: www.kristinlassetermd.com and www.rpcclinic.com

Thank you Dr. Lasseter for honestly sharing about your personal postpartum experience with perinatal mental health disorders and medications, as well as your clinical pearls on medication risks and benefits!

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✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)

Maternal mental health goes beyond just the immediate postpartum period and that we know that as we learn to parent, our mental health is also affected by the way we parent. We love talking about breaking generational cycles in parenting because we think, especially as AAPI parents, that is one of the keys to achieving better mental health in the long run. So for today's episode, we talked with the two clinical psychologist co-founders of Modern Asian Parent, Dr. Michelle Chung and Dr. Laura Berssenbrugge!

Together we discuss:

• What is the "Modern Asian Parent" (MAP) and how this was born and grew into a community and movement for Asian American parents amongst Dr. Chung and Dr. Berssenbrugge's New York community and beyond
• Some personal and professional pivotal moments for our guests that helped to develop and shape MAP
• How raising biracial children in the AAPI community can raise different challenges and how to help modern Asian parents navigate this
• The unique challenges and gifts of raising an Asian American child and hence why a different approach to parenting may be needed
• How one can begin to define their family values and parent in a way that feels aligned with them

Dr. Laura Berssenbrugge is a child and adolescent psychologist and former middle and high school teacher. She grew up 5th generation in Hawaii and is biracial: 1/2 Chinese, 1/4 Japanese, 1/4 Dutch. Dr. Berssenbrugge is the Founder of Gramercy Psychology, a group practice on New York’s Upper East Side specializing in evidence-based treatment for anxiety, depression, ADHD, OCD, stress and emotion regulation challenges, and neurodivergence. She is the author of Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Uncertain Times.

Dr. Michelle Chung is a Korean American award-winning clinical psychologist with over two decades of experience. She is the founder of InPractice Psychology Group, a New York City practice serving children, adults, families, and parents. Dr. Chung also holds a position at Mount Sinai Medical Center, teaches clinicians in training, and has published in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. She is also a sports and performance psychologist for elite and Olympic-level athletes and the consulting psychologist for a leading NYC fencing club.

Find more about The Modern Asian Parent:

• IG: @themodernasianparent
• Website: https://www.themodernasianparent.com/
• Substack: https://themodernasianparent.substack.com/

Find more of Dr. Laura Berssenbrugge

• IG & TikTok: @drlaurabtherapy
• Substack: https://drlaurabtherapy.substack.com
• Website: https://www.gramercypsychology.com/

Find more of Dr. Michelle Chung

• IG: @dr.michellechung
• Substack: https://inpracticepsychology.substack.com/
• Websites: https://www.inpracticepsychology.com/ https://www.drmiche

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✨ If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast for access to more bonus episodes, please click here for Buzzsprout Subscriptions! Once subscribed, you can use an RSS feed to listen from any of your podcast platforms. Thanks in advance for your support, as this really helps us keep the show going! ❤️ (Think of it like buying us a boba...to share! 😉🧋)