What is it about?
Pilipinx Americans (PAs) experience mental health disparities. Scholars argue that colonial mentality, a form of internalized oppression characterized by perceived ethnic and cultural inferiority, significantly affects the psychosocial well-being of PAs. However, PAs remain under-researched and underserved. This work critically analyzes the incongruence of mental health conceptualizations between western and PA perspectives, ultimately advancing and (re)imagining liberation-based research and practice. Additionally, it offers a roadmap for other ethnic groups with histories of colonization and roles as settlers to create knowledge and practices rooted in their culture and lived experiences.
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Why is it important?
A few takeaways from our work: Western models of mental health often fail to capture the holistic, relational, and ancestral nature of Pilipinx American healing practices. Communal care, cultural continuity, and survivance are not just strengths—they are resistance and liberation in action. As social workers, we must reckon with our role in colonial systems and act boldly to (re)imagine mental health from decolonial, community-rooted frameworks.
Perspectives
This article is the result of meaningful collaboration with 11 brilliant Pilipinx American social workers, practitioners, and scholars—my academic relatives and friends. I'm incredibly humbled by the trust that my co-authors bestowed upon me. May this piece inspire us all to reconnect—to our stories, our healing, and to each other.
Lainey Sevillano
Portland State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Atangs to kuwentos: The power of communal care as decolonial mental health praxis among Pilipinx Americans., American Psychologist, May 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/amp0001475.
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