Ep 032: CBC’s virgins!, Immigration, and Bicultural Identity
Our guest today is Nafisa Moallim, a therapist and Registered Social Worker with a Clinical Master of Social Work, who joins us to talk about immigration and bicultural identity. As a Somali-Canadian refugee, Nafisa has extensive lived experiences navigating two identities and learning the language of trauma. Her biggest passion is for advocating for how to discuss mental health in immigrant and refugee populations.
We dig deep into the series virgins! on CBC Gem in Canada. Set in Toronto, virgins! is a dramatic comedy created by Aden Abebe that follows the lives of four 20-something-year-old women who are too modest for the big city and too provocative for the East African homes they come from. We also discuss the impact immigration can have on someone’s mental health, what it’s like to be part of the 1.5 generation, and the effects of post-migration trauma.
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Music: Deppisch
Design: Perpetualnotion.ca
Mixing/ Mastering: Tony Bao
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Nafisa Moallim is a Registered Social Worker with a Clinical Master of Social Work. She has practiced across the spectrum of the social services field for 15 years. She uses a relational approach to build trust for individuals who may have internalized stigmas related to mental health. Her specialties are grief, trauma, relationships, and identity/life transitions. Her approach to therapy is: pro-Black, pro-choice, pro-queer, pro-trans, and focuses on creating a safe space for clients. She supports all cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities.
One of her goals is to empower marginalized individuals to embrace the validity of the traumas they have experienced. Many times, we have been taught to minimize our trauma due to systemic barriers related to racism, sexism, etc. and this impacts our overall well-being. Healing requires safe spaces to express hurt and she aims to create that space for her clients.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Where to follow Nafisa:
TV/ Media to watch:
Multicultural Mental Health Resource Centre - The MMHRC provides resources in multiple languages to support culturally safe and competent mental health care for Canada’s diverse population.
eMentalHealth.ca is a non-profit initiative of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) dedicated to improving the mental health of children, youth, and families. This site also has a section for those who are new to Canada.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) - This is Canada's largest mental health teaching hospital and one of the world's leading research centres in its field. They have an immigrant mental health project and a toolkit associated with that.
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