Lunar New Year Shootings and Healing for Asian American Clients

The recent back-to-back mass shootings in California around Lunar New Year that occurred within the Asian American community is horrific, painful, and devastating. The impact of that violence is uniquely different compared to the Asian hate violence that ramped up during COVID-19 pandemic (Powers and Bleeker, 2022) or other mass shootings affecting mostly Asian Americans like the Atlanta Spa Shooting. With the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes, the perpetrators are non-Asian, which makes sense by definition. And with the increase in violence against Asian Americans it almost never occurred that mass gun violence would be committed within the Asian community against its own people. Therefore, specific emotions experienced may be different this time around compared to previous traumas in which the perpetrators were non-Asian. 

If you are a mental health provider who work with Asian American clients, listen closely to cultural salient emotions specific to the recent traumas. Is there a sense of betrayal, distrust, and disappointment? Historically, many Asian immigrants came to the United States for better living conditions and when they arrived, faced harsh treatment and working conditions. Even today there is an awareness of the gravity of anti-Asian sentiment. Taken together with the understanding of one’s own community history of suffering and shared values such as togetherness and collectivism (Iwamasa, Hsia, & Hinton, 2018), it baffles many how one person could turn on its own people. The significance of the recent mass shooting occurring around the time of Lunar New Year is also troubling because Lunar New Year signifies togetherness. For those that celebrate Lunar New Year, there can be dissonance as written about by Shirley Yi in the Atlantic. It would not be surprising that Asian American clients are also faced with guilt, pondering whether to celebrate while a tragic event just happened.

Part of the healing process if we are to help our Asian American clients, is to create a space to listen to them describe their experiences. Listen intently to their words. Listen to what is said and what is not said. Broaden the scope of one’s focus and examine the client in context of their environment. Below are some contextual issues to keep an eye out and hold a space for emotional and cognitive processing.

1. How might this shooting be another accumulation of race-induced stressors faced on a regular basis?

2. How might issues pertaining to generational attitudes about mental health come up? As in many cases with mass shootings, the mental health of the shooter is often mentioned. Moreover, the age of the shooter (72-years old) is much older compared to the average age of mass shooters (under age 45).

3. What does it mean to be an Asian American and will issues of being invisible, unseen, or unheard be perpetuated? 

4. What is the social and demographic composition of the client’s social group? Will they be a source of support, able to talk about race and diversity issues?

5. As therapists, how might we be genuine, compassionate, and willing to connect in a space where difficult emotions are felt?

References:

1. Culturally Responsive Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Practice and Supervision. (2018). American Psychological Association (APA).

2. Powers, R. A., Bleeker, K., & Alcalde, C. (2023). Anti-Asian Hate Crime in U.S. National News: A Content Analysis of Coverage and Narratives from 2010–2021. Race and Justice, 13(1), 32–54. https://doi.org/10.1177/21533687221120949 

Recommended Books:

1. Culturally Responsive Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy