As World Mental Health Day approaches, therapist and author Charika White, MSW, LICSW, LCSW-C, is drawing attention to the emotional realities that can accompany migration, identity, and living between cultures. A first-generation Caribbean woman, White is the founder of Life Migration Therapy LLC, a boutique practice serving clients in Maryland and Washington, DC. She specializes in complex trauma and identity exploration among first- and second-generation adult immigrants, grounding her work in liberation psychology and decolonized, anti-oppressive frameworks.
In this conversation, White discusses how migration can shape mental health, why systemic conditions matter, and how to recognize emotional distress without reducing a person’s lived experience to a diagnosis.
How would you describe your work to someone who has never worked with a therapist?
I support people in making sense of who they are when the ground under them has shifted, whether through the oppressive systems they engage with, straddling two or more cultures, or the quiet exhaustion of code-switching every day. My work focuses on what happened to a person, rather than what is supposedly wrong with them. It draws on frameworks that empower people who have often been overlooked or mistreated by those in power.
What mental health concerns do you most often see among first- and second-generation immigrants?
Anxiety, complex PTSD, and depression can be connected to acculturation stress, complicated grief over what was left behind, identity fragmentation, and relationship strain. People may feel pulled between generations, partners, the person they are at work, and the person they are at home. Uncertainty around immigration status can also be a chronic, and sometimes acute, source of trauma.
How can uncertainty about immigration status affect someone’s mental health?
It can create chronic anticipatory stress: hypervigilance, difficulty planning for the future, disrupted sleep, and a sense that safety could be revoked at any moment. Clinically, that may look like generalized anxiety or trauma symptoms, but the root cause is structural, not personal.
What can media do to discuss suicide and immigration responsibly?
Follow safe-messaging guidelines: don’t describe methods or locations, don’t frame suicide as an inevitable response to detention conditions, include resources, and center systemic conditions, such as isolation, uncertainty, and lack of access to mental health care, rather than individual pathology. Language matters: say “died by suicide,” not “committed.”
White’s perspective underscores the importance of understanding mental health within the broader context of a person’s lived experiences, cultural identity, and social environment. For immigrants and their families, the process of navigating multiple cultures, grieving what has been left behind, and adapting to unfamiliar systems can carry an emotional weight that is not always visible to others. Her work encourages a more compassionate approach to mental health, one that recognizes the impact of systemic barriers while creating space for people to explore their identities, process their experiences, and reclaim their sense of self. As World Mental Health Day invites conversations about emotional well-being, White’s message is a reminder that meaningful care begins with listening, understanding, and seeing the whole person beyond a diagnosis.
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