Why Brown Couple Therapy? A reflection from Kavita

One of the first times I thought deeply about relationships was the same as so many fellow children of immigrants - as I tried to navigate mediating conflict between my parents. As the oldest, and a female, I felt a lot of the load that others who share this identity felt - to help my parents understand each other and tap into their love, and the kindness that flowed from that. To keep them from harnessing their fear, and all the pain that it sparked, instead. As I grew, I realized that my parents deserved and needed more than their child as a mediator though, and I realized that I wanted to help other couples find a way to healthy relationships that wasn’t loaded with the ramifications of using their child. I got my doctorate in psychology, set myself up to learn about couples work from the best in the field, and set up my private practice offering couples therapy, with a special focus on Brown couples and premarital counseling. 

As I worked with more and more Desi couples, however, I realized that I wanted to be able to offer more than the traditional form of weekly therapy was offering me. I listened to my individuals break down over the stress of wedding planning, my couples unpack their challenges with navigating relationships with their inlaws, and so many of those who were seeking out therapy share their challenges with feeling really seen and heard by their partners. There was a need for something different. And that’s where the idea for BCT came up.

Brown Couple Therapy is a space designed to help Brown Couples access a type of relationship education that our community hasn’t necessarily been able to grapple with before. It’s a space to teach you how to effectively take a time out, so that you don’t say something nasty that you don’t even mean, but it’s also a space to validate how hard it’s been to celebrate your relationship when you hold guilt that your parents weren’t able to have that. It’s a space to help you learn how to express fondness and appreciation for your partner, but also to help you unpack how parts of the culture we grew up in make it really hard to do that. It’s a space for you to study some concrete tools to improve your communication, but it’s a space for you to study yourself deeply too. We hope it’s a space for you to know you’re not alone, and you’re not stuck. 

Brown Couple Therapy is finally here, a bespoke space for our fellow Brown Couples, to see that they can be healthier, happier, and more connected.