Session: Transforming Mental Health through Cultural Praxis and Communal Healing in Pilipinx American and API Communities (Society for Social Work and Research 30th Annual Conference Anniversary)

In alignment with this year's conference theme, this symposium promotes transformative change by uplifting the voices, experiences, and knowledges of Asian and Pacific Islanders (API), communities who remain under-researched and underserved. Showcasing a breadth of research methodologies (conceptual, quantitative, and qualitative approaches), this symposium centers cultural praxis, communal healing, and resistance to oppression within Pilipinx American (PA) and broader API communities. Collectively, the presentations challenge deficit-based narratives and offer culturally specific pathways to healing and health equity.

The first presentation lays the epistemological foundation by introducing the Halo-Halo Epistemology, a decolonial framework grounded in the lived experiences and praxis of PA social workers. Through kuwentuhan, a culturally embedded qualitative methodology, this study highlighted how PAs draw upon ancestral knowledges, community ties, and historical consciousness to enact mental health care practices that defy western clinical norms. The Halo-Halo Epistemology reclaims space for joy, survivance, and intellectual sovereignty among PA social work scholars and practitioners.

The second presentation builds on the first presentation's decolonial foundation and demonstrates the urgency for such an epistemological shift. This quantitative study examined the psychological toll of racial discrimination and isolation experienced by PA essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings suggest that loneliness is a key mediator linking discrimination to psychological distress, with stronger effects among U.S.-born PAs. These findings underscore how racialized labor, social isolation, and nativity status intersect to shape vulnerability to psychological distress, pointing to the critical need for culturally grounded interventions.

To address this need, the third presentation explores kapwa, a core Pilipinx value of shared identity and interconnectedness. This qualitative study uncovered how kapwa engenders emotional resilience, relational trust, and a sense of belonging among PAs. Additionally, kapwa is embodied in ways that PAs describe as easing somatic stress responses. These findings position kapwa not only as a cultural value, but as a vital protective factor that can inform culturally attuned mental health practices and psychometric tools.

The final presentation broadens the focus from PAs to undocumented API immigrants--a critically under-researched population. Notably, among undocumented persons in the U.S., Pilipinx immigrants represent the sixth largest ethnic group, stressing the criticality of this broader exploration. This secondary analysis of qualitative data examined how undocumented APIs coped with compounded stressors of the pandemic. Participants emphasized the importance of mutual aid and collective care--echoing themes of relational healing highlighted in the third presentation. This paper suggests that kapwa and other relational constructs may offer culturally meaningful frameworks for addressing mental health disparities across diverse API communities.

Together, these four presentations create a compelling arc from cultural theorizing to empirical evidence and community-based strategies. They demonstrate how PA and API communities resist oppression through epistemological resilience, cultural (re)connection, and collective care. The discussant will synthesize key insights across the papers, highlighting implications for culturally relevant research, policy, and practice. The session will close with a facilitated invitation to share kuwentos (stories) between presenters and attendees to deepen engagement and co-create strategies for transforming social work and advancing health equity.