When Values Matter More Than Comfort: Choosing to Speak Up as an Immigrant Therapist in North Carolina

Written By Christeen B

Silence Is Not Neutral

I am not just a therapist. I am an immigrant. And in this moment, those identities cannot be separated.

I’ve lived in the United States since 1998, longer than I lived in Egypt. I’m a dual citizen, a Charlotte resident, a business owner, and a licensed therapist in North Carolina.

And still, my immigrant identity shapes how I move through the world.

It shaped me at 12 years old when I left Cairo for North Carolina.

It shaped me living through September 11th as an Arab kid in the American South. It shapes me now as I witness ICE raids, Border Patrol presence, and political violence impacting immigrant communities in Charlotte and across the country.

When families are afraid to leave their homes, when brown bodies are profiled and detained, when children are absorbing fear through the walls of their own houses, silence is not neutral.

And neither is therapy.

Immigration Trauma Is Not a Diagnosis — It’s a Response

If you are feeling anxious, hypervigilant, angry, exhausted, or numb right now, that does not mean something is wrong with you. It means your nervous system is responding to threat.

As an immigrant therapist in North Carolina, I work with adults experiencing:

  • Anxiety related to ICE raids and deportation fears

  • Fear of police violence or racial profiling

  • Collective trauma from political rhetoric and media exposure

  • Hypervigilance in public spaces

  • Guilt for being “safer” than other family members

  • Burnout from constantly having to perform stability at work

  • Grief over what’s happening in your home country and here

These are not disorders detached from context. They are survival responses to systems rooted in colonization, surveillance, racism, and power.

When Exterior Safety Is Threatened, Interior Work Changes

I teach nervous system regulation. I provide trauma therapy in North Carolina. But how do we talk about inner peace when outer safety is unstable? We start by acknowledging reality.

If you are afraid in your own neighborhood, therapy is not about convincing you to “calm down.”

It’s about:

  • Validating your lived experience

  • Understanding how chronic stress impacts the body

  • Processing fear without shame

  • Releasing internalized pressure to appear “fine”

  • Reconnecting to community instead of isolating

Healing does not mean ignoring what’s happening. It means creating space to metabolize it.

Therapy for Immigration Trauma & Political Violence in North Carolina

At The Holistic Living Co., I provide online therapy across North Carolina for adults navigating:

  • Immigration-related anxiety

  • Political and police violence trauma

  • Collective grief

  • Identity-based stress

  • Hypervigilance and chronic stress

  • Perfectionism rooted in survival

Therapy with me is real, relational, and grounded in an anti-oppressive framework.

Your Well-Being Is Connected to Community

One of my core beliefs, personally and clinically, is this:

  • We are not meant to heal in isolation.

  • Your mental health is connected to your community’s well-being.

  • Your body responds to what your people are experiencing.

  • Your stress is not random, it is relational.

If you are searching for:

  • Immigrant therapy in Charlotte, NC

  • Anxiety therapy related to ICE raids

  • Trauma therapy for political violence

  • Culturally responsive therapy in North Carolina

Know this: you are not overreacting. You are responding. And you deserve support.

Christeen B