AAPI Heritage Month 2025 – A Q&A with Daniel Lem, Clinician at Momentum

What is your role at Momentum for Health and how long have you been with the agency?

I am working as a Clinician with Momentum. This is my fourth month with the agency at Eastside Outpatient. I have been enjoying my time working here as the clinic embraces diversity and the team supports one another. This team gives me the warmth and support that feels like family.

What does the work of behavioral health mean to you?

Behavioral health to me is not only hard work but it is also rewarding. It holds layered, personal, and professional meanings that intersect with my cultural identity, clinical training, and community experiences. I see behavioral health as not just treating mental illness but also supporting whole-person wellness.

What is your favorite book, movie, or podcast?

My favorite movie is The Chronicles of Narnia.

How is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month meaningful to you?

As an international student from Malaysia working as a mental health provider in the U.S., AAPI Heritage Month holds a layered and personal meaning for me. It’s a time of both reflection and quiet resistance—an opportunity to celebrate identity, confront invisibility, and honor the long journey that brought me here.

Coming from a country where mental health conversations are still emerging and often stigmatized, my decision to pursue this field wasn’t easy. It meant navigating unspoken cultural expectations, overcoming internalized silence, and entering a profession where people who look like me are still underrepresented—especially in leadership and clinical spaces. It also meant choosing to hold space for others while still learning to make space for myself.

AAPI Month reminds me that being Asian is not a monolith. As a Southeast Asian, I sometimes feel the nuances of my Malaysian identity get lost in broader conversations dominated by its narratives. But I carry with me the richness of my culture, language, and history—stories of resilience, adaptation, and care that are often overlooked but deeply vital.

In my clinical work, I witness how deeply culture, migration, family, and language shape our mental health. I also see how healing can be an act of cultural affirmation. Being a therapist from Malaysia allows me to offer a unique lens—blending Western psychological training with cultural sensitivity and lived experience that bridges borders.

This month, I honor those who came before me and those who will come after. I reflect on what it means to belong, to serve, and to advocate—not just as a clinician, but as someone still defining what “home” means. AAPI Heritage Month isn’t just about celebration for me—it’s about presence. It’s about reminding myself, and others, that my story matters too.

What are some ways that you, your family, and/or friends celebrate AAPI month in May (and the rest of the year)?

One of the ways that my friends and I celebrate AAPI month is enjoying different food from our different cultures together.