From Seed to Sanctuary: Alia Chan Grows Mango Mental Health

by CC Verzosa

Alia Chan (Photo courtesy of author)

Anxiety can feel like a bitter fruit; overwhelming and hard to swallow. For registered clinical counsellor Alia Chan, however, it planted the seed for something unexpectedly sweet. Out of struggle, she grew something healing, a place for culturally sensitive care: Mango Mental Health.

Sweetness in Struggle

Alia grew up in a family of high achievers. On paper, her future looked set; but under the surface, something else stirred. Hospital visits for unexplained stomach pain, a racing heart before sports events, and a constant urge to hide were all signs of emotional strain.

“I didn’t even know it was anxiety back then,” she says. “I just had this constant feeling of dread.”

She pursued psychology at Simon Fraser University, more out of curiosity than conviction. When it came time for grad school, she pivoted to accounting at UBC. This aligned with her family’s legacy of doctors and accountants. It seemed most logical.

Logic didn’t quiet her anxiety… Panic attacks struck. She turned to her parents. “I broke down, telling them, ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” she recalls, “I left within a semester and a half.”

“Rooted in family: Alia Chan with her parents, whose love and legacy shaped her journey toward creating Mango Mental Health.”
(Photo courtesy of Alia Chan)

So, Alia paused. For the first time in her life, she had no plans, no pressure; just a simple job and free time in nature. That season changed everything.  “Outside, I felt a deeper connection to something greater,” she says.

She hiked, she camped, she listened. Somewhere in the quiet, she found direction. Alia volunteered with Take a Hike Foundation, an emotional well-being outdoor program for teens. “Working with the kids spurred my desire to help.”

She then returned to psychology; this time, with purpose. In 2020, she completed a master’s in counselling at Adler University.

She joined a colleague’s private practice right after, and two years in, she opened her own, ‘Alia Chan Therapy’. As she gained experience, she gained perspective. She saw a great and urgent need to create space for the historically underserved. In 2023, she planted something new.

Mango Mental Health Is Born

“Mango Mental Health team brings culturally sensitive care beyond the therapy room. Healing looks like community: safe, open, and grounded in shared experiences.”
(Photo courtesy of Alia Chan)

Why Mango? For Alia, it signals, “I’m Filipino!” It’s fresh, and little unexpected. “Also, it’s just fun!,” she exclaims. On the serious side, it’s a symbol of identity, grown with care.

Today, Mango Mental Health is comprised of nine therapists, each with their own focus, but all with an anti-oppressive, non- judgmental, client-focused approach to therapy.

Their website explains: “you get to set the pace from the standpoint of your own beliefs and values. Together we unlearn narratives of injustice and biases that no longer serve your well-being.”

Mango Mental Health is not just a clinic. It is a community. Shaped by her own healing, Alia built something safe, inclusive, and quietly radical.

Bridges Between Culture and Care

Growing up in a Filipino-Canadian household, Alia knows what it’s like to meet silence where support should be. “My story gives me a sensitivity to the invisible barriers people carry,” she says.

As Canada grows more diverse, therapy lags behind. People are priced out, misunderstood, unseen. Too few therapists reflect the people they serve.

Too many clients feel they need to carry a glossary just to be helped.

Mental health care is often built on a Western model. Sometimes, healing can sound different for immigrant and racialized communities…

It can sound like aunties, cooking in kitchens, like laughter between prayers, like stories told in a mother tongue.

“The system doesn’t always translate,” Alia continues. “There’s this idea that therapy is silent, sterile. Two chairs. One clipboard,” she says, “but people want something more human. Take us Filipinos, for example. We live and move in community. Of course healing could happen there too.”

She’s had to unlearn parts of her training. “We are taught to be blank slates while listening. But when someone’s spirit is crying out for recognition, I can’t be just a neutral wall! In these cases, neutrality doesn’t heal. It can actually harm.”

When healing doesn’t speak her clients’ language, Alia brings her full self into the room: Her culture, her history, her spirituality. She names what needs naming. She speaks words school never taught her.

“This is more than treating trauma. This is tending to the wound left by every system that failed the people who needed care the most. This, for people like us,” she says, “is when healing begins.”

Healing Beyond the Office

Carrying other people’s pain in therapy can be quite heavy, deeply humanizing, but also truly healing.

“Providing therapy has changed my own mental health,” Alia reflects. “Clients’ stories challenge me to stay open to my own healing. Even as a therapist, my own process doesn’t stop.” Alia’s journey keeps teaching her how to hold space for others, and herself.

Her story is a testament to what’s possible when we meet fear with gentleness; when we stop pushing and start listening.

“Anxiety was always there,” she says. “but it’s also what led me here. It’s what taught me to slow down, to listen, then, to leap without overthinking.”

What started as a quiet pause became a life of purpose. And like the tree it’s named after, Mango Mental Health continues to grow; rooted, intentional, and built to bear fruit.

As of this writing (May 2025), Mango Mental Health celebrated their 2-year anniversary.

For more updates, follow @mangomentalhealth on socials, and website: mangomentalhealth.com 

Alia Chan co-hosts Human First Podcast alongside fellow therapist Madeleine Skidmore.

Listen on Spotify and Apple. For updates, follow @humanfirst.podcast on socials.

Others mentioned: takeahikefoundation.org