Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

NEW YORK—"Who am I? And why am I here?"

This age-old question has been explored for thousands of centuries ranging from the likes of Aristotle and Descartes’, to thousands of more brilliant scholars and academics along the way.

For Filipino-Americans, our constant questions of our identity and our true sense of self may have finally been answered by Kevin Nadal’s historic publication, The Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice, the first in-depth psychology report of its kind entirely devoted to Filipinos, ever.

Hundreds of years have passed since Filipinos first landed in America in 1763. 　Undoubtedly, many things have shaped Filipino heritage, from the three centuries of Spanish rule, 50 years of American occupation, to the massive migration to the United States. As a result, as summarized by Nadal, "Filipino-Americans are the second largest Asian American/ Pacific Islander population in the United States and they are projected to become the largest Asian-American population by 2010. With 1.37 million Filipino- born immigrants living in the US, Filipino Americans are the second largest immigrant population in the country."

For Dr. Nadal, a published author of numerous case studies and a recent graduate of Columbia University’s elite Ph.D. Counseling Psychology Program, the question of who we are as a Filipino people has consumed his mind years prior to studying Psychology and Sociology as an undergraduate at the University of California, Irvine.

"I was that child who consistently asked my parents "Why?" to every single thing I learned about, and I didn’t stop asking "Why?" until I got an answer that I was satisfied with. When I started to study psychology as a high school student, I became passionate about learning more about how humans think and behave. And in college, when I started learning about how culture affected people’s psyche and behaviors, I became committed to learning more about Filipino-American issues and how culture influenced the thought processes and behaviors of my family and friends," he explains.

This commitment and passion for learning guided by unyielding, energetic talent have led to quite a compelling resume that not only includes top university education, but also to being a guest on the O’Reilly Factor with Bill O’Reilly, appearances on the History Channel, Forbes.com, Home & Garden Television, to even being recognized as one of People Magazine’s Hottest Bachelors in 2006. Performing in 21 of the 50 states across the country, Nadal grabbed national attention with his two successful and critically acclaimed one-man shows, Pinoy: A one-man show about growing up F/Pilipino in America and Single: A one-man show about Sex, Love, and Karaoke.

It doesn’t stop there, Dr. Nadal, is currently an assistant professor in psychology at John Jay College for Criminal Justice—City University of New York where he is also the deputy director of the Forensic Mental Health Counseling Masters program all the while managing his own firm, Kevin Nadal Consulting, where he has facilitated numerous trainings on multicultural competence in corporate and non-profit organizations.

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