International Student Mental Health: What 20 Student Leaders Reveal About Loneliness, Resilience & Support

🌟 Season 5 of the Asian Mental Health Podcast is a wrap. This finale episode looks back on everything: the Student Changemakers leadership program, the students who made it what it was, the practitioners who showed up for them, and the very big feelings the Shapes and Sounds team has about what the mental health sector still needs to do.

Season finales are usually about celebration, and there's plenty of that here. Asami, Marcus, and senior producer Yeo Choong reflect on six weeks of running a first-of-its-kind international student mental health leadership program, a full season of conversations, and what it really takes to reach communities that larger services a seem to be finding too hard.

The results were clear. Students came in thinking about how to help others. But, they left knowing that it's important to help themselves first. They built WhatsApp groups, they attended focus groups, they gave their time and their stories, and 88 of them tried to sign up to a program that only had room for 20.

So yes, there is pride. There is also a rant, delivered with love, about why large, well-resourced organisations haven't yet figured out what two people (ie. us) planned in three months on the side. The answer, Asami and Marcus argue, is not complexity. It might be intention.

Watch the episode below or find us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

🎧 You'll hear about:
✅ How students' answers changed across six weeks of the leadership program
✅ The three biggest challenges international students reported: finances, loneliness, and distrust of services
✅ Why the peer practitioner model could change how international students access mental health support
✅ Why culturally responsive care is often far simpler to implement than services pretend
✅ The Shapes and Sounds definition of leadership (and why you already qualify)
✅ What comes next for Shapes and Sounds and the Asian Mental Health Podcast

💡 Episode Highlights:

• Vinca, Session 1 vs Session 6: Six weeks of the leadership program later, she added one thing: "make sure I myself is also doing well before I help them"
• On what leadership actually means: "Being a leader is not about being bossy, it's more about giving empathy, listening, and giving back to the team"
• On the hidden challenges students carry: "Loneliness from being away from home had a trickle effect to so many areas of the students' lives. And there's an overall lack of trust with systems, not knowing where their information goes or what these services are even for"
• On why students stay positive despite the struggle: "A lot of them reflected on the idea that struggling is a normal part of their journey here, and that there's value to be taken out of these struggles"
• On finding the right practitioner: "If they know that the practitioner they're speaking to has been through similar things, that immediately opens things up and makes them feel more comfortable"
• On something deceptively simple: "If you could understand the structure of someone's name, like their family name versus their given name, maybe it's easier for them to feel like you actually want to get to know them"
  
  

🧠 Key Takeaways:

• Vinca: "Being a leader is not about being bossy. It's more about giving empathy, listening, and giving back to the team"
• Sania: "I wasn't aware of how many free mental health resources were available for international students. I also learned how I can support myself while helping my friends around me"
• Eva:  "They gave you sample question styles, like what kind of question to ask people to actually let them self-reflect. It's really practical and I can use it"
• Marcus: "The answer is often so much more simple than we make it. We need to start so much more basic. Services need to do more, and more services need to care"
• Asami: "Focus back on a strengths-based model. These students are doing their best every single day. We have to recognise that positivity and that resilience"
• Yeo: "We got so much interest from students wanting to be on the podcast as guests. Real students talking about real experiences. That is the heart of this season"

👤 About the Hosts and Producer

Asami Koike is the founder and director of Shapes and Sounds and host of the Asian Mental Health Podcast. She leads the organisation's programs, partnerships, and community work.

Marcus Lai is Shapes and Sounds' programs lead and co-host who developed the Student Changemakers program from literature review to final session to final report.

Yeo Choong is the senior producer of the Asian Mental Health Podcast, voice memo wrangler, rostering wizard, and the person who kept everyone fed and on time across four days of recording.

🔗 Find culturally responsive practitioners on the Asian Mental Health Practitioner List

🌐 Shapes and Sounds website 

🛠️ Resources and References:

Mentioned in this episode:

• Embrace Multicultural Mental Health (season sponsor and suicide prevention pilot partner)
• Our partner: Monash University's Culture, Trauma and Mental Health Research Group
• Marcus Lai's paper on the Three Teachings of East Asia (Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism)

Key concept:

• Peer practitioner model: a mental health professional who uses their own lived experience of mental ill health and recovery to support others, alongside trained therapeutic skills

🙌 Connect with Shapes and Sounds 

• ⁠Instagram⁠
• ⁠LinkedIn⁠
• ⁠Website⁠

🎁 Free Resource: Download ⁠"International Students and Mental Health"

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Do you work with international students? If so, you may be interested in learning more about the Student Changemakers program as well as downloading our project summary report HERE.

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✨ There are 39 other episodes to explore if you're looking for more. Please subscribe, rate, and review the Asian Mental Health Podcast on your favourite podcast app, and share this season with someone who might need it. Word of mouth is how we destigmatise mental health in Asian communities. 💛

See you in season 6!

The Asian Mental Health Podcast is a production from Shapes and Sounds, made on the stolen lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. This show is hosted by Asami Koike and Marcus Lai and produced by Yeo Choong. This season is brought to you by Embrace Multicultural Mental Health. All thoughts and ideas you hear are independently ours and our guests.