Anushka Phal is an Educational & Developmental Psychologist, founder of Umeed Psychology, and a culturally responsive mental-health advocate reshaping the way migrant communities understand healing. As a Fijian-Indian woman raised between cultures, Anushka grew up decoding the quiet rules, unspoken expectations, and inherited emotional patterns that travel across generations.
Her work sits at the intersection of psychology, culture, migration, and storytelling. Through therapy, research, creative community programs and large-scale outreach, she helps people of colour understand the “codes” they were raised with - the ones passed down through migration, survival, silence, sacrifice, guilt, duty, and love.
Today, Anushka brings this lifelong personal and professional journey to the TEDx stage with her signature blend of humour, warmth, diaspora honesty, and psychological insight.
TEDx Talk Overview: Cracking the Intergenerational Code
“Cracking the Intergenerational Code” is a deep dive into why so many of us - especially from South Asian, Middle Eastern, and other collectivist cultures - grew up carrying emotional scripts that weren’t ours to hold.
It unpacks:
why our parents said “we just listened”
why rest feels like guilt
why boundaries feel like betrayal
why we over-function, peacekeep, and shrink
why we carry responsibilities beyond our age
and how our families’ trauma, migration, and survival created an invisible rulebook we inherited without realising it
This talk explores the psychology of intergenerational transmission - not just the trauma, but the loyalty, the love, the pressure, the stories left unspoken, and the emotional labour embedded in being the “bridge generation.”
