Our primary focus is on developing a service for people with complex needs (commonly known as people with Personality Disorders/Difficulties). Personality Disorder is a largely controversial and misunderstood diagnosis. The lack of awareness and existing stigma around mental health challenges further contributes to this complex experience with individuals being invalidated by the assumption that they don’t have a “real psychological problem”, are “attention seeking” or simply a “misfit”. Our efforts are geared towards delivering carefully designed treatment services to acknowledge and meet the emotional, psychological, and social needs of all those who identify with these challenges. We hope to create an atmosphere which is significant to the service users’ journey in discovering and empowering themselves.
We encourage people to think, feel, question, and be aware of what impacts them as well as their impact on others. Our mental health is continuously influenced by what goes on around us in our society, culture, environment, and of course our bodies. As a group of people, our mental health reflects the society’s health. Even though we emphasize on people talking to each other, sharing stories, listening, and understanding, we realize that sometimes words are not enough. And where words fail, art finds a voice. Psychotherapy is as much an art, as a method. Often we turn to dance, music, theatre, painting, and gardening in our attempt to create safe spaces for people. Our work is not just about treating people with care. It is a way of life. Each of us strives to incorporate our core values of creativity, transparency, agency, and genuineness in our everyday lives. And that is what influences our relationship with our service users. Our focus is not on providing a cure for anyone’s distress. Instead, it is about creating spaces for people to experience and lead a better life.
Our approach to mental health is largely influenced by the principles of psychodynamic and relational psychotherapy, therapeutic community methodology, and group analysis with a focus on distress over diagnosis.
We primarily support our work through fundraising but also through fees and training programs. We use a threefold approach wherein we develop psychologically informed treatment programs, engage with the local community to create awareness, and offer academic and experiential training programs, all in effort to create a sustainable community model to address the mental health needs in India.
Treatment
Our treatment services are designed to support an individual as they regain a sense of meaningful existence and independent living. We offer this support primarily through Individual and Group Psychotherapy. Each one’s psychotherapy process begins with a Psychodynamic Assessment focused on identifying and assessing their emotional and psychological needs. Individuals also have the option of engaging in a Therapeutic Conversation to help facilitate the decision making process of whether or not they need professional help. In addition, we also create Engagement Groups for specialised purposes such as psycho-education, social engagement, support groups et. al.
Our awareness programs intend to create an open, non-didactic, facilitated, engaging dialogue in large groups for members of the community to express their thoughts and feelings, and explore questions about the impact of socio-cultural phenomena on our mental health. At present we create these monthly spaces in Bangalore (Nobody Reads the Fine Print), Delhi (Chailogue), and Potluck Poetry (Mumbai).
We design training programs and create experiential learning spaces that combine academic and practical knowledge, as well as encourage critical thinking in the context of conventional mental health practises. Our regular training programs include the 6 month Practitioner Training, Living Learning Experience – Experiential Workshop, Introduction to Group Analytic Psychotherapy, Group Analytic Training, and Read Absorb Think! (RAT!) Monthly Academic Lectures, and Mosaic – Weekly Academic Community.
Our outreach team collaborates with corporates as well as other educational and social institutions and customizes every service based on the unique needs of the organisation and its nature of work. We are here to help you develop a safe, empathetic work environment, where your employees and team members are free to express themselves and engage in a healthy dialogue with each other. We are also here to address work-life balance, organizational transitions, managerial challenges, organizational culture as well as the stress created due to the ongoing demands of the current work atmosphere. Some of our outreach programs include Mental Health Help Desk/Sensitization, Theme based workshops, Individual and Group Counselling, and Employee Support Groups.
