I am a Psychotherapist and Mental health Educator. Also founder of Life Surfers, and Founding Member of Bharatiya Counselling Psychology Association and Lets Talk( COVID mental health crisis support Helpline ). I’d spent most of my mid to early thirties battling undiagnosed depression, having made the mistake of not seeking help. The memories are mostly flashes and most of those years I don’t remember at all. I recovered with a strong sense of understanding how mental health literacy is of utmost importance if we need healthy people around us. I focus on Improving Mental health Literacy and helping people understand and improve their mental health.
We cannot wait for our nation to build enough infrastructure to cater to the massive need. Instead, we have to look for solutions amongst ourselves for informed peer support where people help each other in terms of their mental and emotional needs. That’s what my passion is and that’s what I buildI strongly believe and works towards, capacity building for improving the mental health care gap in India, therefore focusing on community-based tertiary mental health support systems through training of laypersons in Mental health Support Skills – Peer Mental Health Aid and education and development of skills in Psychologists through my organisation Life Surfers.
My core areas of work are Training laypersons in Mental Health Support Skills, Counselling, Psychologist Education, with a focus on up skilling mental well-being by enhancing emotional and behaviour health and psycho education, improving mental health literacy, nurturing safe spaces, providing trained mental health peer support and improving help-seeking behaviour
I have training and expertise in Cognitive and Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapies, Clinical Hypnotherapy. Trained in CBT from The Beck Institute, Philadelphia, USA, and a certified Corporate Social Responsibility Trainer from Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India.
I’m an avid reader, music lover, passionate cook, and social activist. I actively support capacity building and awareness on Gender Equality & Mental Health.
You can follow @mhwithsnigdha and @lifesurfersorg on Twitter and Instagram or Facebook.
