About
I am a South Asian Indian, acculturated British and acculturated American woman. If that didn’t make sense, I grew up in India, studied in the USA and live & practise in London, UK. I have a Ph.D. in counselling psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University, where I trained and specialised in multicultural counselling. I further specialised in psychosexual and relational therapy. I have over 20 years of experience in providing therapy. As a trainer, I have developed and facilitated hundreds of workshops. I am a bilingual therapist with knowledge of English & Hindi, along with working knowledge of Urdu and Punjabi. I work in-depth with trauma, sexual and domestic violence, racial & ethnic identity, immigrant mental health, sex and sexuality. I divide my time between training, therapy and talking about culture and sex.
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While working on my Ph. D., I realised that if we need to stop sexual violence, we need to stop the stigma, shame and taboo that surrounds sex and sexuality. In this endeavour, for my dissertation, I developed a sexual health program for South Asian girls using Bollywood films ... a fascinating journey that led to a book, the co-founding of Seeds of Awareness - a comprehensive sexuality education program in India, a specialisation in psychosexual and relational therapy, and a podcast “Kama Sutra to 2020”.
How I work
When thinking of an individual or couple, I am considering their psychological well-being, racial identity, ethnic identity, cultural background, class, gender identity, sexual identity, ability, and/or religious identity. Understanding an individual's story and the systems within which they exist is very important. These contexts may include:
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Individual
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Interpersonal
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Familial
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Cultural/ Community
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Societal/ Environmental
The American Psychological Association defines Multicultural Psychology as an extension of general psychology that recognises that multiple aspects of identity influence a person's worldview, including race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, gender, age, disability, class status, education, religious or spiritual orientation, and other cultural dimensions, and that both universal and culture-specific phenomena should be taken into consideration when psychologists are helping clients, training students, advocating for social change and justice, and conducting research.
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Image by Freepik
Qualifications
Ph.D. in Counselling Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA.
Masters of Arts in Counselling and Student Personnel Psychology (CSPP) from the University of Minnesota, USA.
Diploma in Psychosexual and Relational Therapy from LDPRT (London Diploma in Psychosexual and Relationship Therapy), Middlesex University, UK.
Author - Sexual Health and Bollywood Films: A Culturally Based Program for South Asian Teenage Girls. Youngstown, NY: Cambria Press.
Member
MBACP; COSRT and BAATN
