Uttar Pradesh to get its first womens mental health council
Bengaluru: Equipped with an admirable network of entrepreneurs and absolute will power, WICCI bring up INDIAS FIRST Creative-arts mental health council in Uttar Pradesh.
As we observed the world mental health day, oct 10th 2020, We also witnessed the grand launch of the women’s Indian chamber of commerce and Industry- UP Mental health council. This unique council caters through all arts and movement based mental health needs of the state and a grand connectivity through the country. WICCI, founded by Dr Harbeen, strengthens women’s entrepreneurship and boosts businesses through greater engagement with government, institutions and global trade. WICCI enables fundamental changes in governmental policies, laws and incentives with a view to robustly encourage and empower women in business, industry and commerce across all sectors.
Digitally based, its strength lies in catering to the needs of whole country, creating a stronger base for the therapeutic arts based facilitators, practitioners and therapists.
The council envisions Structuring, enhancement and Development of the field of creative arts based mental health modalities; in the realms of educational, provisional, professional, diplomatic, client safety and ethical practises offered.
Talking about the creative arts therapies Bhavna Mahajan, President of the council, “Therapeutic capacities of arts enrich lives with enhanced body awareness, emotional release, thus integrating the mind toward a fuller experience of life. Arts and movements are the language of communication that helps people to create wellbeing in their overall lives. As compared to traditional psychotherapy where one is restricted to the chair, these modalities allow clients to use their bodies, minds, imaginations and creativity to express inner most feelings. The body remembers what the mind forgets, making it easier to express when arts are used as a medium of expression. The council brings a new hope towards introducing and promoting mental health needs of the state through the therapeutic capacities of arts and movement. These modalities act as the means of expression towards mental well-being. ”
Apart from a multitude of services, the council also highlights the educational options of art therapies in India and roi. With qualified practitioners in each modality of therapy, it also fosters as a channel to the connection between various associations and their regulating government bodies, to bring about effective changes in the mental health policies, in the months ahead. With WICCI, each state has a president, a Vice President and a council of 20 members, rapidly increasing the network with internal support as much.
Introducing the council’s agendas, the Vice President, Sanjini Kedia, a dance movement psychotherapist from the University of Roehampton, London, says “There is an immense need for an ethical mental health framework in India. The council aims to bring awareness that the creative arts therapies, provide a non-judgemental space to creatively and safely explore an individual’s emotions . We as a council are aiming to provide a professional networking space for individuals to understand and reach out for therapy. We are also looking forward to engaging with other mental health professionals and creative arts therapists, practitioners and facilitators, in order to promote and provide a strong grounding for council members to share their expertise. We eventually would like to maintain and provide a professional register of the field in India.”
Each facilitator, practitioner and therapist is trained in a unique modality, such as drama therapy, dance movement therapy, psychodrama, music therapy, play therapy, sex therapist, yoga therapy and more. The therapists create a confidential, non judgemental, safe and open space for expression of the clients, using a variety of creative tools, activities, games, drama, movement, arts, music, play etc.
Karishma Thapa, a Special Educator and Therapeutic Movement Facilitator says “Using activities that integrate the body and mind have helped many of my students shift focus on what they can do, rather than what they cannot,” says She has worked with Children with Special Needs for over 10 years. As the Founder of KRayonz, she aspires to help individuals Discover. Move. Connect. It is her vision to build an inclusive community together, to celebrate the colours of life. By being a member of the UP Mental Health Council, Karishma hopes curate a team to reach out to a larger audience to enable more children to build on their skills and learn to freely express themselves. KRayonz is currently an online initiative with clients in Pune and Calcutta with further hopes to expand to more places in Maharashtra in the near future.
As a part of their launch special, the Uttar Pradesh mental health council is offering a multitude of services for women to come and experience, as a goal to introductions the therapies on the largest platform in India.