Why is there a need for Psychodrama as a form of practice in India?

Hello, I am Vartika, and before telling you what this page is for let me share why and how I landed here. You can skip through the narrative and reach the end, but I work for the process and so I'll begin...

Why & How?

In the past few months I have grated myself in terms of work so much that I barely got time to take enough meals for the day, and then one day I caught myself thinking about this experience that I had:

When I learned swimming, I always went down through steps, I did all the styles and strokes, different depths, and laps across laps, but my heart skipped a beat when Papa told me to jump from the diving board. For many days, I went on the diving board, stood there, but came back down the stairs. Even though I knew how to swim, I knew how to save myself, I knew the exact steps to take and posture to keep, I still feared to dive. Then one day, while Dad was calling me and I looked down, my brother pushed me from beside, and there I was in the pool like never before. Water all over me, head cap lost somewhere because of the push, and a gasping breath, tears in my eyes and everyone cheering. I swam across to the side and cried to myself trying to speak,

" you did it, you did it Vartika, we are alive".

Growing each day has made me question about the truths I hold about myself and the doubts I create, for what? Even when I know how to swim, why am I afraid to dive? So gladly, after a few discussions with the blessings in the form of humans I have, and repeated battles with the thoughts of self-doubt I have finally decided to dive and so here I am.

I have always loved to explore people, places, ideas, stories, the roles we play, the behaviors we enact, and the monologues that often don't get vocalized. While my days of interning at hospitals for my Postgrad course in Clinical Psychology and parallelly working with UNICEF as a Theatre Assistant, I discovered my vision.

and I found out that more than the stories, what intrigued me were the characters. My curiosity wasn't the plot of the play, but how the characters derived the plot and vice versa. I have been performing arts and practicing theatre for more than 5 years now, and have been working for holistic health care especially focused on children, adolescents, and people who have no idea about mental health or think of it as an alien concept.

Who am I?

I am a Psychodramatist from India, and my qualifications are Post Graduation in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in Gestalt and Psychodrama therapy. A psychodramatist is someone who engages in theatre techniques for providing mental health care. I have had experiences in school, organizational, clinical settings and am working towards the betterment of educational and social sectors, the two most important areas of one's development.

What is this page for?

• To share my learnings, experiences, and observations in Theatre, Therapy, and their intersection.

• To help people understand my vision and then reach out if they wish to work along.

Why am I doing this?

Mental Health as a concept has come to India, some people know about it and some don't. My aim for those who don't know about it is to make them aware of its existence and the care it needs. For the ones who already know, think of it as a taboo word, not only believing stereotypes about people who take therapy but the mere existence of mental health care only when it's gotten worse is a problem.

In schools, organizations, and many other fields we have appointed counselors to help people, but the problem is not 'not having' psychologists/mental health care professionals but people's ability/acceptance to go there.

First of all, we have so many people in India that need help for their mental well-being,

second, we have so many professionals who have degrees, specializations, and experiences and yet no work in hand. I feel the difficulty is not in the problem or the solution of the problem, we have enough problems and enough solutions but still, we are unable to make these two meet. Thirdly, people believe that mental health care is a 'Western concept' mostly because of its association with words and terminologies in English which not everyone is well-versed with. India being a land of diverse cultures comes along with diverse languages.

And so here comes my vision and the work I do, to help people explore themselves, their needs, their abilities, and their potentials through the conduction of group workshops and one-on-one sessions. Trying my best to incorporate both Hindi and English, where and as I can, to reduce the language barrier by at least some means.

At times, you might need to take professional help, other times you might not, but the decision would arrive only when we explore our true selves, our truths, in all forms, no matter delightful or not so to reach where we truly deserve to be.

What role do I play here?

Work with groups and individuals to help them attain awareness, and acceptance, discover choices, and restructure potentials about their feelings, behavior, and actions by incorporating psychodramatic techniques, intending for mental health care and holistic well-being.

Areas: Educational, Social, and Organizational sectors.

Platform: Online/& Offline

So, if you wish for yourself, your friends, family, or your team/organization/institute/communities in need of help/ to become aware of mental health care, holistic well-being and enhance their performance both personally and professionally, I would love to get in touch and discuss the possibilities of working together and building the community stronger.

Doesn't matter if this reaches thousands of people or not, it will serve the purpose if it reaches one kind soul discovering the light within.