by Tatai@Makers

breaking new ground

The Art Therapy Association of India (TATAI), established in 2019, is here to promote Art Therapy as a valuable and regulated profession within the mental health ecosystem of India, contributing to individual, community and social wellbeing. Historically speaking since the inception of Art Therapy in the 1990s, it has taken almost two decades to gather a critical mass of professionally trained art therapists so we may contribute to TATAI’s goal of creating ethical guidelines and set professional standards for the practice of Art Therapy in India.

mission

TATAI aims to become ‘the collective voice’ of the profession in India, and strives to represent the interests of the profession of Art Therapy in India in multiple fora within educational academic systems, mental health ecosystems, professional circles, government bodies, with NGOs, international platforms, media communities and other public platforms to advocate for the field of art therapy in India. The Association would help formulate guidelines for academic standards and accredit professionally recognized training of Art Therapy in India.

vision

The Association will strive to become a ‘unifying platform’ for the profession in India, by connecting practitioners, educators, advocates and students of Art Therapy in India to foster shared learning, collaboration, mentoring, networking, experience sharing, research, and other activities of mutual benefit and value creation for the profession in India. TATAI aims to act as ‘the bridge’ connecting Indian Art Therapy practitioners, educators and students to various stakeholders in similar and allied fields, in India and worldwide.

TATAI board

Oihika Chakrabarti
Co-Founder & Chairperson

Sruthi Sriram
Co-Founder & Secretary

TATAI advisory

Krupa Jhaveri

Arjun Lakshmipathi

Neha Bhat

Disha Dutt

TATAI executive

Charithra K Ballal

Latika Joshi

Nandini Yadalam

Roshini Bhatia

Mahesh Iyer

Sanjoli Sakhuja

Hasika Suresh

Sharmeen Kaur Khurana

Meghna Girish

Sarvatmika Rajeev

Prarthna Agarwal

Louise Fernandes

Rutika Ostwal

Bhawna Taneja

Aishwarya Dattani

code of ethics

Assimilating a code of ethics is a task that is currently underway, led by licensed and trained practitioners on the ground. Stay tuned for more information.”


Oihika Chakrabarti
Co-Founder & Chairperson

Oihika Chakrabarti, (MFA, RATh, DAT-c), Art Psychotherapist, Art Therapy Educator & Community Arts Practitioner has over two decades of clinical, developmental, rehabilitative, trauma-management, post-disaster/humanitarian, training, teaching and supervising  experience, working in India and abroad. Oihika has a Masters in Fine Arts from Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, India. In 1997, she was awarded the Commonwealth Scholarship by the Govt. of India to pursue post-graduate training in Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK. On her return, she pioneered Art Therapy in India, spearheading the first Art Psychotherapy clinical service at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences’s Child Guidance Clinic at Wadia Children’s Hospital, Mumbai in 1999. In 2004 she founded the non-profit Manahkshetra Foundation (art for social change) to expand the scope of the field. Oihika is the core faculty of Art Therapy on the PGDip ExAT programme at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and is completing her Professional Doctorate in Art Therapy from Mount Mary University, USA. Oihika’s doctoral research on decolonizing the curriculum aims to contribute to the co-creation of the first culturally relevant Masters in Creative Arts Therapy in India. She is a global ambassador of the European Consortium of Arts Therapies Education (ECArTE) in India, a peer reviewer of Goldsmiths journal, Art Therapy Online and an Advisor to the International Association of Creative Arts in Education and Therapy (IACAET) and has contributed to several art/s therapy publications worldwide.

Sruthi Sriram
Co-Founder & Secretary

Sruthi (she/her) is a formally trained and licensed art therapist, born and based in Chennai, South India; with a postgraduate training in Art Therapy from Singapore. Since her graduation in 2014, her practice has largely focused on co-creating and delivering arts-based mental health interventions that promote community welfare and social change. She works in collaboration with grassroots organisations and government supported initiatives, in rural and urban areas across India and Southeast Asia.

As an art therapy practitioner and artist, Sruthi is inspired and humbled by the interplay of tradition, culture and art as a way of life in Asian communities. Her scope of work continually explores how therapeutic interventions can stay relevant to indigenous perspectives on healing, while discovering sustainable methods of engaging in creativity and play, as a means to well-being. She is keen to expand her learnings through research, focusing on how language can tailor psychodynamic understandings and evidence ways in which trauma-informed care practices are co-constructed and decolonised in settings combatting the psychosocial impact of injustice, violence, conflict, and natural disasters.  Sruthi serves as a part time faculty and thesis supervisor at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore. She is a kalaripayattu practitioner and a certified yoga teacher affiliated with Yoga Alliance International and Indian Yoga Association. She is interested in performative art and has worked with choreographers and artists in dance and movement projects in India, UK and Reunion Islands.

Krupa Jhaveri

Krupa Jhaveri, PhD, is an International Expressive Arts Therapist, Art Director, Artist, Teacher, Researcher and Founder of Sankalpa: Art Journeys based in Tamil Nadu, south India. Born in Colorado and of Gujarati ethnic origin, she is a living bridge between cultures through art.

Krupa specializes in trauma-informed expressive arts therapy, in combining sacred art & yoga/mindfulness, and adapting nature-based, indigenous and traditional art forms. She published a chapter within Craft in Art Therapy (Routledge 2020), and is an Ambassador to India for Art Therapy Without Borders.

During the pandemic, Sankalpa launched handmade art kits supporting local artisans and promoting creativity for education, growth and healing around the world. An accompanying Integral Expressive Arts Therapy Training (IEXATT) is central to her arts-based PhD research recently completed through the European Graduate School in Switzerland.

She is a TEDx Women speaker and an art therapy gypsy throughout Asia, America and Europe (now mainly online)!

sankalpajourneys.com

Arjun Lakshmipathi

Arjun Lakshmipathi identifies himself as a creative being with a purpose to foster love and healing in his living environment.  He believes that we all are creative beings shaping our own sense of reality.  Arjun approaches therapy with an Adlerian perspective and his goal is to help clients reevaluate and rediscover themselves through creative expression. After his undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from Chitrakala Parishath, Arjun worked in the field of Art Education and Fashion. Later he pursued graduate studies in Art Therapy and got his Masters from the Adler University in 2006, and moved back to Bangalore in 2014. Since his graduation he has been working with the oppressed and the marginalised. Individuals with various mental disorders, depressive disorder, anxiety, adjustment disorder, LGBTQIA+ community,  people with traumatic brain injuries, ADHD/ADD, as well as with people with various forms of trauma experienced throughout a lifespan. He has been providing holistic therapy with an open dialogue model of intervention which involves clients and their support system.

Neha Bhat

Neha Bhat specializes in feminist oriented, trauma-informed art therapy and counseling between India and the U.S. She employs trauma-focused therapy for survivors of sexual violence, offers crisis-counseling, and uses art as a radical tool of living and coping against systems of oppression. Her work as an interdisciplinary artist informs her professional counseling practice, enabling her to bring into the clinical setting elements of play through visual art, theatre, and movement in the clinical setting.

https://nehabhat.org/about/  

Disha Dutt

Disha is a Bangalore based artist and art therapist with a Master’s Degree in Art Therapy from Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore. She is involved with the Red Pencil International, an art therapy organisation based out of Singapore and has been on art therapy missions with them to Nepal and Delhi. The work done here involved art therapy with children from underprivileged backgrounds.She has also facilitated several workshops with various organisations in Bangalore. Shehasworked as an Art Therapist  at The School at Winds O’ Change a school for differently abled children in Bangalore. In the last six years, Disha has worked extensively with children and adults who are differently abled and facilitated art therapy support groups with children and adults in slum areas who have faced abuse and trauma. She has also conducted art therapy support groups, workshops and one on one art therapy sessions with typical adults who need interventions to support them with their overall mental health. Disha is passionate about what she does and is always striving to find creative ways to help individuals express themselves through art.

Charithra K Ballal

Charithra K Ballal works as a Psychologist at Manipal Hospital, Bangalore. She’s also a visual artist working towards an inclusive approach towards mental health and emotional well-being in the health care sector with hospitals, schools and organizations. Her work is informed by her training in Art-Psychotherapy (Goldsmith’s College, University of London, UK) which is in process, Systemic Family Constellations (Ochre, Ireland & Spanda, Bangalore) and yoga (S-Vyasa University Bangalore). For more than a decade now she’s worked with gender and sexuality, grief and grieving, behavior related issues with children and adults. She’s currently working on setting up departments and structures to support the patient’s and their primary care-givers in the critical care units at the hospital in various departments and runs her own private practice. Her artworks and photographs have been exhibited at different galleries across the globe.

Latika Joshi

Latika Joshi, well versed art therapist and mental health counsellor with almost a decade of experience working with students who have diverse needs. Knowledgeable in using creative processes and interventions, behavioural monitoring with children and delivering appropriate therapies. In addition to intensive exposure in elderly care and early intervention centres as an art therapist intern, her work experience has had a major contribution to schools. She hasI worked in premiere schools of India and is currently based in Tanzania. She is a certified cognitive-behavioural therapist and holds a Masters in creative art therapy.  She was integrating art in therapy from the beginning of her career as a counsellor and decided to learn more about this mode of therapy. In 2015 she went to the University of Haifa, Israel to pursue an MA in creative arts therapy.  Currently, she is working for all the schools under Aga khan education services in Tanzania. She has a compassionate, understanding, and friendly demeanour when working with children in any situation. Her career path helped me to learn about various cultures and religions. Being receptive to changes and differences have helped her more than any educational qualifications.

Nandini Yadalam

Nandini Yadalam is a practicing Transpersonal Arts Counsellor with a private practice in Jayanagar, Bengaluru (since December 2018). She has a Masters Degree in Transpersonal Arts in Therapy from Tobias School of Art and Therapy, UK. After 8 years in the IT space, she chose to pursue Art Therapy in 2015 and after 3 years of training she was convinced that this was what she wanted to do with her life. It was both exciting and terrifying to start again! While she was passionate about individual therapy, she also had experience conducting group and corporate workshops. She works with adults, children and the elderly. She has worked with trauma, depression and anxiety, special needs, attention deficit disorder, bereavement, terminal illnesses & psychosomatic illnesses. She has also given a few talks in corporate spaces and schools in Bengaluru to raise awareness about art therapy and reduce the stigma of therapy.

Roshini Bhatia

Roshini Bhatia,  a multidisciplinary artist and art therapist from Bangalore, Roshni works with children, young people, and is involved in several arts-based community interventions. Trained with an MA in Art Therapy from Lasalle College of the Arts Singapore and a BA in Creative Arts in Contemporary Art Practices from Srishti school of art, design and technology, Roshni has worked with children and young women with histories of complex trauma in sensitive settings in Singapore. She is the Co-founder of FoundSpace, a collective for cross-cultural and multidisciplinary collaboration of the arts and mental wellness. Roshni has presented her research on Embodiment, trauma, and new-media arts at the ANZACATA Conference in Australia, and has exhibited at the IASD Dream Conference in the Netherlands in 2019. She is committed to expanding the boundaries of therapeutic spaces and making ethical art therapy practices more accessible.

Mahesh Iyer

Mahesh Iyer is a registered Art Therapist closely working with children, youth and young adults in Singapore. He is currently providing services as a Programme Executive/ Art Therapist at Singapore Association for Mental Health (SAMH). Prior to this, Mahesh provided art therapy services for children and youth in the special needs community, with an emphasis on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Before graduation, Mahesh completed his clinical placement working closely with older adults at a sheltered home where he developed a process to integrate indigenous & traditional art forms within his practice. This work later contributed to art therapy literature and has been presented at several international art therapy conferences.

Sanjoli Sakhuja

Sanjoli Sakhuja has a background in Psychology ( BA and MA) and has completed her master’s in Art Psychotherapy from Goldsmiths College London. Her experience includes working with children, adolescents, adults, and families in a variety of areas. These include building self-expression, self-awareness, understanding relationships, building resilience, positive thinking, stress, and anxiety management. She is passionate about using art therapy to promote overall well-being in individuals. She is currently working with children, adolescents, and young adults at a clinic in New Delhi. She also runs a private practice where she works with adults.

Hasika Suresh

Hasika Suresh is an artist, licensed art psychotherapist (HCPC & BAAT U.K.) and a Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS). Over the last four years, she has practiced within the realms of creative arts, psychoeducation, mainstream mental healthcare and more recently, art psychotherapy, with a wide range of client groups in India, England and Wales. Having worked within various multicultural settings, she is a firm believer of diversified, specialised, compassion-focused care that highlights the unique strengths and needs of each service user. Furthermore, she aims to help others develop a more integrated or holistic understanding of mental health, by exploring the interconnectedness between the physical, psychological and spiritual aspects of well-being. Hasika’s interests largely revolve around conservation, sustainability, indigenous ways of life, Yoga, Reiki and holistic health. Given her love for natural spaces and conscious ways of living, Hasika is currently exploring the use of environmental art therapy, the ‘portable therapeutic frame’ and the metaphorical significance of natural materials, dyes & pigments in her own reflective practice.

Sharmeen Kaur Khurana

Sharmeen Kaur Khurana is an Art Psychotherapist certified by British Association of Art Therapy (BAAT) and UNESCO- Conseil International de la Danse and a registered member of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC, United Kingdom).  Currently running her own practice in New Delhi, she is catering to clients of all ages and sociocultural backgrounds. Her experience ranges from a Psychiatric Hospital to schools and NGOs. She has experience working with therapeutic groups in an open studio approach in varied settings of art museums, schools and refugee charity. During the ongoing pandemic, she has conducted therapeutic art sessions on social media platforms and done numerous art therapy workshops with a range of NGOs and corporates. Her passion lies in bringing art as a way of expression and communication in our everyday life. She hopes to continue this journey and provide a safe space to explore our emotions through art.

Meghna Girish

Meghna Girish is a qualified and practising Art Therapist and an Artrepreneur from Kerala, India. She is also a doctoral student and a research scholar at the University of Haifa, Israel in Art therapy. She was working with Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Kalamassery as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and as an Art Therapist at their counselling center named “LIFE – Living It Fully Everyday”. She has taken a break from working at the college in order to pursue her PhD studies. She holds an MA in Creative Arts Therapies, from the University of Haifa, Israel and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Union Christian College, Aluva, where she was the topper. Post her Masters, she completed a research thesis in association with a project at the University of Haifa also that is involved with developing an AI system for child abuse detection using drawings. She has worked with a Mumbai-based NGO, which fights against human trafficking as part of an art-therapy project for the inmates at the shelter home. Her expertise  is in trauma and abuse. Meghna collaborates with various shelter homes and orphanages spread across India and educational institutions taking art therapy workshops. Along with workshops, seminars and private art therapy sessions for clients, Meghna is active on social media, where she has an art therapy awareness page named @artfromtheheart_meghna and runs an online art store called Beauty from Ashes, where she sells her art.

Sarvatmika Rajeev

Sarvatmika is a queer-affirmative art psychotherapist, who has completed her Master’s in Art Therapy from LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. She currently engages in clinical work with organizations across India, Singapore, and Australia to deliver art therapy sessions to a wide demographic. Based out of Chennai, she offers virtual sessions for clients from different geographical locations. Sarvatmika’s clinical experience includes working with children on the autism-spectrum and adolescents with backgrounds of physical and sexual abuse, anger management, eating disorders, body-image issues, depression, OCD tendencies, long-term illnesses and traumatic medical conditions. She has also worked with adults struggling with addiction, depression, PTSD and adverse childhood experiences.

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Prarthna Agarwal

Prarthna is an art psychotherapist, passionate about nurturing one’s well-being and inner strengths through the healing potential of the creative expressive arts.

During her MA training in Singapore, she developed a deep understanding of supporting special needs individuals by synergizing their unique strengths and abilities through concepts of psychodynamic art therapy. Additionally, she had the privilege of engaging with adult service providers in a queer-affirming, sex-positive community, and within this inclusive and affirming space, she encouraged individuals to explore themselves through boundless transformative creative mediums through the integration of client-centered, trauma-informed, art psychotherapeutic approaches. Additionally, she has also facilitated a range of therapeutic workshops for healthcare workers, allies, migrant workers, active seniors, and medical professionals in India and internationally.

Driven by an unwavering passion for engaging with diverse and underserved populations, she strives to create nurturing spaces that are inclusive, affirming, and strength-based while supporting individuals in their journey toward well-being and personal growth holistically.

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Louise Fernandes

Louise is a registered Art Psychotherapist and Art Teacher. Originally from the UK, she has over 10 years experience working in the field of Art Therapy, having specialised in working with children, young people and families within schools, charity settings and within the Community. Louise specialises in working with adolescents and young adults from many different backgrounds both in India and the UK, who are neurodiverse and have experienced loss, bereavement, trauma, mental health diagnosis and anxiety. Currently Louise provides art therapy for students in an Special Needs setting in South Goa as well as private practice in person and online.

Louise’s approach is psychodynamic and client-led and is interested in the embodied experience of art making and how the senses play an important role in the therapeutic alliance. Louise’s practice also explores the connection to the earth and the outdoors, having facilitated art therapy retreats and workshops for adults and families in the UK, Italy and Goa.

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Rutika Ostwal

Rutika’s mission is to assist individuals on their path to self understanding and personal growth through the integration of various processes suited to their needs in a safe setting. She works with children and adolescents along with their parents in the areas of emotional regulation, acute and post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), grief counselling, anger management, anxiety disorders, confidence building, and self-identity issues. With the mind and body connection to various psychosomatic illnesses, her practise focuses on holistic living and trauma-informed, body-based approaches in the complex recovery of trauma and addictions. Rutika holds a Master’s degree in Art therapy from MTU in Ireland’s Crawford College of Art and Design. She is a member of the Irish Association of Creative Art Therapists and a yoga instructor, trained from the yoga institute, Santacruz Mumbai. Rutika has worked with Colaiste Eamann Ris School, Faranlea Nursing Home, Marymount Hospice, Bon Secours Hospital in Cork, Ireland from 2019-2022. She earned her BFA from Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai and continues her practise as a painter. She’s committed to causes on ending Animal cruelty, Climate change and Minimalism. Coming Home, her most recent endeavour, strives on rediscovering our true authentic self as  outside influences of colonialism and the distractions of modern world is steering us away from our true nature and roots. Currently situated in Nasik, India, Rutika travels for her workshops and seminars.

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Bhawna Taneja

Bhawna Taneja is an Artist & Art Psychotherapist currently based in Chandigarh, India. She completed BFA in Applied Art from College of Art, New Delhi. After graduation she worked as an Art Educator for around 8 years. Along with teaching she was also involved in freelance photography and coaching students for entrance exams. Bhawna also ran an Art Cafe in Goa. She moved to Ireland to pursue MA in Art Therapy from Munster Technological University, Cork. As a therapist Bhawna has worked with people of different age groups and backgrounds. This includes school children, older adults in hospice, suicide helpline and mental health hospital.

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Aishwarya Dattani

Aishwarya (she/her) is an HCPC Registered Art Psychotherapist. She works with individuals coping with the effects of chronic stress and trauma. She also offers her services to a global non-profit Bloom where she works with survivors of gender-based violence. She integrates her training in narrative therapy and somatic trauma therapy with her training in art psychotherapy when working with clients. She is committed to rooting her practice in an anti-oppressive stance and trauma-informed care principles. As an executive board member at The Art Therapy Association of India, she hopes to contribute toward research and advocacy for art therapy training that is decolonized and rooted in the Indian context. You can read more about her approach on her website: https://www.aishwaryadattani.com/

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