Faculty

Brinda Jacob-Janvrin is a contemporary dancer/choreographer with more than 25 years of performing experience. She is also a qualified counsellor and has been working extensively with movement therapy over the last 15 years.

Her current movement disciplines include contemporary dance (1994 onwards), Authentic Movement (2011 onwards) and Ashtanga yoga (2013 onwards). Her previous movement training includes Kalaripayattu, Bharatanatayam, Kathak, Hatha, and Vinaysa Flow yoga, Physical theatre, Contact Improvisation, etc.

From 2012 onwards, Brinda has been training in and exploring Expressive Arts Therapy as a powerful modality to work with clients. While movement and the body is her primary modality, she also engages with techniques from visual art therapy, drama therapy, sand play, and psychodrama.

Today, Brinda trains, works with individual and group clients, facilitates, performs and choreographs.

Pallavi Chander has over 15 years of experience as an artist, facilitator, and therapist. She has had the opportunity to work in schools, special needs centers, arts collectives, charities and hospital settings in India and the UK. She received the Charles Wallace India Scholarship Award in 2015 and completed her training in Drama and Movement Therapy at RCSSD, London, in 2017. She is a certified Arts-Based therapist trained with WCCLF, Pune, in 2012.

Pallavi is passionate about using the arts with children of all ages. She works with children and adults who are differently-abled and young adults challenged with behavioral issues and mental health concerns. As a Creative Arts Therapist, her practice is influenced by the arts-based therapy approach and the Sesame approach to drama and movement therapy, which is informed by Jungian psychology, Laban movement, play theory and Billy Lindkvist’s work with Movement with Touch and Sound. She currently practices under the initiative Turiya with different communities, organizations, and institutions.

Mugdha Shivapurkar is a registered Art Psychotherapist (HCPC, UK) with a deep-rooted affinity for the arts and their therapeutic potential. She holds an MA in Clinical Psychology from Fergusson College, Pune (2015) and an MA in Art Psychotherapy from the University of Roehampton, London.

She brings a decade of diverse experience in integrating creative arts into mental health work across corporate, educational, and counselling contexts. She holds Mental Health First Aid certification (MHFA England, 2024) and has additional foundational training in Dance Movement Therapy, the Therapeutic Value of Arts, Adlerian Therapy and Drum Circle Facilitation. Mugdha’s therapeutic approach is anchored in the arts, with a strong emphasis on cultural identity, intersectionality, and accessibility. She is particularly drawn to working with grief and personality vulnerabilities, always centering the individual, not just the diagnosis. She prioritises the person over the diagnosis, valuing the humanness and accessibility that the arts bring to therapy.

In 2019, Mugdha co-founded The Secret Ingredient Mental Healthcare (www.tsimentalhealth.com), a holistic initiative aimed at reducing stigma and expanding access to inclusive mental health services in India. An experienced educator and facilitator, Mugdha has taught on various Psychology and creative arts therapy Courses across undergraduate, postgraduate, and diploma levels in India. She is deeply committed to promoting culturally sensitive, ethical, and arts-integrated research in psychotherapy. Her work bridges psychology, creative arts, and community care, with a strong foundation in qualitative methods and supervision.

Atmica Reddy is a qualified movement psychotherapist. She has completed her MA in Dance Movement Psychotherapy from the University of Derby, UK. She is a registered member of the Association for Dance Movement Psychotherapy, UK and with the Indian Association of Dance Movement Therapy.

Atmica uses a combination of conventional psychological theories and creative tools such as visual art, music and movement to facilitate the therapeutic process. With a person-centred approach to her counselling, she supports clients with emotional, psychological and relational challenges. Her primary objective is to promote holistic development of clients through unique verbal/non-verbal interventions that are informed by theories of the mind-body interrelationship. She is especially passionate about trauma work and incorporates neuroscience backed evidence-based approaches in her therapeutic interventions.

As a mental health professional, Atmica aims at providing a safe space for clients to navigate their concerns within the gentle holding of the therapeutic relationship. She works with children, adolescents and adults across various health, education and social care setups.

Aarathi Selvan is a licensed Clinical Psychologist (India, NZ), National Certified Counselor (USA) and the Founder-Director of Pause for Perspective, Hyderabad, and a trained teacher of Mindfulness-Based Symptom Management from Ottawa Mindfulness Clinic, Canada.

Aarathi has worked in the area of Mindfulness and Mental Health and Wellness for the last 10 years. She has conducted more than 100 eight-week Mindfulness programs in Hyderabad and across the country. She trains mental health professionals in Mindfulness and Psychotherapy. In the last several years she has worked with different corporates, NGOs, schools, and colleges in delivering Mindfulness-Based Interventions as well as other psychological and psychosocial programs. She manages a team of 16 psychologists at Pause for Perspective. She is a faculty at St. Francis Degree College and teaches the Masters program in Counseling and also teaches the Post Graduate Diploma Program in Psychological Counseling. She teaches, supervises and trains mental health professionals in the city of Hyderabad. She works and supervises in the area of mindfulness, trauma, couples work, queer affirmative counseling, and the intersectionality of mental health and marginalization.

Bhargavi Raman is a practising trauma-sensitive and inter-modal Expressive Arts Therapist and  an experiential learning facilitator. She works one-on-one with adults and adolescents, and with groups, through inter-modal expressive arts and mindfulness. She is passionate about promoting the role of arts in mental health and well-being. Lawyer by education, she has a daily practice of yoga, movement and meditation.

Pause for Perspective is a leading organization in training mental health professionals (MHPs) in Embodied Social Justice within the field of Counseling Psychology. Our team of 20+ MHPs works from an anti-oppressive framework, integrating decolonial, anti-caste, neurodivergent-affirmative, queer-affirmative, and disability justice-centered approaches to mental health.

Within the Therapeutic Communications module of FECAT, a dedicated team from Pause for Perspective supports trainees in developing the skills to hold generative, lived-experience-centered, and liberation-based conversations with the people they consult. This collaboration seamlessly aligns with the foundational aspects of FECAT’s modules, fostering practitioners’ ability to embody presence and engage meaningfully with individuals’ lived experiences.

Nidhi Khurana is a certified Expressive Arts Therapist. Trained at advanced levels in a multi-modal approach, she facilitates powerful and potentially transformative spaces for individuals and groups for wellbeing and mental health. She has worked with groups of various compositions and backgrounds, from inmates of government-run observation homes and children in marginalised communities to cohorts of artists and employees in tech organisations. She also collaborates with organisations like MAP (Museum of Art and Photography) on education and outreach programs for various sections of the population. In her work with individuals, she has a depth-oriented trauma-sensitive private practice, both virtual and in-person.

Nidhi draws significantly from her own journey through the labyrinth of the inner world over the last 15 years. She traversed many spiritual paths before the inner roars brought her to the doorway of a therapeutic approach rooted in Jungian psychology, bringing together spirit and matter. Explorations of the psyche-soma interweavings through authentic movement, various forms of yoga like hatha-yin, breathwork-kriyas, esoteric practices of swara yoga-tattva shuddhi; dreamwork and visual art practices; psychodrama and free movement have been at the core of her process. This descent from the hegemony of the mind to the mysteries and intrigue of the body has brought her to the very powerful and nourishing space of the deep feminine. She sees her work as an emanation from and offering to that space.

Prior to her foray into the world of therapy and inner work, Nidhi had a decade-long tryst with the apparel retail and brand industry in analytics and business management along with a brief entrepreneurial stint in between.

Sanjini Kedia is a queer affirmative, dance movement psychotherapist and a PhD candidate at the University of Roehampton, London. Sanjini works as a dance/movement therapist with Dance for Mental Health (dMh) and Parivarthan Counselling Centre, India. Transmen and cis men’s mental health, along with allyship, intersectionality, and advocacy in the arts therapies, are Sanjini’s primary research interests. She follows an intersectional feminist approach to her research-practice and offers individual and group dance movement psychotherapy. Sanjini’s professional experience ranges from working with children, adults with PMLD, adults from the LGBTQIA+ communities, in-patient and out- patient at ELFT NHS and CNWL NHS trust, and older adults in retirement housing. Sanjini has presented her research at various global conferences and is a member of the Association of Dance Movement Psychotherapy U.K’s ethics committee.

Pooja Agarwal is a therapist, supervisor and teacher in Private Practice. She sees therapy as a community practice to resist systemic problems and nurture space for navigating life with humour, gentleness and presence. Her therapy practice is informed by Narrative practices and Mindfulness-based psychotherapy.

She graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor’s in Psychology Honours from Christ University and in 2017 with a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychological Counselling Skills from St. Francis College. Additionally, she holds certifications in Mindfulness-based psychotherapy, Narrative practices and Queer affirmative practice.

In her 8 years of work, beyond seeing clients in individual therapy, she has also facilitated group therapy spaces, created training programs and community projects. She is also a supervisor supporting therapists in their own journey through work in individual and group supervision spaces.

She believes deeply in the power of listening to the body as a way to reconnect with one’s values and dreams of gentler, embodied and slower ways of life.

When not working, she enjoys reading, staring at trees, napping and wondering what to make for dinner.

Sri Vamsi Matta (Vamsi) is a Bangalore-based interdisciplinary theatre artist whose work is grounded in lived experience, political memory, and anti-caste thought. Born into a Dalit community historically marked as “untouchable,” his practice confronts the everyday and structural violence of caste, positioning art as a space for refusal, repair, and collective imagination. Working across theatre, performance, writing, visual design, and participatory formats, his work sits at the intersection of autobiography, community history, and radical pedagogy.

His recent play, Star in the Sky, explores the emotional and political lives of Dalit students in Indian universities, addressing isolation, resistance, and survival within regimes of merit and exclusion. The play was developed through the Indian Ensemble’s Idea Development Lab, shortlisted for the Sultan Padamsee Playwriting Award, and premiered in Bangalore in 2025. His acclaimed participatory performance, Come Eat With Me, examines caste and food through cooking and the sharing of Dalit food traditions, and has travelled internationally, engaging audiences across India, the United States, and Australia.

Pallavi Banothu is a certified Expressive Arts Practitioner with a Masters in Theatre Arts. She specialises in Children’s Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed and works with people from all walks of life. She believes art is an empowering and liberating practice that opens up space for interaction, dialogue, and critical thinking. With 12 years of experience in working with children, she now integrates theatre with therapeutic approaches to enable self-discovery and transformation.

With her stance in intersectional feminism and anti-caste activism, she aspires to create spaces that address structural violence towards the marginalised communities and their impact on the mental health of the oppressed.

She has written and directed many plays with children that address social issues. Plasticides, Ecowarriors, Cinderella’s Sangeet are some of her works.

Neeraj Kumar is a Queer Affirmative and Trauma Informed Counselling Practitioner. They are trained by SMART on the Foundation of Expressive Creative Arts Therapeutics modalities (Batch 2022). Neeraj runs a small practice in New Delhi and online globally. They come from interdisciplinary disciplinary backgrounds in Psychology, Social work and Women’s and Gender Studies. Recently, They finished a project on Trans Affirmative Mental Health Care Guidelines with TISS Mumbai. Neeraj trains practitioners on Gender, Sexuality, Trans, Gender Diversity, Queerness, Caste and Affirmative approaches and is interested in conversation and building movement around the same.

Sidhanta Borkataky is a feminist, Queer-Affirmative Expressive Arts Therapy practitioner with 6+ years of experience offering an open, creative space to explore what may emerge in therapy. Grounded in depth psychology and utilising the body, imagination, and dreams, one is invited to create a space where they explore their inner and outer world and the interconnectedness between them. These explorations may primarily include creative approaches using visual arts, movement, music, and play.

Robin Raju is an Expressive Arts Therapy Practitioner (certified by Studio for Movement Arts & Therapies, Bangalore) with a keen interest in movement based practices. Body & movement and what it means to live an embodied life are his areas of research and exploration.

Before moving to Expressive Arts, Robin worked as a Communications professional specialising in Public Relations, Social Media and Digital Communications.

Monica Mehta Gangoly has been associated with SMArT as a graphic designer since its inception. She graduated from the second batch of FECAT and now contributes as a resource builder and strategic planner, developing the Learning Management System and instructional design of the various courses offered by SMArT.

She also spearheads her design studio, MGP India, creating communication material for corporates & individuals. With over 2 decades of experience in advertising & design, Monica started her career at Grey Advertising before launching out on her own.

Kate Donohue is a licensed psychologist & a registered expressive arts therapist (REAT). She holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology & has maintained an active private practice for 40 years. She has also been teaching for 30 years, at institutions such as the California Institute of Integral Studies, Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, JFK University & the San Francisco C.G. Jung Institute. She is a co-founder of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association & an MCEP & CEU provider.

Kate believes that searching for meaning connects us to the soul & the spirit, resulting in a life that is more open, more joyful & closer to the true self. Her approach to psychotherapy is guided by her passion for art, culture & spirituality. Her work marries Jungian oriented expressive arts therapy with a search for what is real, authentic & unique within us.

Since 1986 Dr. Leonilla has been deeply involved in studying the Mind-Body-Spirit relationship. She has worked on finding a synergy between eastern and western spirituality and has spent a considerable amount of time researching the practice of meditation and delving deep into eastern spirituality.

Phoenix transformation sessions and Shadow Work developed by her help leaders empower themselves through transformation, integration, and individuation.

Dr. Leonilla is the founder of BODHI -a Centre for Human Growth into Consciousness and has spearheaded this organization for the time of its inception. She is also the founder of the Resource Center for Training and Development, this center works with the Psycho-spiritual approach in helping people unfold and discover themselves.

She was awarded the gold medal for her Ph.D. for best research work and M.V. Govindaswamy memorial prize for her research work for MPhil, in NIMHANS. She also holds a doctoral degree in Metaphysical Sciences from the University of Meta-Physics in California, USA.