Project Goals
Create a safe and inclusive space for the group to express themselves
Empower them with a strong emotional vocabulary, emotional resilience, and social skills
Support the specific mental health needs of the group

Profile of Facilitator
Kanika Singh is an artist and Expressive Arts Therapy practitioner. She comes with a social work background and has worked extensively with marginalized communities in the grassroots. Her art therapy practice is rooted in principles of feminism, social justice, and decolonization.

Kanika is currently working with adults, children, and groups, including persons with disabilities, neurodivergent persons, people from the LGBTQIA+ community, and rural communities. She is very passionate about connecting to nature and is keen on integrating indigenous practices and nature-based expressive arts therapy processes in her offerings.

She dreams of a world where there are no hierarchies among people; where the body-mind-spirit are united; and where humans are one with nature. She hopes her art therapy practice can create a ripple effect towards this vision.

Community Served
Residents of Aashiyana Homes for senior citizens in New Delhi

Project Goals
Build and foster connections between the participants and create a supportive community.
Provide tools and skills to build emotional regulation and awareness.
Engaging with diverse materials and mediums to help with sensory regulation, grounding and expanding movement repertoire.

Profile of Facilitator
Muskan Arora is an artist and expressive arts therapy practitioner from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. She founded Yellow Spaces, where she provides a safe environment for individuals and groups to explore and express themselves through arts. Muskan has facilitated sessions for various organizations, including Naz Foundation, Pravah, L’Oréal, and Benefit Cosmetics. She is a puppeteer with the ISHARA Puppet Theatre Group, where she is part of their production “Be Yourself,” directed by Dadi Pudumjee, an adaptation of the story of the Ugly Duckling. Muskan also works on her personal project, Yellow Bubble, creating hand-painted wearable art. In addition, she plays instruments like the guitar and violin, integrating them into her practice. Muskan holds the position of Associate Director for India for the Global South Arts and Health Festival.

Community Served
Children from Nizamuddin Basti

Project Goals
To understand and know the Self and the relationship with the body.
To understand Emotions, what are they, how do we express them according to others, and how do we want to express them?
To understand the Community, where we live, what are the challenges, and conflict, and how it affects us.

Profile of Facilitator
Jasmine is committed to working with young children and wants to facilitate them in finding their passion. She is a library educator and artist-facilitator at Aagaaz Theatre Trust, where she engages with children and their families through many arts-based processes. She enjoys sketching, painting, and cooking. Jasmine graduated with an honours degree in Political Science from Delhi University in 2022. She is a talented actor, and is currently deepening her relationship with theatre-making through her role as a part of the directorial team in Aagaaz’s play – Bhagi Hui Ladkiyan.

Community Served
Adolescent and young adult girls, living in the rural village of Uttar Pradesh

Project Goals
Identify and overcome the challenges in expression

Profile of Facilitator
Sunidhi is an expressive arts therapy practitioner who has been working with various underprivileged communities in different parts of north India, with a vision of bringing mental health interventions to places and people for whom accessing it is a challenge. She works majorly with adolescents, women, and people working in the social sector by engaging with them through group/community-based work on various aspects of social-emotional learning. Through her work, she focuses on creating a safe space where members of the community participate in a therapeutic process that builds a strong sense of belongingness amongst themselves and they take this learning forward and become a pillar that helps the community in growing together.

Community Served
Children and young adults from vulnerable backgrounds (Ananya Trust)

Project Goals
Building self-esteem and self-assertiveness
Building self-reliance
Exploring Expression through spontaneity

Profile of Facilitator
Dr. Radhika Jain is a theatre practitioner and co-founder of First Drop Theatre, and has over 7 years of experience in applied theatre formats like Playback theatre, Theatre of the oppressed, Shadow and Immersive theatre. Her foray into applied and social theatre formats ignited her passion for using art as a means to work with communities, groups, and individuals. This led to a certification course in Expressive and Creative arts therapy from the Studio of Movement and Art Therapies (SMArt), Bangalore. She is currently pursuing a course in Relational Gestalt therapy from the Institute of Relational Therapy, Bangalore.

Project Goals
To provide a safe space for children who have experienced emotional, physical and sexual abuse either in the family or social setups
To create a space that helps the target group share and process their emotions, and promote self-empowerment

Profile of Facilitator
Shivangi Lakhlani, 25, is an Expressive Arts Therapist and Choreographer from Chennai. Trained in contemporary dance techniques, she has been a professional dancer for almost 10 years. She runs a small online community, called HerMoveMeant, to raise awareness about mental health, through her own journey and experiences.