Vandana Hiranandani, dean, director and family therapist, Anatta Humanversity Pvt Ltd
When it comes to mental health, Indian society remains caught in stigmas and misconceptions. When people try to share something that’s troubling them or if they feel that they need help, they are often offered phrases like ‘Paagal hai kya? Sab theek hai. Sab ke saath hota hai, sab theek ho jayega’ (Are you crazy? Everyone goes through difficulties, everything will be fine soon).
“This leads to a situation where people start to feel lonely and don’t understand where and how to seek help,” explains Andheri resident Sangita Agarwal, who founded the Agrim Agarwal Foundation in 2021 with the goal to help people cope with mental health challenges and substance abuse.
“Our mission is to break the taboo around mental health and the aim is to promote mental health awareness amongst people and explain to them that a healthy mind lives in a healthy body,” she explains.
She adds that there has been a rise in awareness around this topic since the Covid-19 pandemic, but society is still not free of the stigma around mental illness. For this, Agarwal conducted sessions and workshops regarding this across the country on mental health, substance abuse, sex education, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) rules for workplaces.
The foundation also facilitates counselling for people who need it, with an array of services including general counselling, rational emotive behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, neuro-linguistic programming, healing therapies, among others.
“I am lucky to have an extremely motivated and skilled team of therapists, counsellors, NLP trainers, psychologists, and POCSO and POSH trainers. We are trying to cover every aspect of mental wellbeing,” explains the 62-year-old. Depending on each person’s case, various combinations of therapies are provided including music, sound, paint, and colour therapies. These are available at four centres, in Malad, Khar, Andheri and Vile Parle. Additionally, the counselling services are also available virtually.
People who come to the foundation with problems of substance abuse receive holistic care. It starts with counselling and understanding what has led them to abuse the substance, the kind of substance, family history, etc. A 12-step guide then follows.
“It is important to understand that the person who comes for help is coming voluntarily and is not forced. Only then can the person truly bring change in their lives,” she explains.
Agarwal’s dream and the next big goal is to establish a self-sustainable de-addiction centre, for which she has been working round the clock.
Vandana Hiranandani, dean, director and family therapist at Anatta Humanversity Pvt Ltd, who has known of Sangita and her NGO for four years, shared, “Her determination and focus on creating awareness about mental health has been unwavering. She is collecting and facilitating the right resources for people so that the right kind of help can be provided. I am sure that her dream of setting up a de-addiction centre will come true soon and it will benefit society in a huge way.”
