therapy

I never liked your beanie
A light-grey surface with faded and yellowed postcards and papers, A small pile of papers and books is tied with string. There is a black fountain pen and an ink bottle is out of focus in one corner.

I only ever read your letters
to learn what patterns to avoid
in future relationships.

By Hritvika Lakhera
May 4, 2023
I never liked your beanie
With Love: A Special Issue on Sexuality, Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Self-care
An illustration of the title of the article with a beige background. There are oblong-shaped blobs in peach and sap green on the upper left corner and the lower right corner. At the centre is the logo of TARSHI followed by three verticle rows of squiggly lines and the text that reads "In Plainspeak: Sexuality, mental health, wellbeing and self-care"
Any conversation on sexuality cannot exclude engagement with the myriad ways in which taboos around sexuality, the privileging of heteronormative ideals, the violence and marginalisation faced by people deviating from norms of sexuality and gender affect our mental health and well-being.
By TARSHI
June 15, 2022
With Love: A Special Issue on Sexuality, Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Self-care
On the Sustainability of (Non) Romance
A photograph featuring two women with their backs to the camera and their arms entwined, looking at a blurred scenery of a neighbourhood.

Contemporary and predominant imaginations of intimacy focus primarily on a sex-centric (romance-centric?) model which assumes that sexual desire exists and holds the same value for every person and every relationship regardless of their subjective positions. Sexual intent and desire are often the cruces of how relational aspects such as intimacy are socially constructed.

By Fariha Sameen
February 15, 2022
On the Sustainability of (Non) Romance
Who would we be if we weren’t trying to survive? A Conversation on the Survival Myth
A photograph of a bench on a rocky-slightly bushy terrain. The bench is facing the other direction, which stretches out into wilderness. The sky in tinged with purple, blue, yellow, and pink.

What does it mean to hold space and extend compassion to ourselves and our  communities? Rachel Cargle reminds us to ask ourselves: who  would we be if we weren’t trying to survive? Similarly, what would care and vulnerability look like if we weren’t trying to survive? The anarchy of queerness constantly and necessarily resists the capitalist engineering of the Survival Myth: one that wants us to endure an isolated life instead of embracing it with the radically transformative joy of togetherness. Caring for yourself precedes, succeeds, and exists alongside caring for the collective.

By Rukmini and Soumya
July 19, 2021
Who would we be if we weren’t trying to survive? A Conversation on the Survival Myth
“You Will Never Learn!” – Conversations Between a 17 Year Old and a 53 Year Old
An illustration of three birds sitting on a tree branch. They all have colourful patterns drawn on them.

As if the challenges of parents bringing up adolescents in a world dominated by social media is not enough, the addition of teaching these parents to accept different sexual orientations and the fluidity of gender in a gender-binary world can be daunting.

By Dr Jai Ranjan Ram
January 2, 2019
“You Will Never Learn!” – Conversations Between a 17 Year Old and a 53 Year Old
“You Will Never Learn!” – Conversations Between a 17 Year Old and a 53 Year Old
An illustration of three birds sitting on a tree branch. They all have colourful patterns drawn on them.

As if the challenges of parents bringing up adolescents in a world dominated by social media is not enough, the addition of teaching these parents to accept different sexual orientations and the fluidity of gender in a gender-binary world can be daunting.

By Dr Jai Ranjan Ram
June 15, 2018
“You Will Never Learn!” – Conversations Between a 17 Year Old and a 53 Year Old
क्विअर लोगों की मानसिक देखभाल – मुझसे बात करें
the silhouette of a girl with dark hair against a blue-black background

मेरे यह पूछने पर कि, “जब आप दुखी होते हैं तो किससे बात करते हैं”, जोगप्पा ने ने कहा “देवी…

By Vinay Chandran
June 15, 2018
क्विअर लोगों की मानसिक देखभाल – मुझसे बात करें
How Being A Queer Feminist Shaped My Approach To Mental Health
a man dressed in black trousers, white shirt, and black waistcoat, lies on a couch. his hands seem to be moving like he's making conversation. a woman sits on a couch beside him, she has a notebook in her hand as if she's listening to what he's saying and making notes.

As a queer-feminist mental health practitioner, my way to understand realities is to examine the power relations that exist in our social locations, identities and structures.

By Curated Content
June 15, 2018
How Being A Queer Feminist Shaped My Approach To Mental Health
In dealing with other people’s trauma, India’s mental health workforce is battling burnout
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India has a severe shortage of mental health professionals and the experiences of counsellors like Kapoor raise the question of whether there is a wave of therapist burnout in the country. Unfortunately, there has been no research to indicate the extent of the problem in India.

By Curated Content
June 15, 2018
In dealing with other people’s trauma, India’s mental health workforce is battling burnout
Talk to Me – Queer Mental Healthcare
the silhouette of a girl with dark hair against a blue-black background

It was, however, the community’s consistent refrain of having “no one” to talk to, that made the problem of mental health crises stand out during my conversations.

By Vinay Chandran
June 1, 2018
Talk to Me – Queer Mental Healthcare
A Story of the Body: Understanding Memories and Sexuality
A blue and a red silhouette of the heads of two figures leaning against each other.

“I was not a wanted child. Of course I am a girl, and that explains it. It’s like no one really cares if I exist. My brothers are useless, but they are everything to them(her parents). It’s not like he (her lover) needs me either; I still take food for him everyday.”

By Rashi Kapoor
April 16, 2018
A Story of the Body: Understanding Memories and Sexuality
Interview: Psychotherapist Neetu Sarin on Boundaries and Sexuality in Psychoanalytic Therapy

I wanted to explore how sexuality and boundaries come together or work tangentially in a psychoanalytic clinic through the lens of the therapist, and understand how and why it may or may not be different from patient to patient.

By Tanisha Chadha
April 18, 2017
Interview: Psychotherapist Neetu Sarin on Boundaries and Sexuality in Psychoanalytic Therapy