ABOUT ME

I serve as an assistant professor in the department of humanities and social sciences at Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad and as a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Equity Studies, New Delhi. Trained as a  clinical psychologist, my doctoral work carried out at the Department of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology  Hyderabad revolves around everyday narratives and practices of mental health care and chronicity which are constructed by official discourses of state and bio-medicine. Informed by the politics, history and philosophy of psy disciplines, I examine the complexities and ambiguities in the context of  increasing metricalisation, technocratisation, globalization  and scientifisation of mental health care. I grapple with questions of philosophical interest in mental health care  like why  mainstream mental health academia/research/ practice primarily engage in “mirroring” the world rather than in  “world-making”. My upcoming book titled Mental health and critical  community care: Pesrspectives from India to be published by Routledge in 2024 uncovers mental health  care practices in India from critical perspectives. 

My research informs clinical practice and vice-versa for  I am an anti-oppressive, trauma-informed, body-positive, sex-positive mental health practitioner who creates and promotes meaningful, nonjudgmental and compassionate therapeutic relationships.  I draw from my extensive firsthand knowledge and experience of the social, psychological, and emotional pressures  and fatal vulnerabilities placed on members of the LGBTQIA+ community in my intersectional, affirmative mental health practice. I am committed to fostering therapeutic relationships sensitive to cultural diversity, including trans, gender-expansive, and non-binary people.   

I encourage research broadly in the following areas: mental health interventions with minority/marginalised population, mental health in the context of gender, disabilities and sexualities, social disadvantage, and intersections in mental health all taking inter and multidisciplinary perspectives.  I follow issues related to public administration that have direct consequences to life in general and human mentation in particular. Travelling, farming, reading literature and spending time with  pets and other non-humans on my farmland are sources of immense contemplations for me.

RECENT PUBLICATION