Pavitra Vasudevan

Pavitra Vasudevan is a mental health practitioner working on wellbeing and mental health in both communities and individuals. She began her career over a decade ago as a therapist in a mental health institute, later transitioning to a role as a Student's counsellor in an education institution. However, she soon recognised the accessibility issues within the Indian mental health system, particularly the greater availability of services for the affluent, while the burden of mental health challenges disproportionately affected those disadvantaged by social, economic, and geopolitical factors.

This realisation led Pavitra to work as a community mental health practitioner with Adivasi communities in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, an experience that deepened her understanding of systemic issues. Her work focused on reinforcing support systems in remote areas and developing preventive healthcare models. She later expanded her focus to coastal communities specifically with marginalised small-scale fishing communities in Odisha and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Currently, Pavitra co-creates spaces to address these critical issues in both individual and community settings. Her therapeutic practice integrates her training in Expressive Arts Therapies and Narrative Practices, with expressive arts offering more than just a language for living and perceiving, and Narrative Practices providing a co-journeying mental health space, grounded in community-centric models of care.