Aditi Shah

Aditi Shah is a Therapist and part of the Mental Health Team at Ummeed Child Development Center, Mumbai. Along with holding a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology, she has been trained in Narrative Ideas and Practices and her work involves working with children with disabilities and their families and providing them with mental health support on an ongoing basis. 

Farah Maneckshaw

Farah Maneckshaw is a Junior Therapist at Ummeed Child Development Center. She also freelances as a journalist writes about mental health-related subjects from a sociopolitical lens

Krishna Patel

Krishna Patel is a founder/choreographer at Krishna’s Choreography.With over 9 years of teaching experience, he has worked with many NGOs such as Aashiyana Foundation,  Salam Bombay Foundation, MSWC  Street Children Project, Happy Feet Home and schools  – American school of bombay and Kids Concept through dance. He is also an Arts-Based Therapist.

Parul Kumtha

Parul Kumtha is mother to Kabir who has set up and runs his entrepreneurial venture ‘Kabir’s Kreations’ with help from his parents.  She is a founder trustee of Forum for Autism and has co-founded Adult Support Kendra (a project with Yash Charitable Trust). ASK provides mental health support to persons with developmental disabilities and their families. Parul is also a practicing Universal Design Architect. 

Pravin Madur

Pravin is a therapist and a trainer with Ummeed’s Mental Health team. Guided by the Narrative Ideas and Diversity & Inclusion, he co-creates multiple possibilities with children, families and communities. He uses art, technology, imagination and playfulness to make visible people’s lived realities and expertise. He loves spending time with kids, talking to plants, bike rides and evening Chai!

Ranjana Chakraborty

Ranjana Chakraborty has done her Masters in Microbiology and had worked in the pharmaceutical and education sector for 8 years. She is an enthusiastic parent professional who has been working in this field since 2011. She is a special educator and a proactive board member at Autism Society West Bengal. Her current work is being highly influenced by the narrative ideas, where she strives to bring forward the wonderfulness in other’s lives. Her main focus area is individuals with Autism and their families across different array of work. She is also the coordinator for YAAR (Young Adults with Autism Reachout)-a social club for young adults at ASWB.

Smita V

Smita works at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and technology with a focus on digital rights, holistic digital security, and digital storytelling. Based out of New Delhi, India, they can generally be found wandering the cyberspace, or hunting for good coffee.

Sushama Nagarkar

Sushama Nagarkar has her doctorate in Special Education from the University of Missouri and is a nationally certified school psychologist in the US. Six years ago, Sushama and her daughter returned to India after spending 15 years in the US where she worked as a psychologist in the public schools. In 2014, she set up Yash Charitable Trust, an NGO with the vision that persons with developmental disabilities will live and work in the community of their choice with dignity and self-respect. She works in an honorary capacity as the Managing Trustee. Besides this, Sushama has been a registered Rehabilitation Psychologist (RCI) and currently works as a technical consultant on a part-time basis with the Morris Foundation, Pune. Morris Foundation provides support services for students with learning disabilities. Sushama has also worked with other educational entities such as the Gateway School, Mumbai; and the Bubbles Center for Autism in Bangalore. Sushama is a resource person for the Forum for Autism and travels to conduct workshops and training activities. She also consults with and does counseling for families of persons with disabilities.  Sushama additionally has taught graduate and undergraduate level classes for U.S. universities in an on-line format. Being that she is a parent of an adult with autism, Sushama brings to her work a rather unique perspective of walking the walk and not just talking the talk. Sushama considers herself a life-long student of Yoga. Other interests include reading, trekking and the outdoors.

Amrita Nair

Amrita Nair  with a Bachelors’ degree in Psychology from Mumbai University, and a Masters’ degree in Social Entrepreneurship from TISS, is a part of the founding team of Apni Shala. Before cofounding Apni Shala, Amrita worked with the Akanksha Foundation and Aasara Home for boys. She has also been trained in personal counseling and Rational emotive behaviour therapy. Since 2013, she has been a facilitator of Theatre of the oppressed. She was part of the DBS-TISS Social Entrepreneurship Programme from 2013 to 2016 and a WIPRO seeding fellow (2017). In 2016, she attended the New Leader’s Week with the National SEED project and has been facilitating Mumbai based groups on Diversity and Inclusion. She is a Library Educator trained at Bookworm Goa in 2019 and currently, she is working as the Director of R&D and Advocacy  at Apni Shala.

Bijal Vachharajani

When Bijal Vachharajani is not reading a children’s book, she is editing or writing one. A senior editor at Pratham Books, she has a Masters in Environment Security and Peace from the University for Peace. She is part of Nalanda Academy’s Abhiyan Library movement and believes that reading and nature have magical powers. She is now a certified climate worrier.

Indrani Basu

Indrani Basu completed graduation in education and trained as a teacher from thedepartment of education London University. She has eleven years of teaching experience at mainstream schools in India. During the time she was teaching both her sons were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. After the diagnosis of her sons she trained as a special educator. She is the founder and director of Autism society West Bengal in Kolkata. The organization runs a number of services; Parent Training, Early Intervention Unit, Special School, and Vocational Unit. Indrani conducts workshops at mainstream schools creating awareness and understandingof inclusive education for children with ASD. ASWB has a special unit that providessupport and remedial teaching to students with ASD attending mainstream schools.She is a resource person for a number of organizations in India and Bangladesh.She has co authored a number of papers and books on special education.

Lavanya Karthik

Lavanya Karthik is a writer and illustrator of children’s books. She is the author of over twenty picturebooks and middle grade novels , and has illustrated for several Indian and international publishers. She is the author of picture books like ‘Neel on Wheels’ and ‘A Walk with Thambi’ that celebrate inclusivity, and the creator of the Ninja Nani series of middle grade novels. Her tactile books Who Am I? and Cat, Come Back! were among the finalists at the National Tactile Book Competition organized by the Chetana Trust in 2018. Where Am I? won a commendation and prize as Best Interactive Book, while Cat, Come Back! is forthcoming as a picture book from Karadi Tales.

Pearl D’Souza

Pearl D’Souza is an illustrator and visual artist from Goa, India. Her work reflects her passion for mental health, gender, feminism, body positivity and social good. She also has a keen eye for local design and storytelling, and is fascinated by market places. Pearl is a proud plant mom, and is often found drawing botanicals in her journals. She has a degree in Design from Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, where she focused on illustration for storytelling.

Rakshita Shekhar

Rakshita Shekhar is an Autistic self advocate and a consultant for inclusive education. Her special interests are autism, pedagogy and inclusion. She loves to sing, swing and roll on the bed with her husband and son. Her advocacy efforts are geared towards providing safe spaces for Autistic people to express their unique identities, enabling them to advocate for themselves, educating the society on the neurodiversity paradigm and bridging conflicts between Autistic and non Autistic people so that all may live and let live.

Raviraj Shetty

Raviraj is an occupational therapist and library educator at Ummeed Child Development Center. His work is informed by occupational justice, sensory integration, narrative practices, queer writings and disability justice. He believes that all the problems in this world are rooted in structures of oppression rather in our bodies or identities. He wonders about hosting  his mum cooked dinner and invite Mary oliver, Bell hooks, Rilke and Foucault.

Sanjana Kapur

Sanjana Kapur enjoys interacting with children. She has designed and conducted various workshops in different schools across India. She is always on the lookout for new stories to tell and can usually be found scribbling in a notebook. Her first full-length novel, ‘Ruckus on the Road’, was published by Penguin, which she co-authored with her sister, Aparna Kapur. She has also written two picture books, ‘Shh…What’s that?’ and ‘Who Stole Bhaiya’s Smile’ for Pratham Books. She is the Associate Editor at Amar Chitra Katha and never tires of telling people that she writes comics for a living!

The Shor Poetry Group

Shor is a community where different people express their stories through poetry or storytelling. It is an open community where anyone can come and share their story. We are in hope of creating a safe place for expression where people can seek healing and come together for the magic of stories; Shor.

Anand Kumtha

Anand Kumtha is father to Kabir who has set up and runs his entrepreneurial venture ‘Kabir’s Kreations’ with the help from his parents. Anand is a core group member of Adult Support Kendra (a project with Yash Charitable Trust), which provides mental health support to persons with developmental disabilities and their families and of Forum for Autism. In the college in which he teaches, he heads the counseling cell and the cell for students with special needs. He has worked with adults with special needs to spring their emotional well being through leisure activities and games.

Daisy Daruwala

Daisy Daruwalla Bhathena is a Senior Therapist and Training Manager at Ummeed Child Development Center. Daisy has been a part of the Ummeed family since 2008. She has a Masters in Clinical Psychology from SNDT university. Daisy conducts Intelligence Quotient (IQ) testing for children and adolescents and supervises the testing team. Daisy is a trained counsellor and uses the Narrative ideas and practices while working with children and families through individual and group counseling sessions. She has presented her work at the South Asia International Autism Conference in 2015 on the Use of Externalizing Conversations with Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).Daisy has run groups for parents of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. She has also been actively involved in planning and conducting workshops and short term trainings for several organizations / schools like Action for Autism, Anchorage, Aangan, Teach for India, Rotary Club, Euro Kids, J.B Petit High School, Bombay Scottish etc. Daisy has been part of the core team that conceptualized, designed, implemented and supervised long term training programs like the Mental Health Training Program (MHTP) and Community Mental Health Training program (CMHTP). These programs train professionals and community workers in the application of narrative ideas and practices in their context. Daisy heads the year-long Mental Health Training Program. Daisy has been the force behind A Room Full of Stories – The International Narrative Therapy Conference 2016 and has been the lead in organizing and executing the entire production!  

Jehanzeb Baldiwala

Jehanzeb Baldiwala is a therapist, supervisor, trainer and part of the Ummeed team since 2004. She has aligned herself with narrative ways of working over the past twenty years. Jehanzeb is a voracious reader and believes in dreams and magic. She loves to share stories about life with her son, travel and to connect with people and their stories.

Manisha Bhattacharya

Manisha Bhattacharyya is a clinical psychologist who has been working in this field for the last 6 years. She is associated with Autism Society West Bengal, Mental Health Foundation and Crystal Minds. After her exposure to narrative ideas she has been focusing more on enhancing the emotional well being of adolescents and adults with ASD. Manisha resonates with the narrative idea of making agency visible and exploring preferred stories with the people she consults with.

Prachi Mehta

Prachi works at Ummeed in the Mental Health team as a Junior Therapist. She likes working with children and their development. Prachi also holds experience working with elderly experiencing Dementia. In her free time, she likes exploring new places, restaurants and photography.

Rohit Kumar

Rohit Kumar, through his work and education, has come to believe that schools are places for an enriching socio-cultural dialogue that can empower or subvert its pupils, depending upon how the school is imagined, designed and brought into action. Rohit holds an M.A. in Education from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, and a Masters in Software Systems from the Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai, India. However, he thinks his most important learning comes from having worked with students and educators at The Akanksha Foundation, American School of Bombay, and Apni Shala Foundation. Currently, Rohit is working as the CEO at Apni Shala and works as a consulting staff at Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) project by Wellesley Center for Women, Wellesley College, USA where he co-facilitates diversity workshops for educators.

Thejaswi Shivanand

Thejaswi Shivanand taught biology and statistics for high school students at Centre for Learning, Bangalore for thirteen years, where he was also deeply involved in the library and nature education programmes. He now consults with various organizations across the country on education and library programmes.

Yashna Vishwanathan 

Yashna Vishwanathan is a Mental Health Worker at Ummeed Child Development Center, Mumbai and works with children and young people with disabilities, and their families. The knowledged-lives of the young people with disabilities shape her understanding of disability justice, neurodivergence and intersectionality.  She is a mom to two cats and a few plants, and is often found to read her favourite poems to them.