Capacity Building
Capacity Building is a key gap in the mental health landscape of India, and expanding the Mental Health Professional (MHP) workforce alone is not the solution. IMHA is committed to working with MHPs, communities, non-profit organisations and experts by experience to expand the nature of care in India. We approach capacity building as an ongoing, evolving practice, one that goes beyond technical training to nurture ethical, reflective, and culturally rooted approaches to mental healthcare.
Our Approach
We envision expanding the nature of mental health care available to everyone, moving away from a culture of expert-driven, illness-focused, clinic-based care to a holistic and preventative community-based approach that is embedded in local cultural context and lived experience expertise.
Our vision is to expand the nature of mental health support available to everyone, moving away from a culture of expert-driven, illness-focused, clinic-based care to a preventative community based approach that is embedded in local cultural context and lived experience.
We hope to achieve this through capacity building programmes for all professional, cross-sectoral and community-based stakeholders in the community whose work touches mental health.
By centering lived experience, creating spaces for peer learning and collaborating with over 300 Alliance members, we aim to equip mental health professionals and community stakeholders with the tools to engage meaningfully with complexity, context, and community. Whether through intensive training programmes, expert-led video series, or co-created offerings with experts by experience, our capacity building efforts are designed to strengthen practice at every level and build an ecosystem where thoughtful, grounded care can thrive.
IMHA’s approach to capacity building is built around shared learning, reflective spaces, and care that centers clinical and lived experience expertise of individuals and the communities they belong to.
IMHA’s approach to capacity building is built around shared learning, reflective spaces, and care that centers clinical and lived experience expertise of individuals and the communities they belong to.
Our Capacity Building Programmes
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The Therapist’s Compass – Bridge to Practice Programme for Early Career Psychologists One of our key priorities is to support the learning needs of mental health professionals. On March 9th, we officially launched our flagship initiative The Therapist’s Compass: A Bridge to Practice Programme for Early Career Psychologists.
Led by 40 globally renowned faculty members from across the country. Rooted in a social justice framework, the 4-month programme is designed to equip early-career psychologists with the practical skills, knowledge, and reflective capacities required for ethical, practice-ready mental health work.
Our inaugural cohort included 20 participants from 16 cities across India. Building on its success, we also ran a second cohort from November 2025 to March 2026, again bringing together 20 early-career therapists from 12 cities across India.
To register interest for future cohorts of The Therapist’s Compass, Contact Us -
The Being and the Doing – A video-based learning series for mental health professionals Over 1000+ participants. 150+ cities | A video-based learning series to help mental health professionals bridge skills and values in practice
Brought to you by the India Mental Health Alliance (IMHA) in partnership with Amaha and Children First
The Being and The Doing is a first-of-its-kind, video-based learning series designed to offer culturally resonant, skill-based, and values-focused psychotherapy training material to Indian practitioners. Through expert-led video demonstrations and guided discussions, the series supports practitioners in strengthening their therapeutic presence, clinical decision-making, and reflective capacities. -
Series 1 (October–December 2024)
The inaugural series brought together psychologists, psychiatrists, art therapists, and social workers for a unique learning experience grounded in everyday clinical realities.
Sessions focused on foundational therapeutic skills such as centering the client, working through complex scenarios, and building a practice rooted in humility, authenticity, and collaboration.
The series featured experts like Dr Kavita Arora, Gautham Krishnan and Vybhavi Adiga, Deepapriya V, Ankita Khanna and Tanvi Chatterjee, Dr Amit Sen, Shama Shah and Avneet, Dr Shelja Sen, Pallavi Tomar and Dr Nabagata Das. -
Series 2 (October–December 2024)
Following the overwhelming response to the first edition Series 2 expanded the scope to include diverse therapeutic frameworks.
Featuring video demonstrations across Somatic Experiencing, Collaborative Psychiatry, Expressive Arts Therapies, Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, and more, this series offered participants practical insight into integrative approaches and deepened the connection between theory and therapeutic application.
Series 2 featured experts like Dr Poornima Viswanathan, Anshuma Kshetrapal, Dr Kavita Arora, Dr Saloni Taneja and Sarayu Chandrashekar. -
Series 3 (July–August 2025)
Building on the success of the earlier editions, Series 3 continued The Being and The Doing with sessions focused on complex clinical themes and applied therapeutic practice. The series featured sessions on topics such as narcissistic abuse, building alliances with adolescents, neuro-dramatic play, couple therapy and infidelity, and gentle confrontation in therapy.
Led by experts including Ipsita Chatterjee, Dr Sreyoshi Ghosh, Dr Sue Jennings, Dr Ratna Issac, and Sadaf Vidha, the series saw 380 session sign-ups from professionals across 45 cities, reflecting strong engagement from the mental health community across India. - Hamare Anubhav, Hamari Aawaaz – Centering lived experience in mental health
- Neuro-Dramatic-Play
- Unravelling Trauma & Weaving Resilience
The Therapist’s Compass: Bridge to Practice Programme for Early Career Psychologists
The Being and The Doing
Neuro-Dramatic-Play
Unravelling Trauma & Weaving Resilience
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Early Career Psychiatrists Programme:
A reflective learning programme for early career psychiatrists to deepen practice and dialogue in contemporary psychiatry.
Brought to you by the India Mental Health Alliance (IMHA), the Early Career Psychiatrists Programme offers a collaborative learning space for psychiatrists in the early years of their practice. Led by globally renowned faculty and informed by clinical and lived experience expertise, the programme focuses on integrating self-awareness, ethical reflection, and collaborative approaches into everyday clinical work.
Through expert discussions, facilitated reflection, and small-group dialogue, participants will explore themes of professional growth, interdisciplinary collaboration, and transitions in psychiatric practice to support contextually grounded and reflective care. -
Ongoing Lived Experience Series for Mental Health Professionals:
Mental health systems often exclude those with lived experience from shaping care, policy, and practice—especially in India and the Global South. Training for professionals remains narrowly focused on clinical expertise, overlooking the wisdom of those who live with and through mental distress. When included, lived experience voices are often tokenized or sidelined. This keeps experiential knowledge at the margins, treated as secondary to “scientific” expertise. It is time to reimagine users and caregivers as co-creators—central to building more just, responsive, and humane systems. - IMHA will be launching a podcast-style video based learning series that centers the voices of LEEs in mental health. The series will feature people who have navigated the mental health system as service users, survivors, caregivers, and community advocates. Each episode or module will feature LEEs in conversation with a host, and will capture the bridge between academia, praxis, and lived experience—with an emphasis on learnings and actionables, rather than just storytelling. The goal is to foster a dialogue that is emotionally resonant, intellectually rigorous, and practically relevant for mental health professionals and cross sectoral stakeholders.