Building resilient communities!

Dr. Soumya H

Dr. Sowmya K

Consultant Psychiatrist

Dr Sowmya Krishna, MBBS, MRCPsych, CCT (UK), is a Consultant Psychiatrist with more than 15 years of experience in managing common and complex mental disorders like anxiety disorders, mood/affective disorders like depression/bipolar disorder, psychosis, medically unexplained disorders (chronic pain and somatization), personality disorders and psychiatric issues associated with cancer. She works with adolescents and working age adults.

She completed her undergraduate training in Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore, India in 2002 and then went to the UK to pursue higher training in psychiatry. She completed her MRCPsych and obtained CCT (Certificate of Completion of specialist Training) in General Adult Psychiatry. She has worked at the Regional Affective Disorder in Manchester with eminent professionals like Prof Ian Anderson and can manage complex and treatment resistant mood disorders. She is well versed in various modalities of psychological therapies, Cognitive Analytical Therapy in particular. She has obtained a clinical certificate from the prestigious British Association of Psychopharmacology. She has a special interest in personality disorders and drafted the personality disorder guidelines for Mersey Care NHS Trust, Liverpool. She enjoys teaching and training and was Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the University of Liverpool.

She returned to India in 2017 and is currently associated with two organisations that provide community mental health services – The Green Oak Initiative, Fraser Town and Hank Nunn Institute – both based in Bangalore. She is also a member of the managing committee at the Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC), which is the oldest NGO in Karnataka. AMC provides education and vocational training for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Another interest of hers has been improving access to mental health services especially in lower income countries. During her years in training, she has been part of development of a computerized tool called GMHAT (Global Mental Health Assessment Tool). This tool is used by various agencies like the Border Security Force and Rajasthan Police to assess and manage mental health. GMHAT is used by various primary care professionals like ASHA workers and Anganwadi workers.

Dr. Sabina Rao

Consultant Psychiatrist

Dr Sabina Rao, MBBS, MD, graduated from Bangalore Medical College in 1999, completed her psychiatry training in 2007 from Duke University, Psychiatry Training Program, North Carolina, USA. She is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She returned to India in 2011 and practiced at NIMHANS for 3 years and moved into private practice in late 2015.

She is a General Adult Psychiatrist with extensive experience in treating common illnesses such as depression, panic disorder, anxiety, addiction as well as severe illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder. She has expertise in both pharmacological (prescribing medications) and non pharmacological (counselling, psychotherapy and psychosocial) interventions.

Dr. Ashlesha B

Consultant Psychiatrist & Psychotherapist

Dr Ashlesha Bagadia is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist with over 15 years of clinical experience. After completing her medical training through Karnataka University, she went to UK where she completed higher training in Psychiatry at the South West London & St George’s NHS Trust, and obtained MRCPsych. She then trained and worked in Adelaide, Australia and completed FRANZCP along with CCT (Certificate of completion of Specialist Training) in Family Systems Psychotherapy. During this time, she became interested in problems arising due to attachment difficulties and completed training under Prof Anthony Bateman, in Mentalisation Based Treatment, a specific form of therapy targeted to help people with borderline personality disorder. Her interest in attachment related issues also led her to Canada where she completed a Fellowship in Perinatal Psychiatry & Women’s Mental Health through the Univeristy of Toronto.

Dr Ashlesha moved to India 4 years ago and is now based in Frazer Town, at The Green Oak Initiative, working with mental health issues arising during pregnancy and post partum. She does assessments for personality disorder and runs a complex needs clinic offering Family and Couples Therapy. She is an external researcher with the Dept of Perinatal Psychiatry at NIMHANS, and is involved with developing screening pathways for perinatal mental health disorders. She runs a MBT-group therapy program for people with Borderline Personality Disorder and collaborates with other clinicians to help manage similar conditions.

She is the director of The Parc, an organisation through which she trains and supervises other clinicians in management of complex mental health conditions. She runs a certificate course in Foundations of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy in collaboration with Mount Carmel College (Bangalore University) and conducts workshops on various therapeutic skills for counsellors, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists and mental health clinicians from any background.

Jwala N

Consultant Neuropsychologist

Jwala Narayanan, MA Clin Psych, MSc NeuroPsych( UK), is a Consultant Neuropsychologist. She has close to 10 years of experience in the field. Her area of specialty involves cognitive assessments for the purpose of diagnoses in people who have neurological conditions. Much of her work also involves rehabilitation of people post brain injury (stroke, head injury, brain infection, epilepsy). Her main areas of research are Dementia and Epilepsy. She has a special interest in bilingualism and memory. She runs special groups for memory, anger, depression, fatigue after brain injury and an enrichment program for people with dementia called Cogworks.

Poornima Mahindru

Clinical Psychologist

Poornima Mahindru, M.Phil (Clinical Psychology) from the prestigious Kasturba Medical College, Manipal is a certified clinical psychologist and psychotherapist. She has over 10 years of experience in the field of mental health. Post-training, she worked in NIMHANS for 2 years where she trained and supervised clinical psychology trainees. She was actively involved in research and clinical activity and particularly within the field of Borderline Personality Disorders and Perinatal Mental Health. She has presented her research at international conferences and had been invited as a speaker in national conferences and CMEs.

She has engaged in her private practice from 2015, during which time she headed the clinical psychology department in Mindplus Healthcare, a reputed neuro psychiatric hospital in Punjab. She did extensive clinical work in addition to supervising and training the junior psychologists.

She has been trained in MBT by Anthony Bateman to deal with borderline personality disorders. Her primary interests and areas of expertise are maternal and child mental health, trauma related disorders and personality disorders.

Vandana Easwaran

Priyanka K

Priyanka Kuppusamy