Monica Mamidi is 28 years old and lives in Hyderabad. She loves films, books, music, traveling, eating anything chocolate, dancing, poetry and writing. Although from an engineering background, Monica is also interested in psychology. She believes education for children and young people shouldn't force them to excel at any cost, instead they should be supported to find their way to things they are passionate about. She wishes for a society that thrives on healthy interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships, and for a world that is more empathetic and kind because we all struggle at some point in our lives.

Tanvi (she/they) is an Expressive Arts Therapy (ExAT) Practitioner based in Mumbai. Her practice is client-centered, trauma and intersectionality informed, and she holds an anti-oppressive and queer-affirming therapy space; all of you is welcome. She is working with the intent of increasing accessibility to ethical mental health resources and conversations in India, and using the Arts for the same. She additionally holds the roles of Co-Lead for Youth for Expressive Arts, and Teaching Assistant for the P.G. Diploma in ExAT at St. Xavier’s College, Autonomous in Mumbai.

Rennet (She/Her) practices Expressive Arts Therapy. She subscribes to an eclectic approach; her practice is trauma informed, anti-casteist, feminist, intersectionality informed and queer friendly. She is the head of Youth for Expressive Arts, an initiative by Youth for Mental Health and is a member of the World Federation of Mental Health. Rennet is actively working with individuals, organisations and communities to support and facilitate mental health at various levels in the society. She believes in mental health for all and the power of arts to attain the same.

Pavel writes and conducts training on sexuality and gender, LGBTQIA+, and co-founded the Chinky Homo project that aims to compile an anthology of lived realities of queer person from North East India. Pavel studied at MSU Baroda and Hyderabad Central University pursuing applied linguistic and translation studies, and gender studies at Ambedkar University, Delhi. Through their work, they try to understand themselves and the community they belong to better.

Soumitra is the Director of Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy at Indian Law Society (ILS). He has contributed to the WHO Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package. He has worked as a consultant in various countries like Seychelles, Eritrea, Indonesia, Lesotho, Samoa and Vanuatu assisting them in developing mental health policy and drafting and implementing mental health legislation. He contributed to drafting India’s new mental health law and was a member of the Policy Group appointed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, to draft a new national mental health policy for India.

Arjun is Programme Manager & Research Fellow at the Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy, Indian Law Society, Pune. Previously, Arjun was appointed as law clerk to the Supreme Court of India and has also worked on developing socio-legal interventions on access to justice with communities in Gujarat. Currently, at the Centre he leads various projects on law, policy, and service reform for mental health and suicide prevention. He works with a range of stakeholders for implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 & the National Mental Health Policy, 2014. He also co-leads the India Mental Health Observatory and Outlive! - a youth suicide prevention program for preventing urban youth suicides in India.

Miriam is a psychologist and trainer at Sangath, Goa. She leads teams to develop contextually relevant psychosocial interventions that can be delivered by non-specialist health workers in the community. She has led intervention development teams for research projects funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (USA) and the Medical Research Council (UK) among others. Her areas of interest are adult mental health and addictions research.

Rennet Attri (She/Her) practices Expressive Arts Therapy. She subscribes to an eclectic approach; her practice is trauma informed, anti-casteist, feminist, intersectionality informed and queer friendly. She is the head of Youth for Expressive Arts, an initiative by Youth for Mental Health and is a member of the World Federation of Mental Health. Rennet is actively working with individuals, organisations and communities to support and facilitate mental health at various levels in the society. She believes in mental health for all and the power of arts to attain the same.

Vidushi is a cybersecurity expert from Haldwani, Uttarakhand. She is a motivational speaker and leads a small group called Enlightening Hope Within to create awareness about mental health.

Namarita is a professional editor and works in publishing. She loves to read and write. She completed a Masters in creative writing at the University of Westminster, London and Bachelors in English at Delhi University.

Vikram Patel is the Pershing Square Professor of Global Health and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. His work has focused on the burden of mental health problems, their association with social disadvantage, and the use of community resources for their prevention and treatment. He is a co-founder of the Movement for Global Mental Health, the Centre for Global Mental Health (at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), the Mental Health Innovations Network, and Sangath, an Indian NGO which won the WHO Public Health Champion of India prize. He is a Fellow of the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences and has served on the Committee which drafted India’s first National Mental Health Policy and the WHO High Level Independent Commission for NCDs. He has been awarded the Chalmers Medal, the Sarnat Prize, the Pardes Humanitarian Prize, an Honorary OBE and the John Dirk Canada Gairdner Award in Global Health. He was listed in TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential persons of the year in 2015.

Eleanor is a clinical psychologist with 8 years’ experience of working in mental health services in the UK. She specialises in mental health difficulties which arise from abuse and trauma; particularly those experienced by women and by refugees. She has expertise in the mental health needs of excluded and marginalised groups, such as adolescents in gangs and ethnic minorities. She is passionate about working alongside communities in order to work towards better health, happiness and social justice.

Avinash has a background in product and game design, and leads the public engagement and new media practice at Quicksand. In recent years, he has anchored projects focused on public engagement, design research, mental health and solutions for public health. He has been the lead strategist and researcher on Quicksand’s work in the domain of mental health with Wellcome Trust , Comic Relief, CMHLP, and Sangath.

Sachi is a psychologist by training, and has completed her M.Sc Clinical Psychology from Manipal Academy of Higher Education. At Sisters Living Works, she facilitates suicide prevention workshops that aim to raise awareness, and equip participants to serve as a first responder to someone in a suicide crisis. She also facilitates the support groups conducted by SLW for mental health and survivors of suicide loss.

Pooja (ciswoman, pronoun: she) has been part of the non-profit sector for over a decade. She has worked variously as a researcher, documentation consultant, trainer and now as an independent therapist. She has an Mphil from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and has worked in the areas of life skills, gender, sexuality, violence and child sexual abuse. She has also worked with adolescents on life skills development. She's currently working on her PhD, and is a Consultant Therapist and Faculty at Mariwala Health Initiative’s (MHI) Queer Affirmative Counselling Practice Certificate Course (QACP).

Sam is studying for a Masters in Applied Psychology. She is also an Arts Based Therapy Practitioner and conducts affordable individual and group sessions because she wants mental health services to be accessible to as many people as possible. Her personal motto in life is to help people help themselves.

Tarini is a 28 year old finance executive. She was diagnosed with having Borderline Personality Disorder and since then she has been an active part of the mental health community - helping break the stigma around mental health with her story.

Sadam is the founder of Ya All Northeast, India's first registered queer and youth led-focused organisation based in Imphal and the Managing Director & Editor of Paomi Post, a digital storytelling platform for Manipuris. Sadam was acknowledged by Dettol among 100 Protectors recently and his story has been documented by Apple TV in a docu-series called The Me You Can't See co-produced by Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry.