Ummeed Child Development Center carried forward a series of Mentorship Meetings in 2022, in which a digital workshop on ‘Mental Health Training Practices’ was facilitated by Co-Lead Srinidhi Raghavan on October 12 2022.
This workshop aimed at expanding mental health practitioners’ understanding of disability experiences and ableism’s demands on disabled people’s lives as well as its effects on their mental health through ‘Holding Space’, which is a manual created by Rising Flame as a self-learning guide for mental health practitioners.
Using videos, resources from the manual and quotes about lived experiences of disabled people from India and the world, Srinidhi invited participants to think about the effects of ableism on disabled people’s lives, as well as their sense of self and mental health. She aimed to help participants unpack and deconstruct ableism while inviting them to take this back to their counseling or therapeutic practice.