Dr. Lavanya Seshasayee

The CONTROVERSIAL LITERARY CREATIVE BOOK SHE AUTHORED PERTAINING TO MENTAL HEALTH and which is COMING SOON is titled ‘AGAINST ALL ODDS’. It is via her life story that she explores the current psychiatric, psychological, feminist, sociological, cultural, political, legal, spiritual, religious, user-survivor, self-advocacy, spiritual and literary aspects of mental health in India and across the globe.

Dr Lavanya Seshasayee’s research articles have been published in journals, textbooks and websites. Several articles have been written about her on the mass media.

As a PhD holder she has presented her research papers in innumerable conferences and seminars across the globe.

She has had experience from a variety of sectors, both medical and non-medical, in mental health, such as Self Advocacy, Psychiatry, Feminist Psychotherapy, the Recovery Movement, the user-survivor movement, peer support, hypnotherapy, legal mental health and has had training with a literary-legal focus in mental health from THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND GALWAY.

Her work has been applauded by several national and international organizations. 

After having been a User survivor holding and completing a Research Fellowship at The Bapu Trust she was a Research Fellow at the BALM [Banyan Academy for Leadership in Mental Health] Chennai, in which capacity she worked as a doctor in the Bangalore Beggar’s Colony under the guidance and mentorship of a very well-known and renowned Psychiatrist who was formerly from NIMHANS named Dr. Kishore Kumar Kengeri Venkatesh [currently he is CEO of The Banyan]. She was a former volunteer for Basic Needs in Bangalore. Dr. Lavanya has also attended several cross-disability seminars, conferences pertaining to mental health and training workshops pertaining to the UNCRPD. For instance, Dr. Lavanya Seshasayee has travelled widely and presented research papers on Mental Health in National and International conferences including those at the Kings College London as also INTAR [International Network Towards Alternatives and Recovery], Liverpool, SUICIDE PREVENTION-AUSTRALIA AND NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND – GALWAY. She has since been a rather Active Critic of the Movement for Global Mental Health. She has contributed and continues to contribute her critical views to the mental health law drafting process in India as part of discussions at various workshops.

She has been a strong Advocate of the Recovery Movement in India. She is a resource person for The Bapu Trust AND The Banyan Academy for Leadership in Mental Health [BALM]. She is a peer counsellor. She joined GASS [Grameena Abyudaya Seva Samsthe – a well-known NGO in Doddaballapura] as Program Manager in the mid of August 2014 wherein she was involved in several activities.  She was engaged in fundraising via  writing proposals pertaining to disability, attending as also helping organize workshops and training sessions on disability and documenting them, counselling women who came for help with problems, writing reports, corresponding with various other DPOs [Disabled Persons Organizations] to promote cross-disability alliances, capacity building, giving talks regarding disability with a special focus on mental health to community health workers, attending and documenting UNCRPD [UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION FOR THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES] –training workshops in the grassroots context that benefitted the DPOs from rural areas and getting engaged in fieldwork to document the real life stories of people with mental health problems for organizations like BASIC NEEDS [in the context of an employee of GASS].

She is now running her own movement called The Global Women’s Recovery Movement [GWRM] which was formerly known as The Indian Women’s Recovery Movement to offer support to women suffering from mental health issues and inspire them with her own story of recovery. She was prominently involved in the VOICES PROJECT [UNCRPD based] launched by The National University of Ireland Galway at its Centre for Disability Law and Policy [CDLP] and funded by the European Union wherein she authored a creative literary and legal piece based on her life experiences along with Maths Jesperson who pioneered the world famous rights based service called the PO-Skane [Personal Ombudsman] in Sweden very successfully accessed by more than 6000 psychosocially challenged people in Sweden alone. She is espousing the cause of Full Legal Capacity for people with psychosocial and other disabilities. 

Her podcast series is titled ‘EXPLORING RECOVERY WITH DR LAVANYA SESHASAYEE’ and has attracted thousands of listeners in India and from across the globe.