My Book, Unashamed by Harper Collins is Coming Out Soon!
Hello & Welcome to my Sex & Trauma Psychotherapy Practice!
Healing is a powerful practice, and this is a
unique place of healing I’m creating – for you, and with you.
If you found me on social media and are looking to get in touch, please go
to the Get in Touch section.
Sign up for trainings & workshops here.
My Writing & Interviews fresh off the press here
“Every day, from my therapy desk, I see that sexuality has been repressed in the larger Indian context.
Part of my life’s work is to help people normalize their sexual and creative expression in relationship to their personal power, to heal from sexual shame and expand their understanding of sexual trauma.“
About me and the Clinical Practice:
My name is Neha Bhat (ABT, ATR-P). I’m a licensed arts-based sex and trauma psychotherapist, an artist, a teacher and the author of Unashamed, a pioneering book on navigating shame in the urban Indian context. Making mental health practice more culturally-sensitive is a key area of interest for me. I write as @indiansextherapist on social media for this reason. I run a sex and sexuality-focused, arts-based trauma therapy practice where people from diverse cultural backgrounds seek therapy and attend inner work classes to learn tools to help themselves shift from merely surviving against their pain to thriving into their integrity and power.
We have the following areas of focus:
1. SEXUAL VIOLENCE FOCUSED TRAUMA THERAPY
2. RESTORATIVE JUSTICE & INTERSECTIONS WITH THE LAW
3. INTERPERSONAL ABUSE:PREVENTION & HEALING
4. NEURODIVERGENCE IN EDUCATION
5. ARTS BASED, SPIRITUALLY FOCUSED CREATIVE WELLNESS TECHNIQUES for Mental & Sexual Health
Something unique about me, is that:
I have a penchant for guiding people to dig deep to uncover what might be hidden beneath the surface of their presenting
life challenges.
I like bringing distinct, even oppositional ideas together to create innovative solutions to challenging and long-standing sociocultural problems.
My Background:
As a queer Indian person working across the different cultures in the world, I care deeply about challenges related to abuse and violence, in connection to collective health. I’ve trained extensively in clinical mental & sexual health practice, both in the Indian and the American Healthcare systems.
Spiritual tools and somatic practices are part of my healing methodologies. I’m particularly interested in using arts-based wellness tools, principles of depth psychology and drawing from ancient Indian spiritual wisdom in the therapy room, to assist people to heal the deep wounds that trauma creates, when it lives repressed within our bodies.
My book, Unashamed, 2024 by Harper Collins, written on these lines, is a therapeutic guide to heal from sexual shame, especially for people navigating the diversities of the urban Indian context.
My specialties are: Trauma Therapy; Sexual violence focused trauma therapy; Interpersonal Violence in Couples; Sex focused psychotherapy; Neurodivergence in teenagers and adults; LGBTQ+ identity development; Decolonial and indigenous approaches to wellness practices; Art Therapy; Theatre of the Oppressed and Somatic work; Depression and Anxiety resilience; Monogamous and Polyamorous Relationships; Parenting LGBTQ+ children; Complex grief, personal empowerment practices and working with intergenerational trauma patterns in the Indian psyche.
I’ve worked with:
- Individuals
- Couples
- Indian Family systems (Mother-Daughter units, Father – Son units and such)
- Small organizational groups and work teams
- Legal systems for trauma survivors and perpetrators – courts and jails
Over the past 11+ years of clinical practice, I have served the following categories of people : - children between 5 and 15 years of ago, with special needs, on the neurodivergent spectrum (Autism, ADHD and so on)
- adult survivors of sexual trauma and adult perpetrators of sexual trauma – individuals, couples and family units impacted by sexual violence
- higher educational institutions and Title IX offices in the US, in offering better pathways of access to justice and healing to survivors of sexual violence.
- adult women (both cis, trans and non-binary) under incarceration – both in Indian and American prison systems
Learning Tools for You:
This website is designed as a learning archive of insights from my clinical practice, my articles and videos on trauma therapy from a decolonial Indian lens, and access to training tools for people at different levels of interest and study. The material published on this website in the form of pieces of writing, videos, questions, talks, worksheets and toolkits, is all a part of my life’s work, that I’ve been slowly putting together for you.
I encourage you to go deeper into my offerings that we’ve curated in this space.
You may have found a piece of my writing resonant, something I said in a public talk insightful, or perhaps, you harbored a gentle curiosity about this unique practice of healing and wellness that’s being discussed here… which lead you to this practice.
Perhaps you want to update your trauma learnings, or unravel the history of what happened to you, maybe there’s grief in your heart that hasn’t been tended to — for whichever reason you find yourself reading till here, I whole-heartedly welcome you.
Learn in a Digital Masterclass/Workshop:
My Upcoming Trauma Training Workshops:
Week of Apr 15th
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April 15, 2024
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April 16, 2024
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April 17, 2024
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April 18, 2024
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April 19, 2024
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April 20, 2024
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April 21, 2024
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some of the free psychotherapy tools I write about on social media:
You might enjoy these in-depth interviews about these intersections in my practice here:
As an interdisciplinary teacher, I see value in bringing together ideas, people, concepts and action-steps from different fields to solve challenging socio-cultural problems. I believe the future is about breaking isolated silos and creating more unity and harmony between various diversities.
Learn in-person:
I teach part-time at various global institutions including:
NYU, Abu Dhabhi, St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India, UC Berkley and the University of Michigan
Bringing the focus on somatic techniques and creative processing of complex legal and systemic challenges in highly intellectually-focused academic environments is something I find joy in.
I believe the future is about breaking isolated silos and creating more unity and harmony between diversities.
In closing….
Please remember: Trauma work is a form of self-knowledge. You do not have to have something “wrong” with you to access deeper ways of self-knowledge. Everyone, at some point needs to look beneath life’s surface to understand themselves better, which then often leads to a more easeful understanding of life, and its various joys and challenges.
Any of these tools and spaces might uniquely support you in your healing process, helping you understand “taboo” parts of yourself that were hitherto unclear. However, please know that my practices in inner work might also challenge you to think deeper than society generally makes time and space for, they might make you question your assumptions that we take for granted and might shake up the habits of the ego-identity a little bit, making uncomfortable feelings surface for awareness and resolution.
Thank you for stopping by.
“I’m fascinated! I want to keep learning!” Click here and/or:
CONTINUE TO EXPLORE:
I want to read Neha’s deeper psychotherapy writing insights
My deeper, depth-psychology writing on everyday life matters here
I believe writing is a truth-telling practice. Coupled with intention and awareness, it can bring light to our subconscious needs and even channel steps ahead when we are stuck in specific areas of our lives.
I want to learn about how arts and spirituality intersect.
Why do the Arts and Spirituality intersect for me?
“Know all the theories, master all the techniques, but as you touch another soul, be just a soul.”
– Carl Jung
I’ve always been a bit of an esoteric-minded person who found mysticism, service and spirituality to be truer and more real as compared to the ideals of mainstream South Indian society at the time when I was a teenager. As a young person, I found myself to be studious and deeply curious, but school academics rather simplistic and outdated. Decoloniality was not a popular concept back then, so I didn’t have the vocabulary to make sense of my detachment. By the age of 15, watching nature, reading consciousness literature, connecting to mystical energies like Jiddu Krishnamurti, Shirdi Sai Baba and Meher Baba had become “normal” for me. A career in the mainstream professions was not an option in my mind. I was called to be service-oriented and a spiritual depth opened inside when I accepted that voice.
People’s unique spiritualities are invited within my therapy room, my classes and larger therapy practice, since trauma, nature, spirituality and wellness are all interconnected in my worldview.I believe that both inner and outer work are essential for wellbeing. Here’s a bit more about this work in the media.
I want to know more about Neha’s first book, Unashamed.
“By tackling the deeply ingrained notion of sexual shame through the powerful concept of ‘self-permission’, and by examining real-life case studies and the psychological underpinnings of sex and desire, Bhat goes beyond the social media-based siren calls to sex-positivity to offer a well-honed and carefully crafted guide for readers to reflect upon and confront their own unaddressed traumas and psychological wounds that have consciously or unconsciously defined their perspective on sex and sexuality, especially with respect to their own bodies.In the process, Bhat looks at equipping readers with the tools to recalibrate and, perhaps, undo years of misconceptions surrounding sexuality and other long-held belief systems.” More here
Other Frequently Asked Questions
What is THERAPY?
Why is it important that we understand trauma?
Trauma work is a form of self-knowledge. You do not have to have something “wrong” with you to access deeper ways of self-knowledge. Everyone, at some point needs to look beneath life’s surface to understand themselves better, which then often leads to a more easeful understanding of life, and its various joys and challenges.
People often choose to work a depth-focused therapist, to find pathways of empowerment and clarity for themselves, at difficult or traumatic crossroads of their lives, especially in connection with their sexuality to make choices that feel meaningful to them in their specific cultural and social circumstances. I see sexual health as part of mental, emotional and spiritual health.
There may be times in our lives when the advice we get from our friends/families doesn’t help our specific situation.
There may be unresolved aspects of our past that are too deep for our friends to understand, and this may impact the types of friends, employees, wives, husbands, daughters or employers we become.
Trauma lives everywhere until it is allowed to be named. Trauma therapy is a wonderful option that can help bring clarity, insight and discernment into your specific ways of navigating the world.
If you’re struggling with issues around sexuality, relationships or interpersonal violence, and you’re ready for insight-oriented inner work, therapy might prove beneficial to you.
2. I can’t access therapy due to my circumstances.
How do I proceed?
Please explore this website and the instagram account (@indiansextherapist) which is an offering of this practice to provide free psycho-education about mental health and trauma work online. Please don’t let the lack of therapy access stop you from going deeper within yourself for healing, and as a professional who practices across multiple cultures, I encourage accessing healing tools that are local and contextually appropriate to you!
Note from the team:
Please note that Neha Bhat’s practice, this telehealth practice is full, and she is not taking further appointments for individual therapy. Our waitlists are also full. For the near future, Neha is focusing on public education, clinical training and writing so that sex therapy tools can be accessible to a larger audience worldwide.
If you have benefitted from this work and are not a current client at the practice, please consider buying our practice a book that strengthens our ability to run a sustainable practice: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/nehabhat
For Hindi speakers: थेरेपी या काउन्सलिंग क्यों?
जीवन में कुछ ऐसी चीज़ें होती हैं जिनका हल हमारे दोस्त या परिवार वाले नहीं निकल पाते हैं । ऐसे समय में हम अपने आप को अकेला महसूस करते हैं, और अपनी मानसिक स्तिथि को हानि पहुंचाते हैं । थेरेपी इस स्तिथि के लिए हैं । काउन्सलिंग एक सुरक्षित जगह हैं, जहाँ आप अपनी मन की बातें बताकर, अपनी स्थिति को समझ सकते हैं ।
मैं इंटरनेट के द्वारा काउन्सलिंग सर्विस व्यतीत करती हूँ । नीचे लगे फॉर्म को पढ़े और अपनी डिटेल्स भरके भेजे । मैं २४ घंटो में आपको वापिस ईमेल करुँगी । आपकी डिटेल्स किसी और को नहीं दिखाई जाएंगी ।
Neha Bhat, @indiansextherapist, Copyright, 2024.
This website is my intellectual property, and I prohibit the use of this material for promotional purposes without my explicit consent. If you are in a crisis or if you or any other person may be in danger – please don’t use this site. Please contact your nearest support person/emergency room immediately.