PSYCHOLOGY MENTORSHIP PROGRAM, South-ASIA: 2023

---

Keeping the challenges and need in mind, in 2022 we started our first psychology mentorship program, which turned out to be a wonderful transformative journey for many young mentees in South Asia, who continue to be a part of our community now. Given the demand and need, we are back again with our one of its kind free mentorship program in 2023 to support people in the psychology field bridge these gaps. 

While the need for psychology as a practice, academia and research is only increasing given the current local and global context, the field still remains not only inaccessible but highly stigmatized in many ways. This further impacts aspirations, career goals and practices of those in South-Asia; especially those with less access to opportunities and resources in conflict zones.

The program is not for studying or exploring peace-psychology. As an organization based in a conflict-zone, we are aware of the lack of resources and access across psychology and mental health spaces. Hence, this program is open to students and professionals from all and different branches in psychology (e.g. mental health, clinical, developmental, organizational, counseling, and so on).

We hope that this program continues to facilitate more access to information, platforms and networks from the vast field of psychology globally. Additionally, we hope our initiative can continue to provide a support system for students and practitioners to emphasize on constant nurturing, wellbeing and safe space practices in the field.

While this program is open to people from  anywhere in South-Asia, we hope more participants from conflict-zones like Kashmir, Myanmar and Afghanistan can join us;  given the lack of opportunities, safe spaces and platforms in the ongoing conflict; and to also encourage peer-learning and support. The program will be supported by the local and global professionals and experts from various branches of the field of Psychology.

Please Note: This year's program is ongoing at present with 60+ mentees from South Asia and will end in Fall. We might start the next cohort after that and will share updates here if we do.

We believe healing, understanding traumas, psychosocial support, creating safe space for dialogue, decolonizing mental health space, understanding mental is political, are all crucial for any sustainable peacebuilding & conflict transformation process. Hence, this is a small step to support those in psychology-field all across South-Asia.

While the need for psychology as a practice, academia and research is only increasing given the current local and global context in mind, the field still remains not only inaccessible but highly stigmatized in many ways. This further impacts aspirations, career goals and practices of those in South-Asia; especially those with less access to opportunities and resources in conflict zones.

Keeping these challenges and the growing need in mind, we are bringing this ongoing mentorship program to support people in psychology field bridge these gaps. Given many challenges in the whole field of psychology in South-Asia, we are not restricting it to only peace and conflict psychology; but instead it is open to all and different branches in psychology (mental health, clinical, developmental, organizational, counseling, and so on).

We hope that this program can facilitate more access to information, platforms and networks from the vast field of psychology globally. Additionally, we hope this can provide a support system for students, aspirants and practitioners to emphasize on constant nurturing, healing and safe space practices in the field.

While this program is open to people from South-Asia, we hope more participants from conflict-zones like Kashmir, Myanmar and Afghanistan can join us;  given the lack of opportunities, safe spaces and platforms in the ongoing conflict; and to also encourage peer-learning and support. The program will be supported by the local and global professionals and experts from various branches of the field of Psychology.

We are not taking any more applications now. If there's an exceptional case (e.g. if you are from a conflict-zone in South-Asia and couldn't apply on time due to safety/internet issues, and still want to apply), then write to us. We will see if we can consider your applications based on many internal factors, important for this program.