Anuradha SovaniAnuradha Sovani is a full Professor of psychology and heads the Department of Psychology at SNDT Women's University, Mumbai. Prior to this appointment, she has headed the Department of Applied Psychology at the University of Mumbai. br/>
She has been a UGC Research Fellow during her MPhil as well as doctoral work at the University of Mumbai, an NCERT scholar through college life, and a Chancellor's Gold Medalist. Teaching is her passion, as is writing; she has written several books, chapters, newspaper columns, and articles in both English and Marathi (the local language of Maharashtra), for both professional and lay readers, and has been sought after as a speaker at national and international meetings.
Having worked as a psychologist in general hospital settings, served on committees for the care of long-stay chronic psychiatric patients, women in distress, and children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, she has learned to respect hidden sources of resilience and to trust the spirit of human endeavor. Much of this belief as well as her training in cognitive behavioral and rational emotive psychotherapy approaches translates into her teaching, mentoring, and therapeutic work.
Dr Sovani is a trustee and consultant at the Institute for Psychological Health (IPH), and over the 27 years of her work with the institute, many of her research publications draw upon the community mental health and prevention focus espoused by IPH. Her research collaborations, both funded and others, extend beyond India; she has worked with colleagues in the fields of mental health and education from countries including the United States of America, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Twelve doctoral students have completed their work under her guidance in diverse areas ranging from psychosocial aspects of schizophrenia, epilepsy, and mild cognitive impairment on the one hand to speech difficulties, infertility, and parenting issues on the other. Both her own research and that of some of her doctoral and postdoctoral scholars have been funded by the UGC and ICMR.
Integration of the understanding of human behavior from a variety of different perspectives has been a central theme in her approach to psychology and psychopathology, leading to her working closely with psychiatrists, social workers, pediatricians, neuropsychologists, forensic psychologists, and human resource professionals in the corporate world; experts in the field of occupational therapy and speech and language pathology, general medicine, and surgery to deal with anxiety and pain management; and educationists and special educators. Working in the areas of awareness building and de-stigmatization has given her an opportunity to work with all strata of society and different age groups, using live, social, and print media and film-based discussions to ensure that apparently complex concepts are made simple and easy to comprehend. Read More Read Less
