Making mental health a priority

Conversations: Centre for Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing

An inclusive and safe space, created by collaborating with various members of our diverse community

At Conversations: Centre for Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing, we are a team of trained mental health professionals who provide socio-emotional support to the students and members of Azim Premji University and Azim Premji Foundation.

We help students learn healthy coping skills to manage their academic demands through their transitional phases and adjust to a diverse peer group and living in a new space.

We help our students and members explore and navigate personal challenges in identity, interpersonal relationships or any other concerns that may come up during their time at the University/Foundation.

Our counsellors are trained in queer affirmative practices, are caste and indigeneity sensitive in their approach and are trauma-informed. We prove a safe space with confidentiality. We work and collaborate with other functions of the University with the intent to create a culture of well-being and positive mental health on campus.

Key offerings

One-on-one counselling
Support groups
Group therapy
Skill-building workshops
Awareness and sensitisation sessions
Infographics and other resources and content on mental health
Quarterly newsletter, Dialogues, with various themes around mental health
Supervised group of students as Peer Supporters, who are all trained in basic skills of counselling, as another layer of mental health support on campus
Liaising with the Foundation around mental health and campus outreach activities

Peer Support Team

The Peer Support programme is an initiative to create another layer of support for our students in addition to the Conversations team of counsellors. Peer Supporters are a voluntary group of students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, who are selected, trained, supervised, and mentored by the Conversations team to provide emotional support to their peers.

The Peer Support Team (PST) have been trained in basic counselling skills, ethics and confidentiality, gender and sexuality, grief and loss, and mental health conditions. As part of their training, the students also attended Suicide Gatekeeper Training conducted by Suicide Prevention India Foundation (SPIF).

Students can reach out to members of the team for an additional layer of emotional support within the University.

What do peer supporters do?

Provide one-to-one emotional support
Spread awareness on mental health and wellbeing
Identify and help students in distress
Identify and refer students to the Conversations Team if professional help is needed

What concerns can you reach to peer supporters for?

Academic difficulties
Difficulties adjusting to the University
Navigating the transition to University
Feeling stressed
Feeling anxious
Friendship or relationship issues

Who can you reach out to?

If you are an undergraduate student, you can reach out to the undergraduate peer supporters. If you are a postgraduate student, you can reach out the postgraduate peer supporters.

Dialogues: Our quarterly newsletter

Dialogues is a quarterly newsletter from Conversations: Centre for Positive Mental Health and Well Being, containing articles, poetry, and artwork by students, faculty, and members of Azim Premji University and the Foundation.