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Join us for a fireside chat to hear our diverse panel of mental health providers discuss how to recognize and navigate mental health issues.
Date and time
Tue Feb 11 2025
Description
<div>Join us for a fireside chat to hear our diverse panel of mental health providers discuss how to recognize and navigate mental health issues.</div><div style="margin-top: 20px"><div style="margin: 20px 10px;font-size: 15px;line-height: 22px;font-weight: 400;text-align: left;"><h2>Event Description</h2><p></p><p>In recent times, mental health issues have sky-rocketed, interfering with our realizing our full potential both in our personal and professional lives. Dealing with mental health issues in ourselves and in our loved ones can be challenging, and often overwhelming. The pandemic has been stressful, and it has taken its toll on all of us. The South Asian population has not been immune to the ravages that the pandemic has wreaked on our mental health. There are also unique cultural factors that come in the way of us recognizing and dealing with issues of the mind. </p><p>Join our panel of 3 mental health providers - Mala Nayak, MD, Sripriya Chari, Ph.D, and Sangita Biswas, LMFT, moderated by Neythri Founding Circle member Usha Sekar, as we talk about mental health and illness, and destigmatize these in our cultural context. Learn how to recognize issues in yourself and your family members, how to open up a conversation about these issues, and how to effectively navigate them. </p><p> ******************************************************</p><p><strong>This is an online event. Registered guests will receive the Zoom Link 48 hours before the event.</strong></p><h2>About the Speakers:</h2><h3><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ushasekar/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"></a><strong>Mala Nayak</strong></h3><h3>MD, Psychiatrist</h3><p>Mala Nayak, MD is a psychiatrist. She attended medical school in Mumbai, India and did her residency in psychiatry at Stanford. She has been working for the last 25 years at Momentum for Health, the largest non-profit provider of mental health services in Santa Clara county. There she provides medication management and supportive psychotherapy to the chronically mentally ill. During the pandemic, as mental health issues have escalated, she has become increasingly interested in educating individuals on mental health issues and helping them navigate these. </p><p>In addition to her work in mental health, she has served for 4 years on the board of the Gunn Foundation, an organization that provides need based scholarships to graduating high school seniors. She is currently on the board of The Christmas Bureau, which works with local social service agencies to provide monetary gifts to individuals and families in need during the holiday season.</p><h3><strong>Sripriya (Priya) Chari</strong></h3><h3>Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine</h3><p>Sripriya Chari, Ph.D., is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and a California licensed Clinical Psychologist. Her interests lie in early identification of the psychosis risk syndrome and providing evidence based psychotherapeutic interventions from a recovery-oriented perspective. Prior to working at Stanford, she was a clinical assessor for the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study, aimed at studying the predictors for conversion to psychosis of youth at clinical high risk for psychosis. She also worked for Santa Clara County Department of Mental Health, in inpatient, outpatient, and forensic settings providing psychotherapy and assessment services. She received her doctorate from Palo Alto University.</p><h3><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangita-biswas-b8696168" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>Sangita Biswas</strong></a></h3><h3>Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)</h3><p>Sangita Biswas is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the East Bay. Her private practice Lotus Family Therapy provides therapeutic services for families and individuals who are facing various mental health challenges. She works extensively with the South Asian community advocating how therapy works and the benefits of engaging in this work before it gets too late. Apart from providing direct services, Sangita also believes that the most effective way to remove stigma around mental health is to help the community learn through dialogue and relevant content discussions. She conducts regular workshops for the community in collaboration with various partners to help promote better mental health awareness.</p><p>She practices various tribal art forms in her spare time for her own self-care. </p><h3><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ushasekar/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><strong>Usha Sekar</strong></a></h3><h3>Founder/CEO Meemli (an education nonprofit)</h3><p>Usha combines an extensive background in Fortune 500 companies, including as a senior IT Director (HP/Tandem) and CIO (Fujitsu PC), with a passion for entrepreneurship and dedication to social impact in all that she does. With her lifelong interest in education equity, she is currently Founder/CEO of Meemli, a nonprofit education technology company that works to improve equity in education by leveraging the ease of technology, the power of community and the expertise of educators to bring great learning experiences to all students.</p><p>In addition to Meemli, Usha mentors women of all ages from teens to retirees, is active with various arts organizations and is a Founding Circle member of Neythri, mentoring and promoting women’s career development.</p><h3></h3></div></div>
Location
Online Event
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