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Psychotherapy for emotional distress

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We are all different but we are connected

Chances are that you have found your way here after speaking to someone you already know. This is important, because it suggests that you have started the process of 'doing something different' and sharing a bit of what is important to you.

Conversations at Family Tree tend to be about stuff that is central to us all: Feelings – whether consciously known or leaking out in some way, and Relationships – past and present.

The conversations are also about ordinary, everyday events, behaviour and difficulties, which are part of everyone's lives but can also cause distress – big or small. If it matters to you, it is worth talking about.

Family Tree is a Mental Health Team set up in 2018 to address the gap in such services in New Delhi. It is composed of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists who work to support children, adolescents and families with emotional and relationship difficulties.

It is a self-funded team based out of Safdurjung Enclave and we have seen over 500 children and adolescents in the last 5 years. All of our referrals are by word-of-mouth.

Addressing emotional matters takes courage and can take time. You may need to see us regularly for some weeks/months. During this time, there will be moments when you want to avoid the emotional hard work and therefore avoid us. Frequently, this happens by 'forgetting' an appointment or not feeling like coming.

We make it easy for you to remember your next appointment with us by trying to keep it at the same time and day every week. However, it is your responsibility to keep the appointment, since it is part of you taking care of yourself. Sessions at Family Tree are one hour long, unless otherwise discussed.

The Team

Nupur Paiva

Nupur Paiva

Nupur D. Paiva is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, Associate Fellow with the British Psychological Society, Child Psychotherapist and mother-of-two, all of which she has worked very hard at. Especially, the two children.

Neha Gupta

Neha Gupta

The first to join in 2018 was Neha Gupta when Family Tree was a wee tentative experiment. It was with her that we became a team. She and I. Super well-trained, Neha has an MSc Child & Adolescent Mental Health and Psychological Practice from The University of Edinburgh, UK and a BA in Psychology (Honours) from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.

Ambika Singh

Ambika Singh

Ambika joined Family Tree in February 2020 and has valiantly worked online with adolescents throughout this lockdown. Ambika Singh is a trained Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist having completed her MPhil from Ambedkar University Delhi; Masters in Psychosocial Clinical Studies from Ambedkar University, Delhi; and a Bachelors in Psychology (Honours) from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University.

Shweta Dharamdasani

Shweta Dharamdasani

Shweta Dharamdasani is a psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist with an MPhil from Ambedkar University, Delhi. She is a researcher and writer, committed to depth thinking and learning. Her area of interest is in how culture and psyche influence each other.

Newspaper Prints

Love and Rage

Love & Rage is a book about children, both the child in those of us who are chronologically adult, as well as the children we may be interacting with. It takes a reader for a journey into their inner world of intense, raging emotions which often goes unheeded by the outside adult world. With the trained ear of a child psychotherapist, the author listens to children's stories as they emerge in her consulting room, through word and play, and translates them for adults.

Supported by the author's own personal associations and a bedrock of psychodynamic theory, the book throws light on what comes into a psychotherapist's consulting room, and demonstrates that it is not unusual, bizarre or crazy. Instead, it is the ordinary stuff of everyday life, taking place in every family. That sometimes we all carry the pain of complex feelings within ourselves for all of our lives—love and rage towards the people we are closest to.

This book is essential reading for anyone close to children—parents and parents-to-be, teachers, school counsellors—but also for anyone looking to attend to the child within them.

Interruptions in Identity: Engaging with Suicidality among the Indian Youth

Interruptions in Identity: Engaging with Suicidality among the Indian Youth explores the shift in the author's perspective from an understanding of 'suicide' to an exploration of suicidality. The shift came organically from her experience of working in a university clinic and interacting with individuals who had communicated to her the presence of 'suicidal thoughts' during their sessions. The work is also an examination of how studying a tendency towards committing suicide is necessarily an attempt to understand the complex interplay of the personal and the social which often leads to that tendency described as suicidality. The work turns a psychosocial lens and further elaborates on how suicidality expresses itself in the space between the subject and the therapist within the safe space of a clinic. In taking us through these narratives, the author builds a case that it is important to reflect not just on the nature of individual suffering but also its interaction with the prevalent and relevant socio-political forces

Academic Papers

Who observes whom? Infant observation observed

Keeping fathers in mind

Psychotherapy with no body in the room

Envy in the gaze

Play: Seeing Children's Inner Worlds

Living in the times of pandemic:
Re Living and remembering loss and trauma

Trainings and Seminars

Work Discussion Group: Case Discussion to Make Psychotherapeutic Interventions Effective

Active | 2nd May, 2024 Onwards

Introduction to Therapeutic Work with School Age Children (Age 6 - 11)

Fundamentals of Working With Anxiety

Fundamentals of Adolescent Mental Health

To be a part of such seminars and trainings contact us below

Our Workspace

Book an Appointment

Our charges begin at ₹3500 an hour. If this is difficult for you to afford, please bring it up with your psychotherapist. When we book an appointment with you, we keep that hour aside for you. If you cannot make it for some reason, please let us know at least 48 hours in advance so we can offer the time to someone who is waiting for an appointment.

We charge for missed appointments and cancellations under 48 hrs. We understand that what you are doing takes courage. We work hard to keep your personal story confidential and do our best to make you feel safe.

Please note: Our slots are pre-allocated. Slot availability is subject to cancellation and there is a waitlist.
Once you write to us, we will discuss your request in the team and get back to you with the next available slot, based on the waitlist.
(Average wait time: one week)