In May 2022 the Cha in the City Open Group for Punjabi men met virtually to discuss the topic of therapy. Here are some reflections from the brilliant team who facilitate and contribute towards those conversations.
This month’s Men’s forum was on the topic of Therapy – and this month we had the pleasure of having two key speakers to introduce the topic from a both using therapy as a personal journey and their professional experience of developing and delivering therapy for South Asian communities. As always, another diverse and good attendance from group and positive as well as thought provoking discussion.
Deepak Dhunna a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist practicing in the North of the UK and Kumlaish Kumari a Therapist and Academic contributed to the discussions as experts. Both speakers shared their journeys from a personal perspective to delivering therapy to the community as well as some of the pitfalls of not delivering a culturally sensitive approach. Both speakers also spoke about some of the barriers for delivering therapy and for those engaging with the opportunities of therapy. Deepak and Kumlaish spoke with the challenges in the availability of the limited resource both for mainstream therapy – post pandemic as well as culturally specific support with the very small numbers of South Asian therapists.
After listening to the speakers, the group had the opportunity to going into smaller facilitated breakout rooms to talk through the subject with 3 guiding questions – ‘Have you had a life event you could have benefited from speaking to someone?’ – ‘what do you seek from a therapist?’ – ‘What have been the barriers to seeking therapy’. The discussions were respectful and open with people sharing personal experiences.
After the breakout session everyone came back as a large group to feedback themes around their discussions as well as an opportunity for the Speakers to share their thinking. The Speakers also gave the group for some questions and answer as well as sharing some links for further information.
A great session as always and thanks were extended to the speakers as well as all the participants for making it a positive experience.