Bhargavi Davar (India)

Bhargavi V Davar is a childhood survivor of the Indian mental asylums, being exposed to a variety of them for years in early childhood. Compelled by those early enduring trauma experiences, she completed her PhD in 1993, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai on the ethical and epistemological foundations of the mental and behavioural sciences.

She has published works, including (co-author) Psychoanalysis as a Human Science (Sage, 1995); Mental health of Indian women (Sage, 1999); (ed.) Mental health from a gender perspective (Sage, 2001); Gendering mental health: Knowledges, identities, institutions (OUP, 2015).  She is Director of the Bapu Trust for Research on Mind & Discourse, Pune and Convenor for an Asia Pacific advocacy platform, called ‘Transforming Communities for Inclusion, Asia Pacific’ [TCI Asia Pacific].  She is a practising integrated Arts Based Therapist and a teacher of ABT. 

She is faculty on a year long course on ABT which integrates rhythm, voice, movement, drama, breath and visual arts, for use in community development and disability support. She has been a peer supporter and self advocate for 3 decades, advocating for nonmedical, body based approaches to the pursuit of healing and happiness.