Arushi Sethi, Founder, Trijog, sheds light on the current mental health landscape in India

Arushi Sethi

How did you set out on becoming a mental health advocate? Tell us your story.
Life/Death/Intention/Action/Grounding/Support/Flight; Post successfully recovering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after being a first-hand victim in the 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Nepal, 2015, with the help and guidance of Anureet Sethi, my mother, and a prominent psychologist in the field of mental health over 37 years, I realised that the kind of privilege of having a helping hand by my side while I came out of my trauma and anxiety was not available to all. The actual point of wanting to become a Mental Health Advocate was to ensure that the correct knowledge and access to Mental Health Services can be received by every individual of our country and globally. Armed with expertise and a strong knowledge hall of Anureet Sethi, added with my entrepreneurial skills, together, we started Trijog in 2015.

Trijog, today, has touched over 17 Million individual lives, works with over 74+ corporate organizations, and champions every day, that ‘therapy is a lifestyle', ensuring that for every individual, there is always light at the end of the tunnel!

Speaking of Trijog - what is the significance of the name, what does it do?
My paternal grandmother's name was Joginder and my maternal grandmother's name was Tripta. I remember them as my guiding lanterns. Breaking the word, ‘Tri' comes from the Sanskrit word ‘Tripta' which means, satisfaction in life; ‘Jog' comes from the Punjabi word ‘Joginder' which means, the light. That is exactly what our organization aims to provide to every human mind: being the light providing our minds the vehicle towards satisfaction and strong emotional being.

Taking ahead my ancestral lineage, Anureet Sethi has provided this emotional support for over 36 years. I, on the other hand, established my identity in the Mental Health landscape about 7 years ago and started an organization to make sure that this light of knowledge could reach out to millions of beautiful minds altogether.

What has been your biggest achievement so far in your journey with Trijog?
The biggest achievement so far in my journey with Trijog is to have been able to make Mental Health Industry in India an organised sector from an unorganized sector. Seven to ten years back, it was an unorganized sector where there were only single Mental Health Professionals or Psychiatrists; there existed no organization which would act as a single place to provide you the right kind of access to quality-driven services and emotional support. So Trijog has thought-led the Mental Health Industry in India as to how we take forward the cause and provide the best kind of services in the sector. Today, with the constant arduous efforts of our team members, Trijog is in India's top #3 tech and mental health organizations, providing quality mental health care and holistic development and providing access to emotional health services to educational institutes, the corporate sector, and business enterprises, nationally and globally.
In 2020, Trijog transformed into a fully Tech Mental Health Platform so that we could provide access to every mind without the barrier of the medium.

What according to you is one of the biggest obstacles in your quest to lift the taboo from mental health conversation in India?
Unfortunately, India is still not that sensitive towards recognizing, acknowledging, and accepting one's mental health. Every day, working in the mental health landscape, we face ignorant and flippant behavior from people and organizations. But we need to understand why? This is because our education system has failed to recognize and teach emotional health. From a young age, we are not taught how to express or embrace our emotions.

Hence, I believe lack of education would be the biggest obstacle towards the conversation of Mental Health in India. Trijog, as a team organization, is working tirelessly towards making this change in our country.

Arushi says reaching out for emotional assistance is not a sign of weakness

What is your view on the current mental health landscape in India?
Currently, in my opinion, we're slowly moving into becoming more empowered about awareness on Mental Health. Right now, we have shifted from being completely ignorant to a slight per cent of being more receptive and accepting our own mental health. Although it still lies in the bracket of the people who have the affordability to uptake the services. Acceptance and acknowledgement of taking services to build a better emotional health quotient is what needs to be worked on.

I think Gen-Z has taken the center stage in breaking the stigmas that exist around Mental and Emotional Wellbeing. There are organizations that are coming up to provide services for the cause and even an upsurge of individuals who want to pursue their studies in the field of psychology and its practice.
So, in totality, the Mental Health landscape in India is definitely improving from where it was a decade back in time. The Pandemic has really given a push to the industry. Although I feel, it would still take another decade to make sure that the people in India understand and acknowledge Mental Health as an essential service and an investment rather than an expense in their life.

Has the need for mental health awareness and professionals increased during the pandemic?
Due to the pandemic hitting us almost around a year and a half back now, there has been a major upsurge and increase in the number of individuals who started acknowledging their Mental Health. This is because for the very first time when people couldn't step outside, they started understanding what's going on inside them and started to even accept what they feel. They realized that they are ‘Feeling beings' and they actually tend to feel things that matter. This sense of awareness has greatly increased in individuals as well as working professionals and employees. Even corporate organizations have now been coming up to understand their employees' emotional requirements and the impact on productivity levels of their workforce due to the lack of psycho-education and awareness.

Amidst a lot of backlashes that Simone Biles received for prioritizing mental health over the Olympics, some critics have also called out the current generation on being ‘weak' for resorting to therapy ‘for the smallest of issues'. What is your view on it?
We've always, for generations together, tried to mask what we actually needed by denying what we feel, keeping ourselves busy in chores, or even eating a good meal. But the real question is - would going on a shopping spree or overworking yourself to further burnout, actually help you heal the root of the problem?
Reaching out for emotional assistance is not a sign of weakness. It is rather a sign of great strength and courage to understand and acknowledge what is going on in our mind and body; and learn to stand and speak up for ourselves.

At large, therapy and other mental health resources remain inaccessible to the country's tier 2 and tier 3 populations. How can we work towards making this more available to the said segment?
● When tier 1 cities, corporations, and insurance companies start opening up and make this is a mandate to take up services for ensuring one's healthy emotional quotient, so that their employees can be benefitted through their budgets.
● Definitely, when it comes to tier 2 and tier 3 populations, Mental Health services remain inaccessible. This access will be open to them only when our government intervenes and takes up serious initiatives towards the cause. Today, we don't even have provisions for Mental Health care in the Bills and Budgets that are being sanctioned in our country.
● So we are working towards making Mental Health Care services more affordable and accessible for the tier 1 segment. Once that reception is achieved, we can reach out to the next tier segment in another 5 years as hoped. Trijog, as an organisation, sure looks towards reaching out to the grass-root level to make sure that therapy at subsidised and affordable rates can be provided to all.