Teens organised art therapy workshop at soft launch of their start-up

One would expect 15-year olds to be worrying about their studies or making Instagram reels. But on June 30, these two teens, students of the Shriram Millennium School, Noida, conducted their first (of many) art therapy sessions and hard-launched themselves into the entrepreneurial world.

Sia and Trisha, co- founders of The Sukoon Studio, said that they wanted to give back to the community but could not find their footing in the mental health space. “A lot of people from our school have non-profits and other projects and we, too, wanted to do something. But as the mental health space is so saturated, we were looking for an approach that is less explored and that’s how we stumbled across art therapy,” said Sia.

They collaborated with a non-profit, The Magic Mileage Foundation, which works towards eradicating poverty that was founded by juniors of the same school — Vivaan Paul, Ayuky Chhabra, and Krishna Mittal. A part of the funds raised today will go to the NPO.

“Dr Majithia is the mother of one of the students of our school. So we approached her. Then, we looked for art therapists and that’s how we came across Mittra,” said Sia.

Dr. Majithia, a trained psychologist, provided a framework for the session, while Neerajj Mittra, a visual artist and trained art therapist, led his guidance to ensure that participants could effectively translate their feelings into their creations.

“Art therapy is a very novel way of exploring a person’s relationship with their inner self. What art does very beautifully is it allows you to gradually open up through the medium presented in front of you and that can help destigmatize therapy for a lot of people,” said Dr Majithia.

The core activity that involved participants across all age groups was a half an hour long art therapy session involving painting masks, an exercise exploring themes of identity, emotions, and personal experiences.

“The masks represent the persona that you show to the world. The way you decorate the mask, you get the things you associate with and that helps develop a deeper dialogue,” added Dr Majithia.

Neeraj Mittra feels that the world has become isolated post Covid and that can become suffocating. “Art therapy sessions like these help people connect not only with their inner self and also with the outer world,” he added.

The session concluded with people revealing their creations and the thought process behind it. The people registered online and had to pay about Rs. 1499 for the session. The charges covered the cost of the art supplies, coffee, and food.

Sia and Trisha plan on doing more sessions in the future and are trying to find a balance between their regular life and The Sukoon Studio. “We definitely want to do more sessions in the future and collaborate with more NPOs. We might conduct our next session in July in our school,” said Sia.