Dr Aishwarya Thakur

Aishwarya Thakur is a psychologist dedicated to advancing culturally responsive mental health services. Noticing the stigma and limited access to mental health treatment in India, she pursued a career in Clinical Psychology, earning her PhD from Palo Alto University, USA. Aishwarya’s doctoral research focused on cultural responsiveness, suicide prevention, and trauma. Her dissertation delved into how discrimination, meaning-making, and somatic symptoms influence PTSD symptom severity and help-seeking behaviours across diverse ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations. She also contributed to the development of a culturally tailored suicide risk assessment tool (Cultural Assessment of Risk for Suicide-2) and led suicide prevention training for various stakeholders. In addition to her research, Aishwarya brings extensive clinical experience, working with adults facing severe mental health challenges in community mental health, inpatient hospital units, and private practice settings. She specialises in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and completed her Clinical Postdoctoral Fellowship in ACT at Brown University. Aishwarya aims to continue research and clinical practice to improve the cultural relevance of psychological interventions and mental health access in underserved populations.