Maatram

Maatram is a mental-health support centre in Auroville staffed by professionally trained psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and counsellors who work collaboratively to offer compassionate, person-centred care.

On June 1st Tia Pleiman, an Auroville resident hailing from America, passed away in her home in Surya Nivas in Auroville. She had been working as an art therapist with Maatram.

Last October, YouthLink conducted a sexual harassment awareness campaign and recently followed up on that initiative by bringing together all the services within Auroville working on matters related to sexual harassment to create Safety & Boundaries Awareness (SBA).

Initially created as a sub-group of Third-Age (under Mattram’s umbrella), the “Let’s Talk About Death” group aims to reach any age of Auroville’s population by providing time, space and content to talk freely about death.

In our big Auroville family, just like everywhere else, loneliness affects all generations and backgrounds, from the misunderstood teenager to the senior in a retirement home, including single parents and people suffering from disorders.

In the last two years, six Aurovilians (two individuals and a family of four), took their lives because of personal issues including being heavily indebted.

Psychologist Jerry Beusen implemented Mattram, Auroville’s first mental health unit, three years ago. Mattram means ‘change’ or ‘transformation’ in Tamil, and the unit is served by a team of professional psychologists, psychotherapists, a psychiatrist and counsellors.

In this month’s installment of our regular column about Auroville’s neighbours, we meet Rashmi Gandaki, who has been living next to Auroville for the last six years.

Clinical psychologist and NeuroLife coach Praveen Chopra talks about the increasing number of people who are suffering from loneliness and what can be done about it.