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"A psychoanalytic investigation is a journey into one’s delicate heart."

-Galit Atlas

Reva Puri

Psychodynamic Psychotherapist

Hi, I’m Reva! I am a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. I work with adults with an aim to engage sensitively with the range of human emotion, difficulties and vulnerabilities they bring to therapy. 

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Therapy is a space to work through every struggle that pains you; relational difficulties, feelings of numbness, dissatisfaction, meaninglessness, anxiousness, dealing with childhood trauma (or difficult memories) etc. It is also a space for self exploration and growth in the safety of being seen and understood by another (the therapist). Whether you bring your past, present or concerns about the future to this space, therapy is an open invitation to understand and feel these as uniquely yours.

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To me, psychotherapy can be seen as hide and seek, addressing the need to be seen, as well as respecting the privacy of the patient and letting parts of the self emerge slowly.

​As I Envision Psychotherapy 

I envision the therapeutic relationship as a coming together of two people- the patient and the therapist, to form a unique relationship to bear witness to the patient’s life, ways of relating with the world, memories, fears, dreams and desires. 

As a therapist, my aim is to support this vulnerable process through holding space for difficult feelings to emerge and work towards building insight into the patient’s life. In my work I identify with the psychodynamic, psychoanalytic and interpersonal orientation which lays an emphasis on how our childhood significantly impacts our relationship with the world. The relationship between the patient and the therapist also becomes an anchor in understanding the patient's inner world, with two equally important components: the here and now (the present moment) as well as how the past has been experienced.

"It is a joy to be hidden and a disaster not to be found”- Donald Winnicott

My experience in qualitative research has had a deep impact in how I have come to view life; filling in a hundred shades of colours into the world, rendering it more complex as opposed to black and white.  
 

My research interests include:

  • The Mother- Daughter Relationship and it's complex impact on personality formation

  • The emotional and interpersonal effects of caste based discrimination

  • Emotional, Physical and Sexual trauma manifested as bodily symptoms

  • Intergenerational and cultural trauma

 My practice does not see an individual as an isolated self, but in relation with the forces of power and social identities that are omnipresent, especially in the Indian context.

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The first step towards transformation is moving from shame to curiosity.

A Glimpse Of Me: Research and Leanings 

Educational background and Additional Trainings:

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  • Psychoanalytic (Adult) Fellow of the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis (2024- Present)

  • Child and Adolescent Fellow of the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis (2024- Present)

  • Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis Fellow (2024- Present)

  • Master of Arts (MA) in Psychosocial Clinical Studies: Ambedkar University Delhi

  • Bachelor of Arts (BA)- Psychology: Ambedkar University Delhi

  • Certificate Course In Mental Health and Counselling- Conducted by Psychoanalysis India and Delhi University. (2020- 2021)

 

Work experience:

  • Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist- Rhea Gandhi Psychotherapist (2022- Present)

  • Psychotherapist- The Listeners Collective (2022)

  • Research Intern- The Listeners Collective (2022)

  • Support Group Facilitator for Caregivers with respect to individuals with acute mental distress (2021-2022)

  • Listening Circle Facilitator on pandemic related grief and mourning- Ambedkar University Delhi (2021)

  • Certified Listener at the mental distress helpline -Press Unstress (2021)

  • Assistant Floortime Therapist- Learn and Play Center for Autism (2019)

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 Teaching Endeavors:

  • I facilitate a 6 month psychoanalytic reading group named "Reading Between the Lines" for early career psychotherapists.

  • Delivered a lecture on transgenerational trauma and it's impact on self construction to Hansraj College, Delhi University (2024)

  • Delivered a clinical lecture on personality formation to the undergraduate students of Symbiosis Insitute Pune (2023)

  • Facilitated a webinar on psychoanalytic Models of The Mind including (2023)

    Publications and Conference     Presentations:

  • Puri, Reva. (2024) “ 'Don't Live I Love You': Marriage as an object Laced with Maternal Envy".” Presented at the joint conference organized by the Association For Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society and The Association for Psychosocial Studies, St. Mary's University, London.

  • Puri, R. Arora, M.(2024) "The Haunting Echoes of an Emptying Split: Reimagining the developmental effects of Caste from a Relational Lens" The Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy + Psychoanalysis, Presented at the Annual Clinical Reflections Conference, Washington.

  • Puri, R.(2023). “Resistance Through Living”. Contemporary Literary Review India, Vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 96-05, https://literaryjournal.in/index.php/clri/article/view/963.

  • Puri, Reva.(2021) “Haunted by Shame: The Struggle of Being Rendered Invisible.” In Plainspeak Intersectionality and Sexuality. . 

  • Puri, Reva. (2021) “From Seeking to Witnessing: Freud’s Unique Perspective on Human Subjectivity.” International journal of Indian Psychology, 2021, 780–86. https://doi.org/10.25215/0904.076. 

  • Puri, Reva. “Transformational Listening: Did the Pandemic Help Us Return to a Forgotten Skill?” Psychologs. 

  • Puri, Reva (2022) “Care Interrupted; Bearing Witness to the Limits of Care-Giving,”  

  • Puri, Reva. (2020) “Placing The Displacement Within.” The Association For Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society. Reading presented at the Displacement and Precarity, (Published in Inchoasis)

 

Continued Professional Development:

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  • Member of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy

  • Honorary Member of the The Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy + Psychoanalysis (2023- Present)

  • Clinical Reflections- Annual Conference at the The Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy + Psychoanalysis (2023)

  • Displacement and Precarity- Annual Conference of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture And Society- Rutgers University, USA (2019)

  • The Fifth International Psychoanalytic Conference- Delhi (2018)

  • The Fifth Annual Sigmund Freud Memorial Lecture- Delhi (2018)

  • The Fourth International Psychoanalytic Conference- Delhi (2017)

  • The Fourth Annual Sigmund Freud Memorial Lecture- Delhi (2017)

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