Piyali Dasgupta, Expressive Arts -Individual Practitioner, is a trained in “Storytelling/Art/Music/Narrative –Therapy”, Psychodrama, Playback Theatre, Dance Movement Psychotherapy, Palliative Care Counseling, Hypnotherapy and Reflective Teamwork. She unites them as pedagogic and restorative tools for self awareness & empowerment.
VOICES IN OUR HEAD, her first documentary film was premiered and showcased as one of the 53 international films at VIBGYOR International Film Festival, Kerala, 2013. She is a member of RED INTERNACIONAL DECUENTACUENTOS a group of 1000 international professional storytellers from 47 countries. “Isa and her friends – The Bully Gully Scare” is her first novella for children.
After 10 years of working with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as the Customer Care Manager for India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Maldives she bid adieu to her corporate career 6 years ago to pursue her calling in child and young adults’ empowerment.
Her expertise lies in Life Skill Development, Mentoring, Capacity Building, Storytelling, Corporate Trainings, Writing and Project Management.
This SHERO tells us about how she found her calling-
Tell us more about you.
I am an Out of the Box person/Thinker/Life Observer/Traveler/Creativity Aficionado/Ideating junkie/Wit addict/Calling for Child Empowerment/Spiritual/Love Trees/Classic /Vintage. I am a Bengali born and brought up and majorly lived in Delhi; I have lived briefly in Bombay and Singapore. I was married and now live with my rock star parents and twin sisters.
After a corporate career, how did you find your calling in Expressive arts?
I found my calling at age 18. I took my time to bloom
When I was 18 years of age, since then I always wanted to work with children and youth. However I couldn’t put my finger to it, as to how to do it? I didn’t want to become a teacher, as I felt the Indian education system was skewed and driven to prepare a person to only land up a job somehow. I felt it really didn’t add or a give any kind of life education to a person. So fortunately, I literally bumped into my first interview, first job and a decade long corporate career with KLM, the fabulous global Dutch Airline. In my stint as Customer Care Manager for the Indian Subcontinent, I learnt, excelled and delivered in the areas of professionalism, customer care, policy making, synergy formation, law formation/implementation and par excellence service levels. With that I fulfilled my dream to travel and see the world. I travelled in my 20s just to get to know and observe the rest of the world and different cultures.
At age of 30, I knew I was ready to take a plunge and jump to go back to my calling of working with children and youth. My own journey of evolution had prepared me to be fearless, look beyond the current stash of my ever luxurious and glamorous corporate life. And there has been no looking back since then.
I researched thoroughly and read to find alternate courses related to my interest. I wanted to work for Child and Youth Self Empowerment. So I trained myself for it and simultaneously started to work in this field. As mentioned earlier my expertise lies in Life Skill Development, Mentoring, Capacity Building, Storytelling, Corporate Trainings, Writing and Project Management. Currently I am also putting together an Inclusive festival for Children and youth in India to shift the discourse of education to a broader vision of spiritual-awakening, self awareness, social awareness and creative consciousness.
What was your documentary Voices in our Head about?
Voices in our Head” is a documentary film. I used insights into a child's mind and tried to ask some pertinent questions about their needs which are often unexpressed and unheeded owing to parents' busy state of life in modern day world.
The documentary film asks some pertinent questions about Children to us-adults-
Do we listen to them?
Regard their point of view?
Know that they understand things?
Realize they are observing us...
Understand that they cannot be controlled by authority...
Acknowledge their feelings...
How can theater, dance movement psychotherapy, counseling and reflective teamwork be useful for pedagogic and restorative tools?
Expressive arts are the use of the creative arts as a form of therapeutic tool for self awareness, acceptance, evolution and empowerment. Unlike traditional art expression, the process of creation is emphasized rather than the final product. Expressive therapy is predicated on the assumption that people can heal through use of imagination and the various forms of creative expression. I am trained and use Storytelling/Art/Music/Narrative –Therapy”, Psychodrama, Playback Theatre, Dance Movement Psychotherapy, Palliative Care Counseling, Hypnotherapy and Reflective Teamwork.
A message to all SHEROES out there.
Be who you are - Your real, authentic and true self. You can chart your own course in life then. You are Happiness yourself.