Making Arts-informed Healthcare Accessible & Affordable for All

At YAASS, therapy is about you — your pace, needs & comfort.
Accessing mental healthcare can feel intimidating, expensive, or simply confusing. Whether you're exploring therapy for the first time, returning after a difficult experience, or seeking support for your professional community we prioritise trust, transparency, and choice — so you can access the care you deserve, without compromise, with our passionate team of trained and supervised Mental Health Professionals (MHP).
Healing happens in relationships; we’re here to make it possible — with creativity, care, and community.
Start your journey here

We’re Different Because We Believe…

A healthier mind-body-soul is fundamental to existence and expressive arts is the core catalyst to facilitate that.
Arts-informed
“Research shows that participation in arts activities enhances mental health, well-being, immune response, and other positive health outcomes.”
-Jameel Arts & Health Lab

We offer intentional and impactful Expressive and Creative Arts Therapy experiences across needs via: 1:1 sessions, group sessions, psycho-educative support, and resource building.
Co-created Safe Space
"In India, about 10.6% of adults have mental disorders, with nearly 150 million needing care, but many face barriers due to cost and stigma with traditional therapy costing over ₹1.8 lakh per year."
- Press Information Bureau, Government of India, Research Unit
- Journal of Comprehensive Health, I.A.P.S.M.
A therapeutic partnership between you and your Mental Health Professional to co-create your healing journey together. 
● We align with your budget to support you.
● Sessions are tailored to your needs, available online, offline (in select locations with specific MHPs), or in a hybrid format.
Care-driven, Ethical & Rigorous Professionals
Our MHPs are trained professionals who undergo rigorous training, supervision, and personal therapy regularly to:
● Integrate the expressive arts effectively as per your needs and goals
● Uphold the highest ethical standards
● Serve at your best interest

A Note From Our Founder

Hi! I’m Anupriya Meenakshi Banerjee, a Drama Therapist, Founder and CEO of YAASS. This is my story.
From the tender age of two, drama and dance were a core foundation of learning and viewing the world. As stereotypical of any Bengali household, I was privileged enough to be exposed to the power of arts through creative prowess of my parents, be it my mother who ran her own ad agency, was a wordsmith and singer in their own right or my father who engineered some of the ingenious strategies to lead companies. Creativity flowed and enabled almost everything. I saw closely how much the arts helped my loved ones through physical illnesses and mental disorders. Shifting cities and over 27 houses, helped me see the way different cultures adopted the arts in their unique traditions to bring alive the power of community.
‍Cut to Kamala Nehru College (2010-2013), where I pursued my Bachelors in Psychology (Honours) and felt an intrinsic connection emerge between my course work and the rehearsals I did as a professional performer.
Wanting to patent the word “Psychodrama” I did a life-changing google search that made me eat a bite of the humble pie. So in 2014, I was the first Indian to attend the  Master’s Program in Drama Therapy at New York University. The 2 years of intensive training deepened and validated my faith in what I had known for so long viscerally- the arts heal. From ground-breaking research to unfathomable responses the work of creative arts therapy was witnessing; all this needed to be brought back and empowered at home- India.
‍In 2016 I briefly served as the Creative Arts Therapist at the Acute Psychiatric Ward of Brookdale Hospital, New York. Due to personal reasons I came back to India sooner than I thought, to realise that while this country may be one of the oldest civilisations to honour the expressive arts, expressive and creative arts therapy was still at a pre-natal stage. Here is where my work began…
WHY WAS YAASS BORN?
On May 4, 2017, I founded Doctor Drama. Through it, I taught, facilitated, directed documentaries, and grew a private practice—working across schools, institutions, communities, and digital platforms. But as the work deepened, certain truths became unavoidable:
Read More
- Mental healthcare is unappealing, inaccessible and unaffordable for many with inadequate frameworks for support. 
- Creative and expressive arts therapies, though powerful, are nascent in India.
- Rise of telehealth = rise of client agency.  People were choosing therapist because of preference over proximity.
- Too many people experienced therapy that did more harm than good. Over 80% of clients at Doctor Drama between 2020–2022 had previously felt let down by therapy.
- Mental Health Professionals themselves are overworked, under-supported, and struggling to sustain an ethical, embodied practice.
- Need for community grew more than ever- with a deepening sense of isolation with remote working conditions, etc. Seeking a safe growth oriented space reaffirms intention, potential and action was desperately needed for our first responders desperately stretching their thresholds to serve a disproportionate level of need.
In response to all this, in 2019 I began informally sowing the seeds of the current YAASS model—by inviting clients to “set your own budget.” It was a radical yet simple practice rooted in mutual trust, financial transparency, and care.
By 2022, YAASS- Your Affordable Accessible Safe Space as an entity started to take shape as a collective of three expressive arts therapy practitioners. And on March 21, 2024, it formally became a sister unit under TTPL- Therapeutic Tapestry Private Limited. Today, YAASS is a growing community of over 20+ mental health professionals working collaboratively to make arts-informed mental healthcare more accessible, inclusive, and client-centered.
My work continues to be guided by the belief that mental healthcare doesn’t have to be extractive, intimidating, or exclusive. It can be playful, creative and shared.
Read less

Meet Our Core Team

Dr. Aloke Banerjee
Co-founder & Chief Advasior
Krittika Dhoke
Head of Administration and Research & Development, Psychologist & ExAT-P
Muskaan Dawoodani
Head of Collaborations and Content, ExAT-P
Suparna Chakravarti
Head of Design, ExAT-P
Shikha Shah
Associate Administrator, Psychologist & ExAT-P
Explore All Members

Wait…
what are the Arts?

Healing that finds a language beyond words. 
Stories. Songs. Sketches. Movements. This is how we’ve always healed.
Individual Care:
Through painting, storytelling, movement, and drama
Clinical + creative blend
Through painting, storytelling, movement, and drama
Non-judgmental, radically inclusive
In a nurturing, guided space with trained therapists
Purposeful, and always human
Scientifically proven to reduce stress, anxiety, and emotional fatigue

Therapy Designed Around You

Whether for individual support, group or customised care for your organisation —
We have options for Every Body.
Individual Care
Personalized 1:1 sessions — co-created with your trusted MHP, at your pace.
Start your journey here
Community Care
 A held and supportive community-oriented space to connect, share, and grow together — because healing happens in relationships.
Explore upcoming events
Customised Care
Tailored sessions, carefully and intentionally designed to meet the unique needs of your institution, setting, or population you work with.
Collaborate with us

Cinema Therapy

Therapeutic Theatre

Trauma Stewardship

Financial health & Self-care

Voices Of Insight…

Before language emerged as the dominant form for addressing the distress of mind and body, humans used expressive approaches, including the arts, as integrative forms of emotional and even physical treatment.
Cathy Malchiodi, ‘Handbook of Expressive Arts Therapy’, 2022
The arts are repeatedly cited as ways humans make experiences and events special and address disaster and traumatic events, and they are intentional forms of prevention, repair, and restoration.
Cathy Malchiodi, ‘Handbook of Expressive Arts Therapy’, 2022
Expressive arts therapy naturally shifts individuals from being “in their minds” to being more fully in their bodies.
Cathy Malchiodi, ‘Handbook of Expressive Arts Therapy’, 2022
Healing-centered engagement moves the pendulum toward a focus on strengthening what supports well-being (hope, imagination, trust, aspirations) inclusive of social justice issues and intersectionality. In brief, it shifts the perspective from “what happened to you” to “what’s resilient about you
Cathy Malchiodi,  ‘Trauma and Expressive Arts Therapy: Brain, Body, and Imagination in the Healing Process’, 2020
Our feelings and emotions are an energy source. That energy can be channeled into the expressive arts to be released and transformed.
Natalie Rogers, ‘The Path to Wholeness: Person-Centered Expressive Arts Therapy’, 2016
Human meaning grows from our organic sensory motor, and emotional transactions with the world.
Nana Koch from the ‘Embodied enactive dance/movement therapy’, American Journal of Dance Therapy, 2016
The overriding consideration in expressive arts therapy is a sensitivity to each client's needs, rooted in the capacity of the human imagination to reveal creative solutions to complex problems.
- Knill, Baba, & Fuchs, 1995; McNiff, 1981, Rogers, 1993
"Art therapy uses active art-making, the creative process, and applied psychological theory—within a psychotherapeutic relationship—to enrich the lives of individuals, families, and communities"
American Art Therapy Association (AATA), Retrieved from arttherapy.org
"Art therapy is a mental health profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship" 
American Art Therapy Association (AATA), Retrieved from arttherapy.org
"Art therapy combines the creative process and psychotherapy, facilitating self-exploration and understanding. Using imagery, colour and shape as part of this creative therapeutic process, thoughts and feelings can be expressed that would otherwise be difficult to articulate"
Canadian Art Therapy Association (CATA), Retrieved from canadianarttherapy.org
The art-making process involves personal exploration with visual/tactile art materials (drawing, painting, sculpture, and other expressive art forms, etc.) where imagery may or may not result. 
European Federation of Art Therapy, Retrieved from arttherapyfederation.eu
Art therapy involves a tripartite relational structure: patient/client with art image; patient/client with art therapist; art therapist with art image. We use the term art image to refer to what we call the art product resulting from the individual’s interaction with the art materials, whether or not a discreet image results from an exploratory, often playful, process.
European Federation of Art Therapy, Retrieved from arttherapyfederation.eu
"Dance/movement therapy as the psychotherapeutic use of movement to promote emotional, social, cognitive and physical integration of the individual" 
American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA), Retrieved from adta.org
"It is a psychotherapeutic method that uses movement and creative expression to further socio-emotional, cognitive, and somatic integration"
Indian Association of Dance Movement Therapy (IADMT), Retrieved from iadmt.org
This approach is based on the principle that the body and mind are integrated." It helps in self-expression to bring about a change in the total functioning of an individual. 
Indian Association of Dance Movement Therapy (IADMT), Retrieved from iadmt.org
DMT is for individuals of all ages, gender, races, and ethnic backgrounds in individual, couples, family, and group therapy formats.
Indian Association of Dance Movement Therapy (IADMT), Retrieved from iadmt.org
DMT is said to be developmental as well as adaptive. Rather than teaching dance, therapists at first try to assess the individual’s needs and issues.
Creative Movement Therapy Association of India (CMTAI), Retrieved from cmtai.org
Drama therapy is the intentional use of drama and/or theater processes to achieve therapeutic goals.
North American Drama Therapy Association, Retrieved from nadta.org
Drama therapy is an embodied practice that is active and experiential. This approach can provide the context for participants to tell their stories, set goals and solve problems, express feelings, or achieve catharsis. Through drama, the depth and breadth of inner experience can be actively explored and interpersonal relationship skills can be enhanced.
North American Drama Therapy Association, Retrieved from nadta.org
Drama therapy uses play, embodiment, projection, role, story, metaphor, empathy, distancing, witnessing, performance, and improvisation to help people make meaningful change.
North American Drama Therapy Association, Retrieved from nadta.org
Dramatherapists work with their clients using a very wide range of dramatic techniques in verbal and non-verbal ways. Though vocalisation, storymaking and talk are integral parts of dramatherapy, the practice does not necessarily rely on spoken language alone to resolve what a pupil, client, or patient may wish to address, explore or to seek support with.
British Association for Dramatherapists (BADth), Retrieved from badth.org.uk
Music Therapy is the clinical & evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program
American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), Retrieved from musictherapy.org
Music therapy is the professional use of music and its elements as an intervention in medical, educational, and everyday environments with individuals, groups, families, or communities who seek to optimize their quality of life and improve their physical, social, communicative, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health and wellbeing. Research, practice, education, and clinical training in music therapy are based on professional standards according to cultural, social, and political contexts (WFMT, 2011).
World Federation of Music Therapy, Retrieved from wfmt.info
Central to how Music Therapy works is the therapeutic relationship that is established and developed, through engagement in live musical interaction and play between a therapist and client. A wide range of musical styles and instruments can be used, including the voice, and the music is often improvised. Using music in this way enables clients to create their own unique musical language in which to explore and connect with the world and express themselves.
British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT), Retrieved from bamt.org
Everyone has the ability to respond to music, and Music Therapy uses this connection to facilitate positive changes in emotional wellbeing and communication through the engagement in live musical interaction between client and therapist. It can help develop and facilitate communication skills, improve self-confidence and independence, enhance self-awareness and awareness of others, improve concentration and attention skills.
British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT), Retrieved from bamt.org
Is your question missing? We’ve got you covered!
Leave us A note

FAQs: Your Questions Answered Here

Therapeutic Process !
Logistical Support !
In case of a mental health emergency, can I reach out to your professionals for immediate support?

While we are NOT a crisis counseling space or offer any emergency support at the moment, we can offer the following SOS support helplines -

  • iCall (TISS) - 022-25521111 (Mon-Sat: 8 am to 10 pm)
  • Vandrevala Foundation for Mental Health: 9999666555
  • Aasra (24 x 7) - 9820466726
  • The Samaritans - Mon to Sat (5pm - 8pm) - 8422984528 / 8422984529 / 8422984530
What is Expressive Arts Therapy?

According to the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA), it is a multimodal approach that integrates visual arts, movement, drama, music, writing, and other creative processes in psychology, organizational development, community arts, and education. It is geared towards fostering deep personal growth, community development, and gaining access to inner resources for healing, clarity, and creativity.

Who is Creative Arts Therapy/ Expressive ArtsTherapy for?

For anyone curious to explore mental health and well-being via creativity, play and imagination. This works across ages and abilities and may be used in a wide variety of settings such as educational institutions, medical and treatment centers, workspaces, etc.The combined and purposeful use of multiple arts based approaches like movement, sound, enactment, image, narrative, and/or play for health and well being is known as Expressive Arts Therapy (or Expressive Arts).

What does an Expressive Arts Therapy session look like? 

Expressive Arts Therapy follows a 'come as you are' approach, i.e. no prior experience with the art forms is needed. The therapeutic process is given emphasis and moves at a pace you trust, focusing on addressing core needs, building resources, and rehearsing supportive actions in the present moment.

A typical session, whether individual or group-based, can follow the pattern of four phases:

  • Check-in: Understanding where your mind and body are as you arrive.
  • Warm-up: Just as the body needs to warm up before physical activity, it needs preparation for the therapeutic process too.
  • Action: Delving into the session’s theme through metaphors, movement, art, embodiment, storytelling, or other forms of play, based on the client’s needs and the MHP’s approach.
  • Closure: Creating the necessary distance to close the session and help transition back to daily life.
Will verbal processing be a part of the session?

Yes! Verbal processing accompanying the arts may or may not be an essential part of the session based on the need, intention and capacity of the client.

Does this help if I have/ my child has a diagnosis? 

Yes, it helps irrespective of the presence of a diagnosis. If you/ your child has a diagnosis (ASD, ADHD, learning disabilities, Depression, OCD,Bipolar, Personality disorders, Anxiety, PTSD) it informs how we support their prognosis. In case you/ your child is undiagnosed, we assess and co-create goals to support together.

What if this approach of therapy doesn’t work for me?

Mental Healthcare is not  a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and the effectiveness of any therapeutic intervention depends on various factors, including the rigor and training of the MHP, the client’s intentions, the connection between them or connection to the therapeutic approach itself. Further, the therapeutic alliance is a co-created space by MHP and client alike and it’s necessary to find an MHP that you align with. As in any relationship, it takes patience, trial and error to build trust, even with the right one. The key is to trust your gut, be transparent with your MHP and honour resistance and resilience as equal parts of this journey. At YAASS we strive towards ensuring that you receive the support in the manner you need. Please write to us at  info@yaass.in or Leave US A Note and we will try our best to support you in any way we can.

In case of a mental health emergency, can I reach out to your professionals for immediate support?

While we are NOT a crisis counseling space or offer any emergency support at the moment, we can offer the following SOS support helplines - iCall (TISS) - 022-25521111 (Mon-Sat: 8 am to 10 pm) Vandrevala Foundation for Mental Health: 9999666555 Aasra (24 x 7) - 9820466726 The Samaritans - Mon to Sat (5pm - 8pm) - 8422984528 / 8422984529 / 8422984530

How do I begin my therapeutic journey with YAASS?

You can begin today by filling out our intake form [link]. You can also reach out to us at info@yaass.in to clarify any questions you have or support you need with the process.

By when can I expect a response after filling the intake form?

You can expect a response from our administration team within 24-48 working hours of submitting your form. They will reach out to you via Whatsapp number/ email address as provided by you, to confirm the details such as budget, time duration and other requirements mentioned in the form before assigning the MHP to you. 

What happens after an MHP is assigned to you?

If you’ve requested a 15-minute intake call in the questionnaire, your assigned Mental Health Professional will reach out via text or WhatsApp on the number you provided. This brief call is meant to help you get acquainted, ask questions, and gain clarity about the therapy process before your first session.

If you haven’t opted for the intake call, you can go ahead and book your session directly through the web app with your MHP.

What if I wish to change my MHP and be assigned to someone else?

You can write to us on info@yaass.in (or the number provided of our administration team) informing us that you wish to be assigned to another professional. Do include the reason for change as it would help us understand your needs better and match you with an MHP accordingly. You will be assigned to another professional within the next 24-48 working hours. Please know that you can repeat this as many times as you need till you find the professional you are most comfortable with.

What are the options available to me when opting for mode of engaging in sessions in YAASS?

You will have three options to choose from:
-Online- All our MHPs are available online.
-Offline- Currently available in Mumbai & Delhi-Hybrid
- You can access online and offline support as per need and availability.

Learn More

Your Affordable Accessible Safe Space

Where the arts are at the heart of mental healthcare
Join 32k+ members
Start your journey here
A unit of Therapeutic Tapestry Pvt. Ltd. 
Previously known as Doctor Drama
Therapy (2017)
Get in touch
info@yaass.in
+919819170889
Explore
HomeTherapyBlogProductsFor BusinessesContact
Company
AboutTeamCareersPartnerships
Legal
Privacy PolicyTerms of ServiceCookies Settings
YAASS © 2025. All rights reserved.
Privacy PolicyTerms of ServiceCookies Settings
Bangalore, India