Welcome to Dhruti Trust!
Dhruti trust is a non-profit dedicated to providing free, confidential, accessible mental health services to college students.
Entering university is a profound transition. Whether it be a move from your childhood home to a faraway place, from a village to a big city, from family and old friends to new connections, or often, isolation. College-aged youth face the new demands of adulthood during a time in which they are undergoing great developmental, social, and emotional change. As a result, young people often deal with extreme levels of stress from a variety of sources such as school, interpersonal relationships, or their financial situations. These phenomena are clearly visible in our daily lives–in the process of bringing Dhruti to life, the Dhruti team have encountered countless young adults who have expressed the need for mental health services. But for most, no such programs exist at their colleges and universities, and even when treatment is available, social stigma often prevents students from seeking it out. That is why we have developed a multi-pronged approach that incorporates stigma-fighting education and compassionate treatment as our core strategies.
Enabling fortitude within
We partner with universities to offer confidential, free, accessible mental health services to students. Our individual counselling program is designed to help students discover their innate strength, and to use this deep well of resilience alongside their support systems to transform their lives for the better. Inspired by the concept of dhidam, a Tamil word meaning mental strength, we have created the DHIDAM approach: Dauntless Harmony, Inspiring Diligence and Assertiveness for Metamorphosis. Dhruti also offers group therapy, in which students can connect with each other in supportive groups led by professional counsellors to address issues such as addiction and anger management, drawing from their collective strength to overcome challenges.
Raising awareness in our communities
We are committed to educating the community about mental health struggles in order to reduce stigma through our MANAM program: Making Awareness Necessary for Alleviating Mental health struggles. Manam is a Tamil word that means the mind. As a part of MANAM, we offer educational workshops and seminars to university personnel, parents, professors, or any other group that seeks to understand and support students’—as well as their own—mental wellbeing. To further increase the resources available, we have created a mental health knowledge bank—a toolkit containing informational content regarding mental health disorders, treatments, and therapeutic exercises. With this knowledge base, our hope is that students will be empowered to better understand themselves and their own minds. The more information and stories are shared about mental health struggles, the more it can be normalised, dissolving stigma and opening people up to treatment possibilities.
At Dhruti, we recognize that people who seek out therapy are just that—people—human beings who shape and are shaped by their communities, family, friends, partners, and their broader environments. All of these different factors affect our mental wellbeing. Just as we as people do not exist in isolation from the world around us, so does our mental health. Therefore, at Dhruti trust, we seek to treat mental health struggles in a holistic way, through our Dhidham and Manam programs, focusing on individual and community mental health.
Whatever you are going through right now, we at Dhruti are ready to meet you where you are and help you find the guiding light within to illuminate a new path. Help is available if we are courageous enough to seek it. Contact us at reachout@dhrutitrust.org to get started.