This is the story of a 9-year-old son, this is the story of a 16-year-old youth, this is the story of a responsible person who falls on young shoulders due to circumstances at a young age, this is the story of a father who pursues his passion and becomes a businessman.

Today, while Kedar and I were walking around, we took salt with a man who was grazing goats in a field. We learned many things while talking with that person. And we…

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Watching Lakshmi Venkatraman speak with the auto driver, the other day was enthralling. We were heading to a meeting together. The morning’s peak hour traffic was true to its definition. A biker crossed our path, in a rush to reach his destination. This evoked an expletive from our auto driver. And set the ball rolling. It started with Lakshmi acknowledging the comment. As the conversation progressed, I noticed that she was asking, what I thought were…

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The Constellation's Theory of Ownership by Philip Forth was in Google sites at the link

https://sites.google.com/a/communitylifecompetence.org/theory-of-change-for-the-constellation/home/draft-theory-of-change-for-the-constellation

till end 2023, but in Feb 2024 these pages are not anymore on…

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The PIECES team and I had SALT sessions with in-person Rituu B. Nanda 2 weeks back. It was an overwhelming experience, where I am still not able to articulate clear, concrete takeaways. However, there have been a lot of shifts in how I think/feel about myself, how I communicate, and how I relate to others.

One of the things I keep revisiting in my head is the discussion about power dynamics. Throughout our…

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I had the pleasure of utilizing the SALT technique during a training session with psychologists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and social workers in Karwan-e-Hayat as part of a programmatic scale up for DIALOG+. We conducted this training after a lengthy randomised controlled trial (RCT) to understand how effective DIALOG+ was as a tool to enhance and structure communication between mental health clinicians and their clients who had psychosis. Just for context, this RCT was one of the…

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The first time I spoke to S.M Tazammal Haque from Bangladesh Rural Economic Development (BRED) was on 6th Nov 2023. As Nawaz and I were to visit their office later in the month, I shared briefly about SALT and the baseline. There was warmth in his tone that immediately connected us. When we met at the BRED office in Dhaka, we formed an instant bond - we both confessed to not being morning people, which became an ongoing joke between us. …

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 Commitment to Paolo Friere's pedagogy of the oppressed and his education theory were detractors to a comprehensive understanding of SALT. It seemed natural to relate SALT with other practices of community engagement. The first SALT workshop in Karachi (2020, 5 days, with two community visits) triggered a query: how is SALT different from the participatory approaches predicated on Paolo's Freire's vision of social transformation, and the role of adult education? The answer…

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Have you ever felt like your emotions were running the show, steering you into rocky waters? I know that feeling all too well. Sometimes, it's like being on a rollercoaster with no off switch.

Lately, I've been reflecting on this with a dear friend, Tasnim apu. She's got this incredible knack for staying calm and collected, even when the world…

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Knowledge Fair was organized by Rural Aid organization. For this, various organizations working in the context of SALT were called.

We were very happy. To go to a new place, to meet new people, to learn new things, to draw strength from people.

We first traveled by plane and reached Jaigaon. Discussed with Rural Aid Team. A friendship…

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Have you ever had a conversation with someone who consistently expresses their emotions genuinely? The most recent SALT discussion I had was with Sadia Jafrin apu where Instead of a structured conversation, we had a heart-to-heart conversation where we opened up about our deepest feelings and innermost ideas. During our conversation, there arose the…

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Blogs facilitate learning of SALT



There is a push, gentle but persistent, to write blogs. Experience the push, and start pushing others. This is a wonderful approach for advancing the learning of SALT. What does this writing do ? As must be obvious to those with a flourish for writing blogs, experiences of SALT surface to endorse its learning, and its acceptance deepens within the writer of the blog. Ownership of SALT, as something that is practiced begins to take root. Let us… Continue

SALT Activity is conducted in Vashi village through the Avani organization.

A SALT family from Vashi village contacted me over the phone and asked me to take SALT in a family. There were some problems in that family regarding their children. I went to their house. There were 2 small rooms of 10 × 10. 1 elderly grandmother and a family of 4 lived in that house.

I started discussing with them and got to know them.

After a…

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SALT as part of Every Day Life

Kausar S Khan



Aristotle spoke of ethics being a habit, and one wonders whether SALT can be a habit. Professionally using methodologies that bring into practice community centeredness, SALT became the foundational stone of all participatory methods – including participatory rural appraisal and theatre of the oppressed. Why is SALT the epicenter of all participatory approaches? The answer is simple; it draws attention to…

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Empowering persons with psychoses is a much-discussed topic the world over. Yet, where are we today?

As part of a dream-building activity at a SALT workshop, a group of us, all psychiatrists, dared to dream. One day - may this be the way!

As doctors, we dream for you for you……

We the doctors, say you have Psychoses – 

for you a dreaded frightening…

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Have you ever felt that amazing spark when a team comes together to dream big? Well, we did! Last week, our team had this fantastic in-house SALT conversation and it turned out to be a game-changer for us.

Our team is getting bigger every day, and during the SALT conversation, I could feel this incredible group energy for the very first time. It…

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From 30th Jan to 1st Feb I facilitated SALT and CLCP with Team PIECES from organisation called SCARF in Chennai, India. They are working towards patient-owned approach to mental illness.  When the whole group developed their dream, one of the sub-groups which called themselves Zen group shared their dream how mental health will be envisioned in 10 years. The dream was in the form of pictures. I feel honoured to share it as…

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In my ten-year journey as a clinical psychologist, I have had the privilege of witnessing the dynamic changes in mental health practices. While firmly grounded in the fundamental principles of Carl Rogers' patient-centered approach, my 1-year long exposure to SALT has been truly transformative. This innovative methodology has provided me with a renewed perspective, placing the patient in the role of the expert rather than the therapist.…

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