Dr. Jill Sanghvi

Jill is a mental health practitioner who currently resides with her family in Mumbai, India. She received a Ph. D. in Psychology from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and her research explores and brings forward voices of autistic young people in India. Jill has a Masters in Applied Psychology from Mumbai University and a Masters in Mental Health Counseling from Pace University, New York.

Jill came together with a group of like-minded colleagues to co-found Narrative Practices India Collective in 2020, with the hope of exploring narrative practices in diverse spaces through conceptualizing and facilitating trainings and collective programs in collaboration with communities, therapists, and educators working in the field of mental health. She has co-founded Happie World in 2014, a leisure and fun space for disabled young people. Jill has also been a part of Ummeed Child Development Center since 2009, where she currently works as a supervisor.

Jill has always been interested in people’s stories and loves to witness the sparkle in people’s eyes and voices when they speak about their hopes and dreams. She has been drawn towards narrative ideas and practices in her work and holds a stance of social justice and a hope to nurture preferred ways of being when she collaborates with communities, groups and individuals in therapeutic conversations.

Jill is a visiting faculty at the University Department of Applied Psychology, Mumbai University since 2022, where she teaches courses with the intention to make visible the role of oppressive structures in maintaining problems in the lives of people and communities and to explore hope in ways that have not been imagined. Jill is also a research guide and she guides students to conduct research from a social constructionist lens.

Jill has published articles about her work in Indian and international journals and has been invited to speak about her work at several conferences. She hopes to collaborate with more young people in the disability space and write about deconstructing the disability experience, centering voices of self-advocates and challenging ideas of ableism and other oppressive systemic discourses.

Research Publications:

  1. Sanghvi, J. & Sawatzky, D. (2024). Stories of Skills and Values: What therapists can learn from autistic young people in Mumbai, India. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 43 (1), 5–25. https://doi.org/10.1521/jsyt.2024.43.1.5

  2. Sanghvi, J. & Baldiwala, J. (2024). Creative Responses to the Covid 19 Pandemic: Shared stories of disabled young people, caregivers and mental health practitioners from Mumbai, India. Contextualising Indian Experiences to Covid 19: People, Pandemic and Policies, 123-134. Taylor & Francis.

  3. Baldiwala, J. & Sanghvi, J. (2023). Navigating Anxiety using Narrative Ideas and Practices. Sambhāṣaṇ, 4 (2), 96-105.

  4. Sanghvi, J. & Mysterio. (2023). That’s Mother Earth Smiling. Peace Through Poetry: An Ethnographic Journey into Peace. Adroit.

  5. Sanghvi, J. (2021). Bringing forward voices of young people with autism in India (PhD thesis). Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.

  6. Baldiwala, J. & Sanghvi, J. (2020). Creative Responses to the Pandemic: Shared stories of caregivers and mental health practitioners. Sambhāṣan, 1(4), 131-136.

  7. Sanghvi, J. & Baldiwala, J. (2015). Using narrative practices while working with children and families with developmental disabilities. Bombay Psychologist, 1&2.

Research Presentations:

  1. Sanghvi, J. & Nayar, S. (January, 2021). Poetry as a medium for articulating stories. The Qualitative Report’s 12th Annual Conference.

  2. Nayar. S. & Sanghvi, J. (January, 2021). Mental Health Practitioners Becoming Qualitative Researchers: Experiences from an Indian Not-For-Profit Organization. The Qualitative Report’s 12th Annual Conference.

Invited Presentations:

  1. Sanghvi, J. (2025). The Teasing Monster, Pareshaani, The Habanero Demon, Red Face… Narrative Therapy with Children. Healing Narratives: A Confluence of Literature and Psychology: Virtual Multidisciplinary International Conference.

  2. Sanghvi, J. (2024). Navigating Storylands: Using Narrative Therapy in Diverse Indian Contexts. The Xavier’s Psychology Symposium.

  3. Sanghvi, J. (2023). Why equal opportunities aren’t enough? International Women’s day. UDAP, Mumbai University.

  4. Sanghvi, J. & Jha, A. (June, 2021). The family support group: Parents as partners in the care of children with developmental disabilities. The ISBA conference.

  5. Sanghvi, J. & Desouza, A. (January, 2020). Wonder of wonderfulness. Weaving Our Voices: The Second International Narrative Practices Conference, Mumbai, India.