Vedika Agarwal

Vedika Agarwal is a Psychology post-graduate with a strong background in mental health as well as core skills and understanding of forensic psychology and practice. She is a motivated, proactive and reliant individual having completed a Masters of Science in Forensic Psychology and Mental Health, at the University of Manchester. Presently, she is working in Tihar Prisons, Delhi as a Psychological First Aid- Provider with the Mental Health Foundation (India), in the Project Samarthan. She conducts semi-structured interviews with inmates in a one-on-one setting. She also has her own organisation which runs courses on various topics of Forensic Psychology. She facilitates and teaches these short courses and workshops. Previously, she was working as a research intern for Healthy Minds World, wherein she had to write research articles on various psychology or mental health related topics. She also interned with Indian School of Counselling and Healing studies. She is a trained Mindfulness Therapist. She has also worked as a research assistant for Bodhi Health Education, wherein she helped create a psychometric assessment to assess the competency of nurses. In addition, she has experience working with children with special needs. Her previous workplace was an organisation for children and young adults with mental health problems such as autism spectrum disorder, down syndrome, intellectual disabilities or learning disabilities. She monitored and assessed the children and helped them function independently. Furthermore, as a volunteer in Headstreams, she dealt with socially backward, psychologically disturbed and delinquent children. Through the means of creativity and play therapy helped them resolve the difficulties that they faced in their lives and improve their mental wellbeing. She helped them manage their symptoms by planning their future treatment plans. Furthermore, she has also worked as a teacher in a school, wherein she managed children with challenging behaviour and adopted her teaching style to better suit their needs. In addition, she has successfully completed three research projects and wrote a Book Chapter which will be published in the book “Global Perspectives in Reforming the Criminal Justice System” by Dr. Micheal Pitaro. She has the skills to design her own project and survey questionnaires, interview schedules and conduct psychological research. One of the research projects involved investigating prisoners’ perspective regarding mental health services in prisons, and explored the rehabilitation services provided to offenders in UK prisons. This has given her hands-on experience with designing and conducting research studies in prison environments. Her broad research interests are understanding of the criminal mind and the different reformation intervention used for offenders. Recently, her article assessing Violent Offender Treatment Programme was published in Nyayik Vigyan. She is passionate and determined to help reform and rehabilitate ex-offenders and prisoners, and understand the reasons behind criminal behaviour.