Samavāya समवाय
Samavāya is a Sanskrit word that refers to the concept of inseparable relationship.
Like the fragrance of a flower or the heat of fire, Samavāya describes how qualities and substances are mutually dependent and intrinsically linked. The concept of Samavāya highlights “inherence”- the unique connection between two entities that cannot exist without the other and are defined by the other.
This ethos of interconnectedness shapes all elements of our offerings.
We believe the relationships between history, theory, evidence, and practice, cannot be separated from each other without altering their fundamental nature. When sitting with together with clients, trainees, and colleagues, we understand truth as constructed by the specific conditions we come from and meet under and we play with this construction to find joy, justice, and liberation.
The relation of Samavāya is not perceivable. Rather, it can only be inferred from the inseparable connection of the elements. Our wellbeing is inseprable from the wellbeing of the people, communities, and systems in which we live.
After practicing and teaching for over 20 years, I have seen that poor theorizing has real world consequences and that our educational systems not only under value the wisdom of elders, children, and community care, but also work to make us undervalue the wisdom we each carry within.
I started Samavaya Psychology as a way to bring forward multiple forms of knowledge and knowledge building and to help make the links between theory and practice more explicit and practiced. Adjacent to my active, full-time clinical practice, I have built Samavaya Psychology to offer a space for lateral teaching and learning together as we attune to the impacts of systems of domination, such as imperialism and racial capitalism, on our wellbeing.
With this goal in mind, Samavaya has been approved to be a continuing education sponsor by the American Psychological Association, and it is the hope that this allows our communities to maintain licensure while engaging in conversations that deeply support ongoing growth and community connection.
Hi, I’m Mamta.
I’m a psychologist, clinical consultant, educator, and the founder and director of Samavaya Psychology.
I engage in clinical practice, consultation, teaching, and scholarship through a lens of critical social inquiry, justice, and liberation.
I deeply value community, play and subversion.
(I also love really good coffee and live music.)Through my work, I aim to support our collective attempts to gain clarity on the nature of what makes us unwell, relationally and structurally, and to use that knowledge to create relationships and systems that support our collective wellbeing.
Personally, I practice through and teach on the subjects of power, identity, queer and decolonial theory, psychoanalytic and relational psychotherapy & supervision, countertransference & reverie, and community building. I understand power as constitutive and continuously expressing itself through relations, shaping intrapsychic, interpersonal, and structural dynamics. I practice and teach guided by the philosophy that our relationships are the most reliable and influential mechanism of fostering self-understanding, change, and growth, and that we need to reflect on where we have come from in order to know where we need and want to go next.
In addition to offering psychotherapy, I welcome requests for mentorship, collaboration, academic and clinical consultation, and program development.
I hope Samavaya can platform those of us who have something to say but nowhere where we can just say it.
आधी रात में दिया तेरे हाथ में
Andheri Raat Mein Diya Tere Haath Mein
In the darkness of night, the light is in your hand
-Dada Kondke, 1986
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