Welcome to the first episode of Shrinks Who Drink with Amita Ghosh.
This monthly podcast dives into special topics in mental health, exploring themes like motivation, anxiety, trauma, and depression.
Each episode is designed to engage, inform, and inspire, as we journey together toward the incredible India Therapists Retreat in October 2025.
Join us for candid conversations with expert guests, sharing their lived experiences and professional insights.
And don't miss the wisdom-packed closing segment, where we hear from therapists you'll meet at the retreat.
Let's spill some tea, share some stories, and build a stronger mental health community, one episode at a time.
Your host, Amita Ghosh, is a passionate mental health advocate and professional, dedicated to fostering meaningful discussions around mental wellness.
With a knack for storytelling and a love for connecting with others, Amita brings warmth, insight, and a touch of humor to every episode.
Get ready to explore deep topics, hear unique perspectives, and gain practical advice, as Amita leads the way to our shared destination, the incredible India Therapists Retreat in October 2025.
Now let's get started.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the very first episode of Shrinks Who Drink.
I'm Dr.
Ingrid Edwards, and I'm absolutely thrilled to be here as your host for this special debut.
Amita Ghosh, the brilliant mind behind the podcast and the upcoming Incredible India Therapists Retreat in 2025 has asked me, her longtime friend, to help introduce her to you.
I can't wait to dive into this conversation and help you get to know this incredible leader and my good friend.
She's also going to be the heart of the journey.
Okay, so what do you want me to say?
I just want you to be happy to be here.
Yes, I am very, very happy to be here.
And thank you, Dr.
Ingrid Edwards, for introducing me.
So we are going to have an incredible journey.
I hope so.
It sounds exciting.
Here and to India.
So first, I want to let all the listeners know, this one's going to be just a little bit different because we are just getting to know you.
Your other episodes are going to be on special topics.
And with special interest groups as well.
So this will be just us getting to know you.
So first, I want to know, please explain Shrinks Who Drink.
All right.
So Shrinks Who Drink is a name that I came up with, with another friend of mine who is also a therapist.
And this was years ago, pre-COVID, when we were thinking about doing a podcast, and we came up with the name.
And we held on to the name.
And unlike what you think, it's about Shrinks Who Drink chai.
Tea, tea.
Which is chai tea, which is Indian tea.
So, you know, as we go through this journey, I will talk more about drinking tea.
I know, as you know, Ingrid...
Spilling the tea.
Spilling the tea, and, you know, how to make some tea, some ginger tea, and things like that.
But India is well known for tea, and we don't really drink...
I mean, we, meaning you and I, don't really drink alcohol very much, but we do drink tea.
So, this is...
All the time.
Yes, all the time.
So, this is about drinking, Shrinks Who Drink, chai tea.
We should have some today.
Next episode, tea will be here.
Right, right.
So, tell us a little bit about growing up in India then, and how that influenced your journey to be a psychotherapist.
Sure.
So, I think I'm going to just go back a little bit and explain that, you know, I did not grow up in the US.
I grew up in India, and I came here to go to graduate school.
Now, in India, you had to choose your specialization from high school onwards.
So, you had to choose pretty early which area you're going to study in college.
And I had chosen humanities.
And in India, psychology is considered a pure science.
So, when I went to college and I wanted to study psychology, I wasn't able to.
So, I had studied political science.
But I was always interested in psychology.
It was something that...
Explain the pure science to me in India.
Oh, okay.
So, in India, in high school, you had to either choose humanities, which were history, language, geography, that kind of stuff.
Political science.
Right, political science.
Or you could choose chemistry, physics, biology, math, and those would be considered pure science.
And in order to go into psychology, you would have had to pick pure science in high school, which I did not.
So, I wasn't allowed to study psychology in India.
So, you have to make a decision very early about what you're going to be when you grow up.
Yes.
Okay.
Yes.
All right.
So, and why the interest in psychology, which is when I was in eighth grade, we had a substitute teacher.
And after she would get done with teaching the lesson, she was like, if you're going to be good, then I'll talk about it.
And she was a psychology student herself.
And so, she would talk to us about different cases.
And so, that was when my interest in psychology peaked, you know, in eighth grade.
And I was like, oh my god, this is fascinating.
So, since then, I have been very, very interested in psychology and wanted to do it.
But since I couldn't do it in India, in college, my sister came to the US and she was studying, she was going to graduate school.
And she had told me that, you know, you can come to the US and study it.
You might have to take some pre, you know, courses or something, but that's how I ended up studying psychology in the US.
Nice.
Very good.
So we're going to get into a little bit more about your practice then.
So you incorporate Yogic and Buddhist philosophy into your practice regularly, correct?
Yes.
Yes.
Can you explain how those traditions impact your patience?
Sure.
Their progress?
So, you know, growing up in India, my family was not terribly religious.
However, religion and the philosophy of India is just something that is integrated into your everyday life.
And so one of the things that I realized, I think, through my journey, through psychology here in this country, is that my way of dealing with people or problems is a little bit different from the pure Western way of dealing with it.
And the simplest way I can explain it would be that I tend to be very pragmatic.
And I didn't quite always know what that meant or where that came from.
And I know that some of my clients, they joke about it.
And they're like, you know, every time I have a problem, I hear your voice in my head, so what are you going to do about it?
And so that's the piece about the pragmatism that I think it is actually, it comes from the yogic and the Buddhist psychology, and it comes from that philosophy.
So in yoga and in Buddhism, there are the eight-fold paths.
So we'll talk about that down the road in some of our episodes about what that means and things like that.
But that is where it sort of helps me incorporate that information into the way I work with my clients.
And in the last probably 20 years, we've had the third wave of cognitive psychology.
And that's where we have the field called ACT, which is acceptance and commitment therapy.
And that comes from Buddhism as well.
And so without even knowing that I was doing that, I was already doing it.
I was already incorporating those kind of philosophies and ways of living your life and looking at your problems and things like that.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
It really does.
We might talk about that a little bit later because I thought of a question, but I want to make sure that we cover what we need to do to get to know you.
So you talk a lot about motivation, I know, in therapy and just in general, as being your friend, I know that you are highly motivated.
What motivates you and what makes you happy about providing therapy or health care?
So I think that they are two different answers to that, but they are related.
And this is where I'm going to bring up the idea of being an immigrant.
So immigrants are people who are leaving their country out of their own choice.
These are not, they are different from refugees.
Refugees have to leave their country because of war or whatever, but immigrants are choosing to leave their country.
And typically, what you will find is that immigrants tend to be highly motivated because they have left their country for a purpose.
And for me, the purpose was higher education in the beginning, but typically most immigrants are going to be people who are highly motivated to start out with.
Because if you weren't, you wouldn't have left your country to begin with.
So motivated to improve, self-improvement, motivated to be better, motivated to help people, and not necessarily motivated to make more money.
I mean, of course, you have to make money to survive, but that's not the only sole motivation.
The motivation is to be better.
Better today than I was yesterday.
Better tomorrow than I'm today.
That kind of a growth mentality.
And what was the other question you had there?
Well, what motivates you?
Which I think you answered that.
Yeah, I think what motivates me is to just keep growing.
Because for me, not growing stagnation is equal to death.
And I just can't tolerate that.
I have to just keep growing and developing and being a better person.
I think that the day I die is the day I'm going to stop growing.
Yeah.
It's a good time to do it.
Right.
Not before that, not before that.
So you work with couples and individuals.
Yeah.
And so what's common, what's uncommon in terms of their challenges in therapy, and what is difficult for you as the therapist?
Individual versus a couple.
Sure, sure.
So, you know, I have to start by saying that I work with all populations.
You know, most of us, when we start out working, we work in community mental health, and we essentially work with whoever comes through the doors.
So I've worked with children, I've worked with adults, but now I specifically work with only adults, and I see individuals and I see couples.
So for individuals, what I have seen in the last probably 20 years more than depression, what I have seen go up as far as problems and challenges go, is anxiety.
People are very, very anxious.
You know, they're very anxious, and there are so many different reasons for it, but I think the fast-paced life is a big factor.
Also, the whole idea of FOMO, you know, fear of missing out, like this whole social media, it's great because, you know, because of social media, I feel like I have connected, reconnected with my childhood friends in India, and that's wonderful.
But I think oftentimes with social media, people also have this idea that everybody else's life is so much better, they're doing so much better, and mine is not, and so that causes people to have this, oh, what am I doing wrong?
You know, why am I not having this thing?
Not recognizing that nobody's going to put their dirty laundry out there on social media.
You know, most of the time, people are just putting what's wonderful and what's great in their lives.
But I think anxiety and fear of missing out, and those kind of things seem to be the highest thing for individuals.
For couples, the most common thing with couples is communication, or miscommunication, lack of communication.
That seems to be the biggest challenge for couples.
And so helping them learn to communicate because people are great at communicating when they first meet, because their hormones are racing and they absolutely adore this person, and they're like, oh my god, they're the best thing that happened to me.
So they're willing to do everything under the sun to communicate with this person.
But then after a while, they just kind of get lazy about it.
And they start taking each other for granted.
And so the stagnation seeps in, and then the resentment start piling up, and that kind of stuff.
So I would say communication seems to be the biggest one.
And there's always some infidelity sometimes.
That's not the most common thing, but it does happen.
Conflict over parenting is a big one.
And also finances.
And I think that just made a full circle for me, thinking about the yoga Buddhist philosophies and how that could impact the people that you see.
Those are rules of engagement in a way.
And I don't know a lot about it.
I just know that it's a model.
A model for communication, a model for behavior.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Makes sense.
Makes sense.
I want to ask you about ketamine-assisted therapy.
What do you think?
I'm just interested in myself.
It's sort of new, I guess.
Yes.
So ketamine is something that has been used for anesthesia for many, many, many years.
But in the last about 15, 20 years, they've been using it more and more in therapy.
Now, the history of using ketamine in psychotherapy has been kind of, they started out where you went into a clinic and a psychiatrist just hooked you up to an IV and you laid there with the ketamine.
And they found that that's really not very effective.
So ketamine would fall under this sort of the psychedelic medication or plant medication.
I mean, ketamine now in the US is manufactured.
It's not something that you're pulling some plants, you know, some leaves out of a tree or anything like that.
But it still falls under the plant medicine side of things.
Right.
And so in in essence, a therapist is like a shaman who is helping you through the journey.
So when you are taking the ketamine, you have to have it's called set and setting.
So you want to be able to make sure that you're setting the person up for success.
That the setting itself is appropriate.
It's not that you're laying in a hospital bed with an IV in your arm and then like, okay, go home, you know, be happy.
And that's not working.
So the therapists are now getting involved.
So it's set, setting, and then you talk about what was the vision like?
What was the journey like, you know, after you took the ketamine?
And how do you incorporate that into your everyday life?
So that's where the ketamine therapy is going down.
In the US, not every state allows it.
Ohio does, Kentucky doesn't, but you can also have group ketamine therapy sessions or individual.
You can also do remote ketamine therapy, assisted therapy.
So I am super excited because it's really shown a lot of research, it's shown a lot of benefits for depression and PTSD.
That really resonates because what I was hearing through that, again, not knowing a lot about it, asking a simple question, but to me it's physical medicine alone isn't always a solution and emotional medicine alone is not always a solution.
So it's combining the physical and emotional, which is almost always critical, but then Eastern and Western, I guess, as well.
So if we, so thinking along those lines, when you think about physical and emotional and Eastern and Western, to me, those two things align.
Being in health care myself, a lot of the things that you think about from a behavioral perspective, because I would be more of a physical medicine provider.
I want all of my patients to have emotional medicine support.
Right.
A lot of those things are Eastern versus Western.
What do you think about that?
So the Eastern way of medicine is not about treating the symptoms, it's about treating the cause.
Okay.
Then we go into Ayurveda.
We're talking about Ayurveda, which is the other hand of yoga.
And so it's the medicine part of yoga.
Ayurveda is about using food as medicine.
Okay.
So in Ayurveda, we are treating the source of the problem as opposed to the symptoms.
So in Western medicine, we typically treat the symptoms.
We don't treat the source of the problem.
So the Eastern way of doing the medicine is to look at the source of the problem and treat that.
Yeah.
Because I think sometimes in Western medicine, you don't even find the source before you start to treat.
So that's very interesting.
I do think things need to be integrated.
I'm very excited to hear the other shows where you're getting to know other people, other therapies, other topics.
So that'll be very exciting.
I have one other question with...
Well, I actually have two, but so this one...
So with over 30 years of experience, how has the conversation around middle health changed?
And I want you to particularly address that as it relates to Asian and Indian cultures.
Okay.
How has it changed and then take it to Asian and Indian cultures?
Sure.
So I want to preface this by saying that in the Western world, mental health is way more accepted or mental illness and treatment of mental illness is way more accepted and open than it has been in India.
I couldn't speak directly about how it has been in other parts of Asia, but at least in India, I can tell you that it never was something that people would talk about openly.
And so, the only thing that people would say about, if you said you wanted to become a therapist, they're really just thinking of you're treating somebody who's completely out of their minds.
Someone who is either a schizophrenic or something like that, who has to be locked up in a hospital.
That's the only thing people thought.
So that was way back when.
I believe it's changed a lot in India now, because people are seeking out counselors and they are at least a younger generation.
They're not looking at it as, oh, I am mentally ill.
They're looking at it more as, I just need some help and guidance.
And so they are seeking help out in India.
Here, what I have seen in my experience is that the 22, 40-year-old second-generation Indians are one of my largest community.
And they seek me out.
One is because they see me as a bridge between their parents and their personal experience now.
this is what I believe, but my parents are asking me to do these things that I don't even understand why they're wanting me to do that.
So I'm able to bridge that gap for them.
Sure, that makes sense.
So obviously, as younger generations, things become less antiquated.
So it sounds like everything is more accepted everywhere, and it probably is younger people bringing new ideas, new thoughts, less prejudice to the topic.
What other things do you think are changing the way we look at mental health in general?
Do you think, do you think prejudices, I guess my question would be more, I'll make it more direct, because you sort of talked about the general change, and it's probably just younger people.
But do you think the changes in the way that we look at physical medicine and how behavioral health supports physical health is changing?
Do you think the health care providers are changing their attitudes as well, as well as people, and what's driving it?
I would say in the last 15 to 20 years, there has been a resurgence of interest in Eastern philosophy, Eastern thought, Eastern medicine, yoga, all of that.
There was an interest in it in the 60s and 70s, and then there's been again another peak of that interest that's happened now.
And I think that's one of the areas where it has pushed physical medicine to start looking at, what else can we do?
Because physical medicine also has its limits.
Yeah.
Also, a lot more Western scientists have put time and effort into doing research with the Eastern treatments.
And so now, they're seeing actual research results of, oh, so yoga does help.
Oh, so mindfulness does lower your blood pressure.
So meditation does improve your depression.
You know, they're actually getting hard data about it.
And that is where the shift is happening, is that it's not just some Sadhu from India saying, this works, it's actually people, scientists, doctors, you know, here in the West, who are doing the research, and they're finding the same results.
That's it.
So now that's validated.
That is very interesting, because through my filtered ears, and I don't even know if you realize you answered that question so direct, but what you did say was, because of the mass acceptance of yoga and the benefits of its health to the general population, that really has driven a lot of decisions, and then obviously everyone being more open-minded about different options.
So that's, yeah, it makes sense.
So that's good to hear it articulated that way.
I'll be looking forward to that episode as well.
Okay.
So that's it for questions today.
So it's been really good to get to know you professionally.
I mean, I've known you since college, so we've known each other a long time, but thank you for allowing me to participate in this first ever podcast.
Yes.
Before we close, though, I'd like you to hear a little bit about the incredible India Retreat experience.
I want you to talk about it.
Tell me what you're excited about, and then make sure at the end that you share your information in case there's any individual who needs guidance directly from your practice.
Okay.
All right.
So in October of 2025, I will be taking a group of therapists to India.
Have you ever done this before?
No.
This is the first time, and this has been a dream of mine forever and ever and ever.
And so I am really, really excited to be able to do this and put it all together.
It has been a labor of love.
And so we are going to fly into Delhi, and we're going to do the Golden Triangle, which is Delhi-Agra-Jaipur.
So these are, I mean, India has incredible sites to see, historical sites to see almost at every corner.
You know, it has, that that country is so old that you could see so many old things everywhere.
You cannot cover it all in, and even even a month, you know, you couldn't cover it all.
I haven't seen it all.
So, I mean, so people, when you go to India the first time, you have to see the Taj Mahal.
Yes.
So, so the Taj Mahal, for those of you who don't know, is not a palace.
It's a mausoleum.
And it was built by Shah Jahan for his wife, Mum Taj Mahal, as her mausoleum.
And so we are going to see the Taj Mahal.
That's a big mausoleum.
It is a very big mausoleum.
Yes.
It's all about the love.
So, he built a mausoleum for her.
And of course, you know, these, these buildings were being built years and years and years before somebody even died.
So, you know, here you go.
You're like, I'm going to be there when I'm dead, you know.
Let me see.
Did they do that room right?
So we're going to do Delhi with all the sightseeing in Delhi, shopping in Delhi and all the different foods, eating out.
And then we're going to go to Agra, which is where the Taj Mahal is.
We're going to see Agra.
We're going to stay a night in Agra.
From Agra, we're going to go to Jaipur, which is another state.
And Jaipur is called the city.
What is it called?
The pink city.
So it's like all the palaces and the forts are made out of this pink colored rocks.
Oh, and so they're all kind of this pink city.
It's beautiful.
Rajasthan, it's in the state of Rajasthan.
It's just gorgeous.
Rajasthan is the desert state, but it's also the state that had the most number of princely families.
So there are like forts and fortresses and palaces everywhere.
And in Jaipur, we are going to actually stay at a palace.
Okay.
We're going to be staying at the only, the oldest mogul gardens in Jaipur, and we're going to be staying at glamping tents.
What are mogul gardens?
So moguls were the, they came from Mongolia.
They invaded India and they lived.
So Shah Jahan was a mogul, you know, prince.
So they, they brought...
I thought it was a tap of flour.
No, it's the dynasty.
So they were well known for their beautiful gardens.
And so that's, in Rajasthan, that's one of the oldest mogul gardens.
And we're going to have glamping tents in the mogul gardens.
Oh, that's wonderful.
With, with, you know, air conditioning and everything and food.
So we're going to be in Jaipur for three days.
From Jaipur, we're going to fly to the southern part of India.
So mind you, India is almost as large as all of Europe.
So, you know, it's, it's, it's vast.
So the southern part of India is going to be totally different from the northern part of India.
So we're going to go from the north to the south, and we're going to go to this city called Trivandrum.
It's on the coast.
It's on the western coast of India, and this area is just covered with palm trees.
And we're going to be at an Ayurvedic resort and spa.
Wow.
And that is where the training is going to happen.
Right now, I am scheduled to do the training on yogic and Buddhist psychology as it pertains to how to use it in today's life.
And I'm working on another one.
It's going to be Ayurvedic principles for mental health.
I haven't confirmed that yet, but that's another one that I'm working on.
So we're going to be there for three days.
You will have access to yoga in the morning and the evening, food, so all food, all tours, all accommodation, everything is covered.
And even the flight from Jaipur to the southern part of India.
And then after the three days are over, then people will fly back home from there.
So it sounds like to me that there's, one, there's going to be a lot of learning for people like you, some other therapist.
But it also sounds like if they wanted to bring a guest, that that person would really enjoy the trip.
But would someone like me, who's not a therapist, it also sounds like I might enjoy some of the continuing education units, or whatever you all call them, because it does seem like there are lifestyle strategies as well.
So the continuing education credits are, I'm not charging any extra for those.
So as a guest on the trip, regardless of whether you are a therapist or not, you can attend it.
And you can use the information that you get from there for yourself.
Do you already have people who aren't therapists signed up for that reason?
Yes, uh-huh.
Yeah, so you can attend it, and you can come to the training, or you can choose not to.
It's up to you.
But yeah, so that's an option.
Nice, very good.
I'm very excited about all of the lessons that we're gonna learn, and all the people we're gonna meet up to the podcast, because you already are up to the retreat.
We already have people who are gonna give little drops of wisdom between now and the retreat in October.
And so don't forget, please tell us how to, how so the listeners know how to contact you if they need individual support.
So you can contact me on telephone, and it's area code 859-391-1255.
I'm gonna repeat that, area code 859-391-1255.
Or you can send me an email at resolve, that's R-E-S-O-L-V-E dot counseling, C-O-U-N-S-E-L-I-N-G, at gmail.com.
So resolve.counseling at gmail.com.
Is resolve counseling the name of your practice?
Yes, that is the name of my practice.
And you do individual, you do...
I do individual couples.
Families, couples, do you do corporate?
I do corporates, sometimes corporate trainings and that kind of stuff, workshops, so, yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
And I would love to be able to help you and whoever is listening.
And if I am not able to help you, I'll be happy to direct you in the right direction.
Very good.
All right, thanks for having me.
Thanks for interviewing me.
Are we finished?
I think so.
Okay.