Midst an evening full of chitter-chatter with 200 guests at a boutique bookstore “Title Waves” in Mumbai, a panel discussion was led by anchor Gaurav Sharma (Sharma G) wherein the author Dr. Shefali, alongside Sumbul Touqeer(Actor), D Sivanandhan (Ex DGP), Prakash Shenoy (Depression Fighter) and Dr. Anjali Chhabria (Psychiatrist) discussed pressing concerns about depression and ways to combat it.
The book launch event was graced by tarot card reader Munisha Khatwani and actresses Hansa Singh and Deepika Motwani too among others.
Dr. Shefali said that she decided to write this because Jaico publishers approached her during the pandemic, and they together believed that such a unique book was the need of the hour to help people change how they feel by changing how they think about and react to situations. Written with examples of actual patients and real stories about their lives, the book is equipped with simple checklists, mood monitors, questionnaires and self-assessments that can help the reader get authentic and trusted information about their own feelings and emotions.
Dr Shefali recalls, how statistics about depression through the COVID-19 pandemic revealed an alarming escalation–a count of 5.32 crore people worldwide. Depression had risen in the population by 27.6%. As a proponent of the use of self-help books for healing (bibliotherapy), she thought that an advanced book that would hand-hold, guide and encourage the readers in a step-by-step fashion would be life-changing. That’s how this book came about.
She insists that sadness experienced by vegetable vendors and sewage cleaners, to industrialists and Bollywood celebrities (names of who cannot be disclosed to safeguard confidentiality), has a common reality – that everyone feels sad from time to time and that sadness does not simply go away by itself. Many people do not recognize how persistent sadness prevents them from living a fulfilling life, simply because sadness presents in multiple unrecognizable faces. Her book is like a guide for anyone who wants to change their negative mood and their life, by simply changing the way they think, and finding a way out of their sadness and pessimism.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Shefali has treated over 12,000 individuals, consulted for over 100 corporate offices, and offered wellness in the Indian Navy as well as the Mumbai Police Force. Her experiences with anguish, misery, and loss, that she observed in others during her growing years, and her helplessness in making a difference even though she wanted to; pushed her to pursue a career in mental health that empowered her to help people. “I wanted to know how people who experience sadness truly feel, what anguish they experience, and what could be done to make it better. That is how and why I became a psychiatrist.” She insists that she cannot imagine being anything other than who she is today, professionally.
Dr Shefali obtained her medical and post graduate degree in Psychiatry in India and bagged a Leadership in Healthcare Certificate from UCLA, USA.
