Dr. Sohini Chakraborty, an Author, Ashoka Fellow. Sociologist. Dance Activist Dance Movement Therapist and Founder Director of Kolkata Sanved.

She introduced Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) to India and South Asia as a tool for psychosocial rehabilitation, empowerment, and well-being. Her work focuses on underserved communities and survivors of gender-based violence, including human trafficking, and has significantly shifted the narrative of DMT in the fields of mental health, the arts, and social development.

Dr. Chakraborty is the creator of the Sampoornata Model, a unique and innovative approach to DMT. Developed over two decades, this evidence-based model is now globally recognized for its transformative impact.As one of the pioneering Dance Movement Therapists and a social innovator, one of her most significant contributions is the development of the “Survivor to Healer/Leader” approach. Through this, she has built a pool of DMT practitioners from the grassroots—many of whom are survivors—broadening the scope and reach of DMT practice. She was instrumental in launching one of India’s first formal academic programmes in DMT, in collaboration with the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.

She has received several national and international awards and was named one of the 100 Global Women Leaders for her innovation, leadership, and contributions to social change. Her work was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in October 2021 and in the award-winning international documentary Little Stones, directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Sophia Kruz.

Current Institutional Affiliation and Position

• Founder-Director, Kolkata Sanved
• Programme Curator and Anchor, Dance Movement Therapy Programme, in collaboration with the Centre for Lifelong Learning, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai
• Network Chair, Support & Development Network, World Dance Alliance Asia-Pacific (WDAAP)
• Advisor, Creative Movement Therapy Association, India – CMTAI, India
• Member Catalyst 2030-global movement of social innovators transforming systems and driving sustainable change to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals

• Key Research Interests

• Feminist and trauma-informed creative practices
• Dance Movement Therapy and social transformation
• Collective care and community wellbeing
• Youth mental health and creative expression
• Decolonising arts-based healing methodologies

• Major Publications:

1. Book:
2. Dance Movement Therapy and Psychosocial Rehabilitation: The Sampoornata Model by Routledge (Taylor and Francis group), May, 2023(www.routledge.com/9781032160887)

• Articles and Chapters:

• Dance/Movement Therapy Chapter 8: Renewing Purpose when Emerging from Sexual Abuse, Domestic Violence, and International Human Sex Trafficking. Edited by Rebekka Hartwell, Anne Margrethe Melsom. Book Titled: Dance/Movement Therapy for Trauma Survivors: Theoretical, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives , Routledge, 2022
• Dance Movement Therapy Chapter 14: Dance Movement Therapy and Psycho-Social Rehabilitation: Model Sampoornata Edited by Hilda Wengrower and Sharon Chaiklin . Book titled International Perspectives on Dance Movement Therapy: Dance and Creative Process in Theory, Research and Practice. Routledge, 2020
• Featured counter-trafficking program: Kolkata Sanved’s model Sampoornata. Child Abuse & Neglect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104169
• Choreographing Changes: Narratives of Resistance and Healing. Creative Arts in Education and Therapy – Eastern and Western Perspectives – Vol. 5, Issue 1, August 2019
• Empowering through Dance Movement Therapy. In U. Sarkar-Munsi, & S. Burrige (Eds.), Traversing Tradition: Celebrating Dance in India. (pp. 222-234). New Delhi: Routledge. 2011
• Dance as Healing: Kolkata Sanved. In P. Chakravorty, G. Nilanjana (Eds.), Dance Matters: Performing India on Local and Global Stages, (pp. 62-72). New Delhi: Routledge India. 2010

Publication in American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA)Journal:

• Dance Beyond the Dance, 2013
• Dance Movement Therapy and its role in collaboration,2011
• Dance Movement Therapy in a Diverse Society – The Kolkata Sanved Way,2008
• Dance Therapy with Children in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand-Kolkata Sanved Way, 2007
• Dance for Recovery, Healing, and Rehabilitation: 2004

Publication with Kolkata Sanved :

• Impact of Dance Movement Therapy on Trauma: A Study of Survivors of Sex Trafficking and Sexual Violence in Shelter Homes. :2017 The Implementation of Dance Movement Therapy Guidelines and Strategies for Working with Children in Contact with Law (CCL) in 2017
• Scripting Their Lives: a case study of Dance Movement Therapy in a Shelter Home for Children in Cooch Behar, West Bengal, March 2016 by Kolkata Sanved & Paul Hamlyn Foundation in 2016
• The implementation of Dance Movement Therapies and other creative therapies: Guidelene and strategies for working with Government Shelter Home in 2015
• Restoring Smiles Through Dance: Creating a module for survivors of trafficking for rehabilitation in Mumbai in 2013
• Dance & Recovery:The impact of Dance Movement Therapy on people living with mental illness and developed a curriculum- DMT for mental health & recovery, 2009
• The Implementation of Dance Movement Therapy and Other Creative Therapies: Guidelines and Strategies for Working with Government Shelter Homes in India: 2015