Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ruhi AKA Rohini Hak. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Ruhi AKA Rohini, thanks for joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
Defining moments reveal truth of circumstances, test us and contribute to our intrinsic growth. Life with its winding roads is full of experiences and many such moments: Moments of failure, success, joy, pain ;some subtle and some profoundly deep.
During my childhood and youth while gaining education , growing up moving from city to city as my dad was in the army or as an adult at work doing my job as an engineer and while travelling across cultures and conducting on-ground efforts via my NGO – “HOPEB~LIT ” under GWEN, I came across many such molding moments that catapulted me in directions unknown yet familiar.
I was always intrigued by why people act a certain way and the influences behind their actions. Mental health is a complex subject especially as all of us are unique and so are our external influences.
At one of our grass roots effort where we conducted an oral education and treatment camp in a remote village in India I came across a family that seemed affluent compared to others and kept pursuing me for some private time with their child. As I coordinate the dentists and volunteer’s a lot of times the community mistakes me for a doctor as well. I thought that they also perhaps wanted some extensive dental work and I kept telling them that I am not a dentist/doctor but they kept insisting. Finally I gave in and on the last day asked them to bring the child to see perhaps I could guide them to a doctor who may be able to help in the local village. The family came and brought a 11 year old girl with them. When I started interacting with her to gather what kind of help she may need her social skills, speech , comprehension seemed impacted even though physically she looked fine there was some hidden trauma impacting these abilities. I spoke to the parents separately and realized someone amongst the local dentists had told them I am a child psychologist and help with mental health issues . The parents said that there was no mental health support for adults or children and the closest assistance could be only found 11-12 hours away in the nearest city. Also that none of the camps that happened ever covered this Taboo topic. I felt completely helpless and knew except for compassion, empathy, some financial assistance and references in the city of psychologists I could personally offer nothing else.
It was on this day that i decided to follow through and learn skills that would help me serve in this critical area of mental health which in many societies even now is ignored and not considered critical to the overall physical well being.
As my Tag says – Lets begin our healing journey TODAY!
I am indebted to The Embody Lab in Los Angeles that has offered me scholarships in the past years to get certified in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy and also Integrative Somatic Parts Work Level 1-2 and 3. Even though it was challenging to learn and study with a full time Engineering Job and also midst of conducting annual global wellness camps and efforts with my NGO, the learning has been so profound and revealing. I am most grateful as it has lead to personal growth and also the opportunity to now offer them in our global efforts for free to communities that lack physical health support so mental health facilities are distant possibility. In our recent efforts we included art, music and motion therapy for the youth and the positive impact was immense .
We are now able to leave them with tools to empower their physical and mental well being.
I have also personally been part of retreats wherein I encompass my Music, Yoga, Mudra and Qigong skills with Somatic therapeutic movements, IFS Somatic Parts work and vision boards. ( I also put in my Tarot / Oracle and Rune sessions sometimes ) and love how Neuroscience based therapy mixed with mysticism and music can lead to immense healing.
We humans are a sum total of the tests we face and their revelations. Life throws at us many such learning curve balls which become our defining moments.
They shape us. Define our identity. Until the next curve ball …….
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The journey from being an engineer to going on a tangent to gain skills and become a mental wellness coach has been intrinsically a profound adventure! I believe that health care should be available to all – irrespective of their economic conditions. Health care is a basic human right just like education. The reason behind oral education and oral treatment camps is because of the huge lack of dental treatment given for free in most health camps. This is due to the cost factor involved and the detailed preparations required usually only check ups are done in camps.
We are all aware that Mental health conditions are increasing worldwide. As per WHO there has been a 13% rise in mental health conditions and substance use disorders in the last decade . Mental health conditions now cause 1 in 5 years lived with disability. Around 20% of the world’s children and adolescents have a mental health condition, with suicide the second leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds.Despite these figures, the global median of government health expenditure that goes to mental health is less than 2%.”
Mental health conditions impact all areas of life, Two of the most common mental health conditions, depression and anxiety have caused havoc in many lives worldwide. The awareness of the lack of preventive or support services accessible to all is also common knowledge. If one cannot afford basic physical needs then mental health for sure is ignored. The awareness that a lot of the physical diseases are being caused by mental ailments needs to be generated so equal importance is given to both aspects of our being.
My global adventures via travel for serving at grass root level or to experience other cultures always exposed me to the different behavioral patterns we have as humans. The dynamics in a team of volunteers or at my professional job and life experiences with friends and family always intrigued me. Covid-19 was a traumatic experience with the grave situation in both USA and India. We were trying to get supplies and critical aid to people on the ground and the aftermath and grief of the reality left a lot of us with severe mental health impacts.
Just like oral care my vision is to include the skills/ tools that I have learnt and to bring in more professionals in the field of mental health and provide tools to heal and bring relief to traumatic triggers and impacts in people in all global camps for free. This would bring these toolkits to people who cannot afford or have access to these services.
These thoughts from Buddhism resonate with me that Real Happiness and Healing cannot be possessed. The more it is shared , the stronger it becomes. When we believe happiness has limits, when we see life from the perspective of self, we miss the chance to enjoy life’s true wonders. We limit our own healing.
Once you get to try and understand a person and their trauma and stop resisting your own healing a whole new perspective opens up. You want the tools that can free your mind from some of its demons to be accessible to all – as a healed world is so much better than one filled with people with undealt trauma based patterns.
“Ruhealz” – Let your healing journey BEGIN ! Rooh in Hindi and Urdu means soul – so when we heal the body and soul and connect as a community grounded & honoring Earth and Nature- healed – filled with empathy – the future of the world will be secure.
I got certified in Rishikesh, India in Aerial Yoga as my interest in Pranayama / breath work and its impact on mind and body had deepened. Its amazing how naturally gravity can heal your body while hanging on those ropes in asanas/ yoga poses .
My certifications in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy and Somatic Parts Work LEVEL 1-2 & 3 based on IFS in Los Angeles enhanced my understanding of how body stores traumatic experiences. It’s a treatment focusing on the body and how emotions appear within the body, Our body holds and expresses experiences and emotions, and traumatic events or unresolved emotional issues can become ‘trapped’ inside leading to disease/pain. In addition I combine my music skills with Chakra and Energy movements of Qigong with these added science based therapeutic tools to coach and conduct workshops.
Eye wellness based on mudras, yoga and Qigong movements in this digital age has been a popular workshop I have conducted online and offline with all age groups. I conduct Youth oriented workshops on how we can be anything we aim to be called -” I am limitless ” that coach youth to step outside the box. When we define WHO AM I – we sometimes can limit ourselves in a box.
As Ruhi aka Rohini Hak today – I am a spiritual Technical Infrastructure engineer, a tarot doc, yoga teacher, Qigong practitioner, Mental and physical wellness somatic and IFS Parts work coach , musician , film producer / director/ writer – and tomorrow is still limitless and full of surprises as long as I am open hearted, give back to the community and am ready to receive with gratitude. I am looking to with a few podcasts i have recently done with Voyage LA to also offer bilingual mental support radio programs in the near future if the universe wills it !
My personal sessions for groups or private are lower than prevalent rates and I also offer these skills for free to communities that cannot afford mental health services. Look forward to including more skills always in my personal 1-1 sessions and group retreats to enhance mental and physical wellbeing.
We can be what our defining moments guide us to next- if we remain open to learning and growing ..to the next story our bodies tell us on this healing journey..
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
True empathy, genuine caring and a focus on your own healing is critical to being a good coach and counsellor. I am fascinated by the variety of human experience and have a natural curiosity to discover more about people. People respond to genuine curiosity; they begin to feel comfortable, to share, and to trust. A second element of rapport is really listening attentively.
Some things need to come from within -The sincere longing to want to heal and offer space to others so they can do the same. My friends and strangers always find it easy to share about themselves. When one can hold a non judgmental space full of empathy, patience and understanding others find an ease which allows them to connect deeply and share. The certifications and skill sets help to enhance the process with next steps in the healing journey as you enable the process. Empowering others to start their own healing energy is soul satisfying. As their emotional independence and empowerment is a precious gift beyond all else for any counsellor /coach.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Life tests us in many ways everyday. The gravity of that test and how we react to it and handle is based on resilience.
The global service camps in every aspect are perfect tests of resilience. One is working in an unknown territory, unknown culture, communities and people. Issues can range from limitation of supplies needed, communication barriers, logistics or limitations on what can be done and not based on the prevalent rules.
For instance recently we were focused on working with an organization and after several months of discussions went on ground in a new area with team and then realized a lot of the projected things were not as depicted.
We had to decide to either go with the same plan which seemed easier but would need us to maybe deter a bit from our ethics and service model or the harder option of completely changing plans and providing services in a new area and community in the limited timeline. We decided to pick the harder option and went with the complete change of location/community .
It took all aspects of Problem-solving and finding probable solutions, focused goal setting after review, Effective communication with all new volunteers & leaders in the local area and emotional regulation and stress management in trying times to bounce back from excruciating situations.
Having a good support network and team helped immensely also assigning tasks as per capacity of tolerance and skills.
Sharing a purpose, a positive outlook, patience and being flexible/stable mentally and emotionally via self care is the difference why one person embraces the tough times while another crumbles.
The end result of holding strong together as a team in this situation lead to being able to serve over 4000 children and women with over nine free services ranging from art and motion mental health workshops, oral education, oral treatment, physical therapy, yoga , doctors giving medical guidance to girls and women and free giveaways of food/blankets !
Yes you got it right ! We all did need a few days off after that of relaxation, sleep and meditation to bounce completely back!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hopeblit.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/ruhealz
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/ruhihak
- Linkedin: https://instagram.com/ruhealz
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/HOPEBLIT
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ROHINISAI
- Yelp: https://www.youtube.com/@hopeblit355
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9833544/
Image Credits
Madison Truscan Aashay Wagh