The Founder
Aruna Gopakumar
The School of You was founded by Aruna Gopakumar. She had founded Navgati (navgati.in) in 1999, and today Navgati is a boutique leadership development firm, known for its creative and diverse offerings.
Aruna is a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst in the field of psychotherapy. She is the Past President of SAATA (The South Asian Association of Transactional Analysts). She is an MCC level coach. She is passionate about the intersection of psychodrama, autobiographical narratives and myth making for personal and collective healing.
She has authored the Penguin published book “And How Do You Feel About That” with Yashodhara Lal. Her TedX talk: Psychotherapy: A New Normal, is a popular one.
Many years back, she was an engineer who studied at Anna University, and a Management Graduate from IIM Bangalore who worked in Human Resources at IBM and Sasken.
Aruna, like Alice, jumps into rabbit holes and curiously explores very many paths, allowing herself to grow and shrink and change in the process. She dreams many impossible things before breakfast and loves tea parties with mad characters. She lives in Bangalore with her husband and two black labs. Her children are lovely adults and have flown the nest.
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Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
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Ted Talk
Aruna’s TED Talk explores the power of psychotherapy and how it is defining the new normal. For all the good psychotherapy does for people, it has a stigma associated with it: “You must be crazy if you are in therapy.” She makes a case for why everyone, repeat everyone, could do with psychotherapy and why choosing psychotherapy, far from being crazy, is a smart thing to do.
She creates a strong case for what “Better in the area of mental health” looks like. Her vulnerable sharing of her own curious stumbling into psychotherapy, and how there are supportive, joyful, creative processes that allow for journeys through wonderland invites the rest of us to explore this new normal.
Book
‘And How Do You Feel About That’ is a unique, first-of-its-kind book in many ways. Written by two practising Indian therapists, with fictionalised accounts from their actual clinical practice, the book provides a fascinating inside of what really happens in a therapy room.
In this collection of fifty stories, readers can get a fly-on-the-wall perspective on what takes place in the intimate setting of the therapy room. By writing stories in which many readers can find themselves, the authors hope that the book normalises emotional difficulty. Hopefully, seeing that therapeutic processes can also be creative can help people find the hope that mental health is accessible.
The Team
At the heart of The School of You is a small, committed team of co-dreamers. We call them You-niverse creators.
They balance spreadsheets and soulwork, stir programs into shape, and hold space with the ease of old friends. Meet the core team that keeps The School of You dancing— the steady workers behind every moment of magic. Their presence gives this vision both roots and wings.
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It was all very well to say ‘Drink me,’ but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry.
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Meet the thoughtful ones who read the fine print, stir the potion carefully, and make sure the bottle doesn’t say ‘poison.’
Hima Kakal
Hima Kakal is deeply fascinated by the human experience—how we think, feel, and make sense of the world around us. With a background in psychology, sociology, literature, history, and philosophy, she sees mental health as one lens through which to explore the complexities of being human.
She holds a BA in Humanities and an MSc in Psychology, blending academic insight with hands-on experience. Her work spans diverse voluntary roles, from supporting tribal communities and engaging in social therapy to mental health advocacy. Currently, she is helping build the You-niverse at The School of You.
Beyond her professional work, you’ll find her flowing on the yoga mat, lost in a book, or soaking in the quiet beauty of everyday life. She believes in the butterfly effect—the magic of subtle changes—and is quietly plotting ways to make the world a little more self-aware, one conversation at a time.
Namrata Pai
Namrata is deeply curious about what makes organisations work – and more importantly, what makes the people inside them thrive. With over 12 years at the intersection of business and people, she has worked across Learning and Development, HR Strategy, Org design, and leadership at organisations like Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail and Amazon
Over time, her curiosity moved inward. She became drawn to what sits beneath structures and systems: how leaders think, what drives behaviour, and the patterns that quietly shape teams. And also her own scripts and patterns. That led her to formally train in ICF coaching and Transactional Analysis. She has recently completed her one-year foundation programme in Transactional Analysis with The School of You.
Outside of work, she travels and documents it at Fridge Magnet Tales. When she’s in Bangalore, she’s likely in a café – and she probably already has a recommendation for you.
Ima B. Thayil
Ima graduated in Psychology and Communicative English from Mount Carmel College. She is starry-eyed about The School of You, but we are more starry-eyed, and feel very lucky to have found her.
Ima has already built a body of work that belies her years: founding newsletters, leading editorial teams, facilitating Safe Space conversations, and shadowing clinicians. Her research spans mental health attitudes among college students, assertiveness and loneliness in adults, learning styles in adolescents, and women’s autonomy and trauma in World War II fiction. The last was presented at a Research Slam at Jyothi Nivas College. She has organised national conferences, volunteered at international poetry and film festivals, and won a Word Mastery Challenge along the way.
Work With Us
Are you a practitioner in the field of mental health and well-being? Do you have an idea for a group offering that is innovative? Do you wonder how to change aspects of practice to make mental health services more understandable, accessible, scalable, desirable, inclusive and equitable? We are looking to partner with practitioners with depth, expertise, passion and creativity. Reach out with your ideas. If we find common ground, we’ll bring these to life and send it out into the universe to do good
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When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am, in the middle of one.”
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Fairy tales feed our imaginations and make us look for wonder in our own lives. Yes there are dragons and woods, but the wise and kind do find imaginative and unexpected ways to prevail. If you are in the mood to fall headfirst into an adventure that will change you, the world as you see it and leave a dent in the psychotherapy universe, you know what to do!
Interested in collaborating with us? We’d love to hear from you. Reach out at +91 97411 10947 or write to us at programs@theschoolofyou.in.
Our Space
Tucked away in the leafy quiet of Jeevan Bima Nagar, The School of You space is not quite an office and not quite a home. It sits somewhere in between, and that is precisely the point. Warm red brick walls, a bright yellow spiral staircase, large circular rooms that seem to invite people into something more honest, more present. This is a space that has held many things: laughter, tears, long silences, and the kind of conversation you carry home with you.
This space is also open to you for rent. Click here for details.
Do you delight in impossible ideas before breakfast? Join our tea party of curious minds and see where the adventure takes you. Sign up to The School of You!