India
She/Her
2023 Cohort
Utkarsha Jagga is a counselling psychologist and a narrative practitioner, based in New Delhi, India. Her therapy practice is trauma-informed, queer affirmative, and follows a rights-based approach. She has been an SRHR advocate, both inside and outside of the therapy room, and have the experience of working with intersections including gender, sexuality, religion, and other facets of individual identity.
Resource book on stories of reclaiming pleasure amongst women who have been survivors of sexual assault/sexual violence 
Utkarsha Jagga is a counselling psychologist and a narrative practitioner, based in New Delhi, India. Her therapy practice is trauma-informed, queer affirmative, and follows a rights-based approach. She has been an SRHR advocate, both inside and outside of the therapy room, and have the experience of working with intersections including gender, sexuality, religion, and other facets of individual identity. She has worked extensively with survivors of sexual violence, navigating and rebuilding their relationship with sex, sexuality, and pleasure. The crossroads of mental health, sexuality, and pleasure is imperative in an individual's well-being and hence, a lot of work she has done as a psychologist has been with feelings of shame, guilt, acceptance, and freedom! Besides just talking about mental health, I am equally passionate about pop-culture, Taylor Swift, and cat reels on Instagram.
Utkarsha plans on developing a guidebook or resource book focusing on stories of reclaiming pleasure amongst women who have been survivors of sexual assault/sexual violence.
The idea is to focus on the intersection of pleasure, emotions, and gender, and develop this resource for those who might want to feel a sense of resonance and solidarity. The potential targeted population could either directly be survivors of sexual violence, or mental health practitioners or social workers working with women who have been survivors of sexual violence. The emotional repercussions of a traumatic event such as this are very heavy to bear for any individual, they are often laden with feelings of guilt, anger, sadness, disconnect with self, and a lot of self doubt and mistrust. Such an experience often alters an individual's perception of sex, sexual health, and pleasure, and it is often very hard to reconnect with oneself. Therefore, the guidebook that Utkarsha plans to build through this fellowship, could focus on lived experiences of other individuals, and their stories of reclaiming pleasure without any guilt or shame. Additionally, there could be resources and knowledge focusing on how certain intimate behaviours reduce the chances of dissociation while having sex, and increases the chances of pleasure for the partner who might have had the trauma of sexual violence. Conversations around kink, experimentation in sexual relationships, safety, and deep emotional work also play a huge role when we talk about reclaiming pleasure after a traumatic incident.
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