India wide release: Adding culture, art and much needed inner peace to our fast paced maximum city is India’s first unique and multi-dimensional holistic Self-Development Centre for Children, Women and Parents called C.L.A.P or Creative Learning Arts by renowned artist Mishti Verma and serial entrepreneur Faisal Poonawala’s and Performance that opens doors to Mumbai this Friday.
Using the power of creative arts to foster self-expression, learning, healing, growth and development of personal effectiveness across age groups, C.L.A.P is an empowerment lab, activity center and culture hub that uses yoga, theater, board games, dance, creative arts, story- telling and counseling to ensure the overall development of a child with a focus on identifying each child’s unique potential and self- expression.
With initiatives, activities and programs that also center around women and gender sensitization, C.L.A.P is associated with facilitators and experts from multiple creative fields across India (such as art, counseling, psychology and likes) that enable women to deal with key issues such as stress management, work-life balance, strengthening self-identity, mental and physical fitness through counseling, expressive art therapy and healing yoga.
“The art of learning is to learn how to find your wings and that is precisely what the medium of art can do, lend wings to the mind, spirit and being. The premise of C.L.A.P is Metamorphosis – breaking the old mould and shedding ineffective learning patterns to evolving and finding newer wings of rejuvenation. All our offerings center around 4 core values namely courage, accountability, lateral thinking and passion,” says founder Mishti Varma.
C.L.A.P. uses many old Indian arts and revival techniques and skill development programs that stress on Cognitive Therapy, Psychological Counseling and Expressive Arts Therapist via methods such as Healing Story Telling, Creative Movement Therapy, Arts and Crafts, Sufi Dancing, Pottery Classes, Dance Yoga, Healing Yoga and the likes to provide a platform for overall development for children, women and parents alike.
Following the philosophy of right wired thinking and telling the tales of the heart through creative learning processes, C.L.A.P has also tied up with Instituto Hispania to acquaint children with global cultures and language.
Using theatre, performance and conversations, C.L.A.P will also provide a platform for Alternate Theatre Performances, Poetry Jamming, Chai and Rhythm Evenings, Creative Dance Jamming and Children’s Theatre.
C.L.A.P.’s offerings for parents on parenting reflections, counseling and overall wellbeing focus not only on child-parent relationships but also parent-parent relationships and imbibing skills that help you better yourself as a mother, sister or greater still, the creative human being that you are.
Some of its courses include:
· Healing Yoga: Yoga for Self Esteem, Yoga for Mental Health, Yoga for Concentration and Memory, Yoga for Inner Balanceand Fitness for Smiles
· Happiitude: Developing Emotional Quotient using Board games that includes the Happiness Series, Parenting Reflections and Team Work
· Catch Em Young: Enhancing soft skills via theatre for Team Building, Confidence building, Better Focus and Communication, Phonetics and Theatre for Fun (Clowning and Mime)
· Wings-Creative Arts And Self Expression: Learning through wings Healing Story Telling, Creative Movement Therapy, Arts and Crafts, Sufi Dancing, Pottery Classes and Dance Yoga
· Mental Health Counseling through Cognitive Therapy, Psychological Counseling and Expressive Arts Therapy
With a global vision to foster greater well being in families through the magic of creative arts, C.L.A.P plans to open multiple centers in India, followed by a global expansion module with trainers, experts and therapists from across India and the world.
Some of its current associations include popular psychologist Dr. Kanan Khatau Chikhal (who endorses creative arts therapy as an essential ingredient in counselling for children and families), Sufi Whirling by Zia Nath and Theatre Healing and women empowerment /path breaking workshops on self-identity, interactive theatre programs on gender sensitization and diversity by Founder Mishti Verma Thapar (Founder of Inner Katha Interventions and one of India’s foremost experiential corporate trainers, playwrights, experienced theatre directors and women empowerment propagators).
About the Founders: Mishti Verma
Mishti Verma is an experiential corporate trainer and the founder of Inner Katha Interventions. She is also a playwright and experienced theatre director and entrepreneur. Armed with a post-graduation in Marketing Management from NMIMS, she has worked in diverse corporate and entrepreneurial roles.
Trained under top international experts in expressive arts therapy and creative learning, she has conducted Inner katha programs with leading multinationals pan India such as Schneider Electric, Genpact, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Telenor, Schindler, Asian Paints, Indian Oil, Hexaware, Sony, Tata Motors, Hero Motors, Aditya Birla Group and others. She uses a combination of innovative learning methods such as applied psychodrama, poetry jamming, drum circles, expressive arts therapy, forum theatre and structured corporate training techniques.
Mishti has extensively worked on women empowerment through her path-breaking workshops on self-identity, interactive theatre programs on gender sensitization and diversity.
Her work has been featured in top media such as I diva, Femina, Mumbai Mirror, Mid-day, Hindustan Times, Asian Age, Human Capital, Radio One, NDTV and international business magazines such as Cake and Whiskey. Her recent play Zubaan touches upon this very issue through a series of monologues from seasoned theatre artists including Tom Alter, amidst much media and viewer admiration.
About the Founders: Faisal Poonawala
Renowned serial entrepreneur, consultant and angel investor, Faisal Poonawalla started his career in the early nineties when he joined the family business of supplying raw materials to the Metal Packaging Industry by trading in steel, polymers and paper. Post-Graduation in Business Management and Foreign Trade from NMIMS, Mumbai, he moved to Dubai in the late nineties and helped diversify the geographical boundaries of the family business, with sales spreading in markets from Europe to East Asia. Turning a golden centennial this year, Faisal’s unflinching business acumen has grown his Mumbai based business into one of India’s largest players in the Metal Packaging Industry.
Over the years his business interests have diversified and now range from the trade in Metals, Textiles, Food, Cosmetics and Packaging Materials, to Performing Arts & Education and Business Consultancy.
He has been involved in business advisory and consulting services to Startups since 2006 and over the last few years he has been actively pursuing the role of an Angel investor, identifying Startups that need mentoring and funds to grow to their next level.
A foodie and cricket enthusiast he never misses an opportunity to try a new restaurant or cuisine and catch up on a match during his constant travels.
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