Sriya Bhattacharyya
Adjunct Faculty
MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Buddhism-Informed Contemplative Counseling
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Dr. Sriya Bhattacharyya is a Bengali-Indian, American psychologist working at the intersection of social transformation and creative healing. With a background in community development, trauma, yoga, and therapeutic art, Sriya teaches, researches, and designs programs—and provides individual services to dismantle systems of oppression, uplift community voices, and liberate all beings.
Sriya was introduced to contemplative praxis through her family—a mix of Hindu priests and freedom fighters who live in Kolkata, India. Sriya found sangha in Turtle Island/America through Shambhala Boston, where she engaged in the BIPOC, Queer, and social meditation communities. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Florida, her master’s and doctorate degrees in counseling psychology from Boston College, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Medical Psychology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Sriya provides specialized psychological evaluations for international human trafficking survivors and asylum seekers who are in the immigration system.
Sriya has been featured in The Boston Globe, NPR, Al Jazeera, and The New York Times and has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including an Excellence in Campus Leadership Award from the American Psychological Association, a Brookline Community Foundation Spotlight Grant Award, Diversity Fellowship from Boston College, and an Orbis Institute International Teaching Fellowship. She has presented at over 45 national and international conferences and has published over 15 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on creative arts therapy and social liberation. She is excited to be part of the Naropa community!
PUBLICATIONS:
- Bhattacharyya, S., Park, E. Y., Adler, S., Saklad, S., & Davis, O. (2023). The crane project: Mixed-methods analysis of an expressive art therapy intervention to promote collective healing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Traumatology.
- Bhattacharyya, S., & Towler, Z. (2022). “We Were Silent and Now Have Voices”: Qualitative Analysis of Low Income Women’s Experiences Healing and Thriving Through a Community Arts Group. Group 46(1), 45-75. https://doi.org/10.1353/grp.2022.0003.
- van Leer, K. A. F., Ashby, K. M., Bhattacharyya, S., McGillen, G. G., & Simmons, C. M. (2021). When Students Listen: A Co-Constructed Autoethnography of Graduate Student Activists Eradicating Racism in Higher Education. Global journal of community psychology practice, 12(3), 1-23.
- Adler, S., & Bhattacharyya, S. (2021). Beyond the nurses and doctors: Structural racism and the unseen frontline service workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychiatric Services, 72(5), 594-596.
- Bhattacharyya, S., Breslow, A. S., Carrasco, J., & Cook, B. (2021). When structural inequity is ubiquitous, can force ever be compassionate?. AMA Journal of Ethics, 23(4), 340-348.
- Bernstein, C. A., Bhattacharyya, S., Adler, S., & Alpert, J. E. (2021). Staff emotional support at Montefiore Medical Center during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 47(3), 185-189.
- Bhattacharyya, S., & Brenner, C. (2021). “Mending Broken Pieces”: A Group Healing Arts Psychotherapy Model. Group 45(1), 31-52. https://doi.org/10.1353/grp.2021.0008.
- Bhattacharyya, S. (2020). Muslim Women Resist. An Arts-informed Participatory Qualitative Inquiry. Doctoral Thesis. Boston College.
- Bhattacharyya, S., Lykes, M.B., Carrasco, J. (2020). Echo Images: An Arts-based feedback tool for qualitative research interviews. Qualitative Methods in Psychology. 30, 62-72.
- Bhattacharyya, S., Kaur, J., Corpus, G., Lykes, M. B., & Heesacker, M. (2018). “There Are Many Social Evils… and Only We Can Cure It”: A Thematic Content Analysis of Privileged Indian Youth’s Perspective on Social Issues. Journal for Social Action in Counseling & Psychology, 10(1), 2-23.
- Hopper, E. K., Azar, N., Bhattacharyya, S., Malebranche, D. A., & Brennan, K. E. (2018). STARS experiential group intervention: A complex trauma treatment approach for survivors of human trafficking. Journal of evidence-informed social work, 15(2), 215-241.
- Bhattacharyya, S., Woods, M., & Lykes, M. B. (2017). Can educational policy redress historical discrimination? Exploring a University Community’s experiences with India’s caste-based affirmative action policy. Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 3(2), 38-59.
- Baranowski, K. A., Bhattacharyya, S., Ameen, E. J., Herbst, R. B., Corrales, C., Gonzalez, L. M. C., … & Miville, M. L. (2016). Community and public arena advocacy training challenges, supports, and recommendations in counseling psychology: A participatory qualitative inquiry. Journal for Social Action in Counseling & Psychology, 8(2), 70-97.
- McGillen, G., Bhattacharyya, S., & Lykes, M. B. (2016). Undocumented Migrants, Rights Literacy, and ESOL Classrooms: A Community-University Partnership to Enhance Psychopolitical Learning. LEARNing Landscapes, 10(1), 183-198. https://doi.org/10.36510/learnland.v10i1.728
- Bhattacharyya, S., Ashby, K. M., & Goodman, L. A. (2014). Social justice beyond the classroom: Responding to the marathon bombing’s Islamophobic aftermath. The Counseling Psychologist, 42(8), 1136-1158.
- Perrin, P. B., Bhattacharyya, S., Snipes, D. J., Calton, J. M., & Heesacker, M. (2014). Creating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender allies: Testing a model of privilege investment. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(2), 241-251.
- Hubbard, R. R., Snipes, D. J., Perrin, P. B., Morgan, M. R., DeJesus, A., & Bhattacharyya, S. (2013). Themes in heterosexuals’ responses when challenging LGBT prejudice. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 10, 269-278.
- Perrin, P. B., Bhattacharyya, S., Snipes, D. J., Hubbard, R. R., Heesacker, M., Calton, J. M., … & Lee-Barber, J. (2013). Teaching social justice ally development among privileged students. Deconstructing privilege: Teaching and learning as allies in the classroom, 49-62.
