WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVIST
Following her mantra of “Inspired Action from the Heart”, Atira has been instrumental in changing the lives of thousands of sex trafficked survivors in Asia through her work as a women’s rights activist in Asia.
“We live in a world full of problems, and we are the solutions to those problems.”
– Julia Butterfly Hill
WOMEN’S AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
Following her mantra of “Inspired Action from the Heart”, Atira has been instrumental in changing the lives of thousands of sex trafficked survivors in Asia through her work as a women’s rights activist in Asia.
“We live in a world full of problems, and we are the solutions to those problems.”
– Julia Butterfly Hill
Women’s Rights Activist
Following her mantra of “Inspired Action from the Heart”, Atira has been instrumental in changing the lives of thousands of sex trafficked survivors in Asia through her work as a women’s rights activist in Asia.
“We live in a world full of problems, and we are the solutions to those problems.”
– Julia Butterfly Hill
Following her mantra of Inspired Action from the Heart, Atira has taken her insights off the yoga mat and into the world, initiating Art to Healing, a non-profit organisation empowering and assisting women from trauma and sex trafficking in over eight countries in Asia and the Pacific.
“In Cambodia, I witnessed trafficking first hand – families selling their children on the street. It moved and touched me deeply. I had two choices – keep to my travel plans and try to forget about what I had seen, or stay and allow my heart to break open. I ended up staying in Asia for most of the next decade doing what I could to help. That’s how I live my life – listening to the energy in my body and choosing to follow where it is flowing, where I feel most alive.”
“Despite the powerlessness and hopelessness in the girl’s eyes, I could see their strength and their light, and I wanted to tell them there was hope. This was the start of Art to Healing.”
Atira’s work has focused on setting up yoga and art therapy, mental health trauma and PTSD recovery programs in eight countries including in the Burmese jungle refugee camps, war zones in Cambodia, slums and brothels in Kathmandu, and Aboriginal communities. At their core, the programs inspire and teach women to love themselves, build their self-esteem and live free from slavery, both within and without.
“Reclaiming the feminine gives voice to our emotional self, to the body’s intelligence, and using that as the fuel for our social change.”
The wisdom Atira teaches is borne from her own personal experience of childhood violence and abuse and conditioned shame about being a woman. As an Asian female, she understands the cultural imprints of patriarchy and the practice of femicide in her ancestry.
“Through holding and loving myself, and through various spiritual and somatic practices, I’ve learnt how to become free from the chains of patriarchy in my soul, mind, heart and body. I’ve learnt how to share my gifts with these women so that they can also rebuild their lives.”
Art to Healing has also initiated art therapy and somatic experiencing programs as a response to disaster and PTSD recovery after the earthquake in Nepal.
Atira has also been involved in several art therapy research projects and authored the chapter Surviving Shame: Creative Art Therapies with Sex Trafficked Survivors in Cambodia, from the book: Art Therapy in Asia published by Jessica Kingsley (2012). She has also published academically in other art therapy peer-reviewed journals, such as ANZATA. In 2018, she initiated and co-facilitated the first Somatic Experiencing Trauma Resolution Professional training for sex-trafficked survivors which was endorsed by SETI in Nepal.
“The path of heartful service can be the greatest path towards spiritual awakening.”
Atira has contributed to various research reports on trauma and sex trafficking, including as co-researcher on post-traumatic growth in sex-trafficked survivors for the UN ‘Rights of a Child’, and has been published in books on art therapy, reproductive health and gender-based violence.
In 2010, Atira was voted by Asian Spa Magazine as one of the Top Ten Philanthropists in Asia.
In 2016, moved by the devastation of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, Atira founded Yoga for Freedom in Australia, bringing the global yoga community together to raise money and awareness for this cause, and the 20.9 million children, teens and adults globally living in the sexual slavery. Yoga for Freedom is continuing its third year in a row, bridging the western commercial yoga industry with the spirit of giving back to those less fortunate through the practice of yoga, raising over $65,000 for the cause of ending child sex slavery spanning 4 years.
Nowadays, Atira is the clinical director and CEO of Art to Healing, and is currently working on her PhD. She is researching the efficacy of creative and somatic approaches for trauma resolution in sex-trafficked survivors in Asia, and creating a new paradigm of recovery from developmental, complex and cultural trauma for Asian women and girls.
“Atira is a gorgeous human being and an incredible, wise, passionate, empathic teacher. She is deeply committed to supporting women to heal themselves. Atira’s gentle, open-hearted nature enables women to feel safe and welcome, whilst her continued reminders of the importance of allowing oneself to be vulnerable serve to inspire her students with a deep desire to live with an open heart.”
– Jess Phillips, Writer, Melbourne, Australia
