Pavna is a second-generation Canadian, and her parents were born in India. She has experienced racism growing up in a predominantly white community. She talks to her daughters about racism so they can learn together. She said it is important to unlearn and relearn so that healing and liberation are possible.
With over 25 years of experience in psychotherapy, research, and clinical supervision, Dr. Pavna K. Sodhi (she/her) brings a deeply intersectional and culturally responsive lens to her work. Her extensive practice spans diverse populations across clinical, academic, and supervisory spaces, focusing on trauma-informed care, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) communities, and immigrant mental health. Dr. Sodhi’s research and clinical work explore the nuanced realities of systemic oppression, identity formation, and intergenerational trauma. Her scholarship has been widely published in national and international academic journals and edited volumes. In 2017, she authored Exploring Immigrant and Sexual Minority Mental Health: Reconsidering Multiculturalism (Routledge), a text grounded in the lived narratives of immigrants and sexual minorities navigating migration, trauma, career barriers, and mental health. Her most recent book, Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy for BIPOC Communities: Decolonizing Mental Health (Routledge, 2024), offers a bold and necessary reimagining of traditional mental health practice through an antiracist, culturally grounded, and decolonizing lens. Dr. Sodhi’s work invites practitioners to move beyond cultural competence and toward practices that center equity, healing, and liberation.