In conversation with Dr. Chinu Agrawal, Founder, Feeling Minds®️

The ECube Lab functions as an educational preventative space unlike a typical counselling or therapy centreroom Here children parents teachers school leaders individual learners and schoolbased counsellors can all work to enhance emotional skills together allowing them to act to prevent emotional challenges before they develop into mental health challenges At a time when schools across the world focused on mental wellbeing and overall personality development on each child the ECube Lab offers an evidencebased and scalable framework that could redefine how futureready education is delivered in IndiaFounded by psychologist and educator Dr Chinu Agrawal Feeling Mindsreg is one of Indias pioneering organisations dedicated to advancing emotional wellbeing It focuses on redefining emotional education while nurturing emotionally resilient selfaware and futureready generations1 What inspired you to create the ECube Lab and why did you feel India needed a dedicated experiential space for emotional educationI have been working in the field of emotional education since 2016 and my work as a psychologist and counsellor has given me a very close view of what children and young people struggle with anxiety anger stress selfdoubt relationship difficulties communication challenges impulsive decisions and an increasing inability to cope with everyday pressures What concerns me is that we often begin talking about these issues only after they become problems We teach children mathematics because we want them to solve problems We teach science because we want them to understand the world around them But when it comes to understanding their own emotions thoughts behaviour and relationships the very things that influence how they experience life we often expect them to simply figure it out For me that gap was the inspiration behind ECube Lab Emotional education cannot be taught like a chapter in a textbook It has to be experienced A child needs to experience frustration make a choice understand the consequence reflect on what happened recognise the emotion behind it and discover a better way of responding That learning becomes meaningful because it is connected to an experience So ECube Lab is our attempt to move emotional education from ldquoknowingrdquo to ldquodoingrdquo It is a dedicated space where children can safely explore their emotions thoughts beliefs choices and relationships through carefully designed experiences and practise these skills before life demands them in difficult situations2 How is the ECube Lab different from conventional counselling or therapy spaces in schools and what do you hope children experience differently when they enter the LabThe simplest way I would explain it is this Therapy helps us address a problem ECube Lab helps us build the capacities that can prevent many problems from becoming overwhelming in the first place Counselling and therapy are extremely important When a child is struggling with a specific emotional behavioural or psychological concern professional intervention is essential But we also need to ask ourselves what can we do before a child reaches that point That is where ECube comes in It is a preventive and developmental approach not a replacement for counselling or therapy Through this space we want children to develop the awareness emotional vocabulary thinking skills interpersonal skills and coping strategies that can help them navigate lifes challenges more effectively The Lab is also deliberately designed as a nonjudgemental experiential space Concepts are brought alive through activities simulations games storytelling discussions role plays props challenges and reflection Every experience follows a structured process Experience rarr Understandrarr Learn rarr Apply rarr Reflectgt Transform We create experiences that allow them to discover question and practise for themselves So when a child walks into the ECube Lab I want them to feel ldquoThis is a space where I can understand myselfrdquo3 The ECube Lab draws from approaches such as CBT ACT REBT and emotional awareness How have you translated these psychological frameworks into activities and experiences that children can actually engage with and practise At Feeling Minds we believe that psychology should not remain confined to clinical rooms or academic textbooks It should be something children can see experience understand and practise in their everyday lives What makes the ECube Lab unique is our use of specially designed experiential apparatus developed from established psychological principles such as CBT ACT REBT and Positive Psychology These concepts have been translated into simple interactive experiences that children can understand and relate to For example instead of teaching children the CBT model of thoughts emotions and behaviour as a theory an ECube apparatus can place them in a situation where they experience how a change in thinking can influence their emotional response and subsequent behaviour Similarly principles from ACT such as acceptance values and psychological flexibility are translated into activities where children have to make choices respond to challenges and reflect on what matters to them The key difference is that we dont teach the framework first and then ask children to apply it We create an experience first and use reflection to help them discover the psychological principle behind it Every experience connects the concept to situations children encounter in everyday life friendships failure competition anger decisionmaking selfconfidence peer pressure and other reallife challenges In this way the ECube Lab becomes a bridge between psychological science and everyday life making complex psychological principles easier to understand remember and practise Our aim is not simply for children to know psychology but to develop the ability to use psychological skills when life actually demands them4 You have already reached over five lakh students and trained thousands of teachers and mental health professionals How does the ECube Lab build on Feeling Mindsrsquo work of the last decade and what gap are you hoping to address nowFor more than a decade Feeling Minds has been working towards making emotional education accessible to children educators and families We have reached thousands of students and worked extensively with teachers parents and mental health professionals The ECube Lab is the next step in that journey For me the important shift is from ldquolearning about emotionsrdquo to ldquohaving a dedicated space to experience this learningrdquo Just as a science laboratory gives a child the opportunity to experiment rather than only read about science we wanted to create a dedicated space where children could experiment with their own thoughts emotions behaviours and relationships We also wanted children to have a physical and psychological space that communicates something important emotional wellbeing deserves a place in school The gap we are trying to address is the lack of structured evidenceinformed and experiential opportunities where emotional competencies can be repeatedly practised A onetime workshop can create awareness But emotional competence develops through repeated experience reflection practice and application5 What changes or outcomes would you like to see in students teachers and parents after sustained engagement with the LabI would like the impact of ECube to be visible not just in the Lab but in the way children think feel behave and relate in everyday life For students the journey begins with selfawareness understanding their emotions thoughts strengths and triggers From there they develop practical skills such as emotional regulation decisionmaking problemsolving communication empathy resilience and responsible behaviour These skills help them handle academic pressure navigate relationships respond to setbacks and make more thoughtful choices For teachers ECube provides a better understanding of the emotional and behavioural needs behind student behaviour helping them respond with greater awareness rather than simply correcting behaviour For parents it creates a common language around emotions and life skills helping them move from reacting to behaviour to understanding what the child may be experiencing and what skill the child needs to develop Over time the goal is not simply to create children who know more about emotions It is to create children who can use that understanding when life gets difficultThat for me is the real measure of ECubes impact6 Looking ahead do you see the ECube Lab becoming a scalable model for schools across India What would it take to make emotional education as integral to the school curriculum as subjects like mathematics and scienceAbsolutely I believe emotional education needs to become a fundamental part of education not an occasional activity conducted when time permits We dont question why children need mathematics science or language We understand that these are essential capabilities for life I believe we need to develop the same understanding about selfawareness emotional regulation relationships decisionmaking resilience and psychological wellbeing But for that to happen emotional education cannot remain limited to annual workshops or motivational talks It needs to be systematic ageappropriate evidenceinformed and experiential with continuity across the childs school journey That is where I see the ECube Lab becoming scalable We have already developed a structured framework experiences and scientific approaches that can be adapted to different age groups and school environments The model can be implemented through dedicated ECube Labs within schools trained facilitators and a structured curriculum of experiences But infrastructure alone is not enough We also need to build the capacity of teachers involve parents and create a culture where talking about emotions is normal rather than something we do only when a child is struggling My larger vision is that every child in India should have access to emotional education just as they have access to academic education Because ultimately education is not only about preparing a child to pass an examination It is about preparing a human being to navigate life And if we want children to be truly futureready emotional education cannot be an optional extra It has to become part of the foundation

In conversation with Dr. Chinu Agrawal, Founder, Feeling Minds®️

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In conversation with Dr. Chinu Agrawal, Founder, Feeling Minds®️

Other Articles

Mid-Day Fast