With kohl in her eyes, a drop of gold on her nose and smoke in her voice, Anupriya Banerjee voice-acts with two hand puppets: an Angry Bird and a mouse that looks like Jerry. Once the light exchange is over, she dips into her bag of tricks to remove animal masks, party masks and commedia dell'arte masks. As a drama therapist, Banerjee, 27, uses stage props to treat people. Using masks, she says, work because they "give you a sense of anonymity."

A bachelor's in psychology from Delhi University and a master's in drama therapy from New York University, Banerjee knew as a first-year student that there were strong links between therapy and theatre. "I would study these psychological concepts [during the day], and I'd go for rehearsals in the evening and feel that it had this therapeutic charm. So, what if we optimised that potential to further the work of psychology and what mental health care practitioners are trying to do? At that point, I was oblivious about drama therapy." One Google search told her it wasn't a new idea. "It was a very humbling Google search. The word 'psychodrama' was actually coined by one of the founding fathers [Jacob Levy Moreno] of the drama therapy movement. It's this semi-structured way of blending elements of theatre like role-play, scene-setting and space into being able to empathise and find resilience and catharsis in your conversation. It's a beautiful technique."