Autonomy: Live the Life

01/09/2026

“আত্মহত্যাকে না বলুন।”
“Su***de is not the solution.”

আত্মহত্যা প্রতিরোধ দিবস এলেই এই কথাগুলো যেন শিশু থেকে বৃদ্ধ—সবার মুখে মুখে ফিরে আসে।

আমার শুধু জানতে ইচ্ছা করে—এই কথাটা আসলে আমরা কাকে বলতে চাই?
যারা আত্মহত্যার attempt নেয়, তাদের?

যে মানুষটি আত্মহত্যার কথা ভাবছে, যে জীবনের একেবারে কিনারায় দাঁড়িয়ে আছে—সেই মুহূর্তে কি শুধু “আত্মহত্যাকে না বলুন” শুনে থেমে যাওয়ার মতো মানসিক জায়গায় সে থাকে?

সে কি মজা করার জন্য এই পথ বেছে নেয়?

এটেম্পট নিয়ে ফিরে আসা কারও গল্প আপনারা শুনেছেন?
সেই মুহূর্তে তার মাথার ভেতর আসলে কী চলছিল?

নাকি তার মাথার ভেতর তখনও হাজারবার ঘুরতে থাকে—

“এটা ছাড়া আর কীভাবে আমি এই পরিস্থিতি সামলাতে পারি?”
“আর কোনো উপায় কি নেই?”
“কোথায় গেলে একটু শান্তি পাব?”

হয়তো অনেকবার সে উত্তর খুঁজেছে।
হয়তো অনেক পথ চেষ্টা করেছে।
হয়তো অনেক কিছু সহ্যও করেছে।

কিন্তু শেষ পর্যন্ত যখন আর কোনো পথ তার চোখে পড়ে না, তখন আত্মহত্যাকেই তার কাছে একমাত্র সমাধান বলে মনে হতে পারে।

তাহলে এখন প্রশ্ন হতে পারে—
আমরা কি হাত গুটিয়ে বসে থাকব? কিছুই বলব না?

অবশ্যই না।

বরং এই ডায়লগের ভেতরেই হয়তো আমাদের কাজটা লুকিয়ে আছে।

আমরা যখন বারবার বলছি—
“আত্মহত্যা কোনো সমাধান নয়,”

তখন আমাদের পরের প্রশ্ন হওয়া উচিত—

“তাহলে সমাধান কী?”

এই “সমাধান”গুলোকেই আমাদের বারবার দৃশ্যমান করতে হবে।

যাতে কেউ জীবনের কিনারায় পৌঁছে গেলে অন্তত অন্য কোনো সমাধান, অন্য কোনো আশ্রয়, অন্য কোনো পথ সেই মুহূর্তে আঁকড়ে ধরতে পারে।

তাদের জন্য অগণিত অপশন, উপায়, সম্পর্ক ও সম্ভাবনা আমাদের সামনে নিয়ে আসতে হবে—যাতে আত্মহত্যার পরিবর্তে অন্য একটি পথ বেছে নেওয়ার সুযোগ অন্তত তার সামনে থাকে।

যাতে সে বলতে পারে—

“এখনও একটা পথ আছে।”
“আমি একটু থামতে পারি।”
“আমি কারও কাছে যেতে পারি।”
“আমি সাহায্য চাইতে পারি।”
“আমি আবার শুরু করার চেষ্টা করতে পারি।”

এই ভাবনাকে সামনে রেখে Autonomy: Live the Life আয়োজন করছে—

IKIGAI: Purpose of Your Being

A 2-Hour Interactive Workshop

আমরা অনুসন্ধান করব—

আমার জীবনের উদ্দেশ্য কী?
আমার অস্তিত্বের অর্থ কী?
কোন কাজ আমাকে সত্যিকার অর্থে জীবনের সঙ্গে যুক্ত করে?
দিকভ্রান্ত হয়ে গেলে কোন জিনিসগুলো আমাকে আবার পথ খুঁজে পেতে সাহায্য করতে পারে?

কারণ জীবনের অর্থ খুঁজে পাওয়া মানে সব সমস্যার সমাধান পাওয়া নয়।

বরং কখনও কখনও এর অর্থ হলো—
সমস্যার মধ্যেও বেঁচে থাকার আরও কিছু কারণ, আরও কিছু পথ এবং আরও কিছু সম্ভাবনা দেখতে শেখা।

আর সেই অনুসন্ধান করতে গিয়ে আমরা আরও গভীরে গিয়ে বোঝার চেষ্টা করব—

আমার নিজের সঙ্গে আমার সম্পর্ক কেমন?
আমি নিজেকে কীভাবে দেখি, বুঝি এবং গ্রহণ করি?
আমার চারপাশের মানুষ, সমাজ এবং এই পৃথিবীর সঙ্গে আমার সম্পর্ক কেমন?
কোন মানুষ, কোন জায়গা, কোন কাজ, কোন মূল্যবোধ আমাকে জীবনের সঙ্গে যুক্ত করে রাখে?

কারণ অনেক সময় জীবনের অর্থ শুধু কোনো একটি “purpose”-এর মধ্যে থাকে না।

কখনও তা থাকে একটি সম্পর্কে।
কখনও একজন মানুষের মধ্যে।
কখনও কোনো কাজের মধ্যে।
কখনও কোনো স্বপ্নে।
কখনও বা শুধু এই অনুভূতিতে—

“এই পৃথিবীতে আমার এখনও কিছু করার আছে।”

এই কর্মশালাটি তাদের জন্য—

🌱 যারা নিজের জীবনের গভীর অর্থ ও উদ্দেশ্য খুঁজছেন
🌱 যারা নিজের পেশা ও কাজের সঙ্গে আরও meaningful connection তৈরি করতে চান
🌱 যারা জীবনের দিকনির্দেশনা নিয়ে ভাবছেন
🌱 এবং Psychology/Mental Health professionals, যারা অন্য মানুষকে তাদের পথ খুঁজে পেতে সহায়তা করেন

একটি কথাকে শুধু বারবার বলার বদলে—চলুন, তার বিকল্পটাও খুঁজে দেখি।

কারণ কখনও কখনও একজন মানুষকে বাঁচিয়ে রাখতে বড় কোনো উত্তর প্রয়োজন হয় না।

প্রয়োজন হতে পারে শুধু—আরেকটি পথ দেখতে পাওয়া।

Autonomy: Live the Life

IKIGAI: Purpose of Your Being

📅 Date: 10 September, Thursday
⏰ Time: 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM
💳 Registration Fee: BDT 450
🎓 Students: BDT 250

🔗 Click here to register: https://forms.gle/vd7yzn5mXZNFBf6u5
For more details, contact 01873-441833 (WhatsApp)

27/08/2026

What is the reason you get up in the morning?
Is it a responsibility? A dream?
Someone you love? Something you still hope to become?

Or perhaps, sometimes, you don't know.

We spend much of our lives searching for success, certainty, and direction—but rarely pause to ask the deeper question:

“What gives my life meaning?”

Somewhere between what we love, what we are good at, what the world needs, and what gives our lives meaning lies a possibility—the possibility of discovering our Ikigai.

This World Su***de Prevention Day, join us for a reflective and interactive journey into IKIGAI: Reason for Your Being.

A space to pause. To look inward.
To rediscover meaning. And perhaps, to find a reason to begin again.

🌱 A 2-hour interactive workshop
📅 September 10, 2026 | Thursday
⏰ 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM
💻 Online via Zoom
🎟️ Registration Fee: 450 | Students: 250
👤 Facilitated by Zayed Bin Farid, Psychosocial Counselor and Mental Health Expert

Find Meaning. Discover Purpose. Imagine Possibility.

Registration is open.

Click here to register: https://forms.gle/vd7yzn5mXZNFBf6u5

For more details contact 01873-441833

Presented by Autonomy: Live The Life

***dePreventionDay

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22/08/2026

Group Supervision for Mental Health Professionals

08/08/2026

When Empathy Feels Overwhelming
By Monzia Mushtaq Saddhācittā

Understanding the Difference Between Empathy and a Therapist’s Trauma Response

Empathy is one of the foundations of therapeutic work. We try to enter the client's world, understand their emotions, and communicate that understanding without judgment.
But sometimes something happens in the therapy room that can be confusing.

A particular client enters the room, begins sharing his experiences, and suddenly I feel overwhelmed. My energy seems to drop. I feel emotionally exhausted. I experience physical sensations such as increased heartbeat, sweating, tension, or a sense of being flooded by the client's emotions.
Initially, I used to interpret this as empathy. I thought, "Perhaps I am feeling what my client is feeling because I am deeply empathic."
I even wondered, "What's wrong with me? Why do I feel so drained with this particular client?"

Supervision helped me understand something much deeper.
What I was experiencing was not necessarily empathy.

In some situations, the client's trauma narrative activated something from my own traumatic experience. My nervous system was responding to the client's story because, unconsciously, something about their experience resembled my own. I was not simply understanding my client's pain.
Something inside me was being activated by it.

This distinction became an important learning point for me:
Empathy allows me to be with the client's experience. A trauma response can pull me into my own experience.
Empathy and trauma response are not the same. Both can involve strong emotional reactions, which is why they can sometimes be confused.

Empathetic response:
In empathy, I am able to understand the client's emotional world while maintaining awareness that this is the client's experience, not mine.
I can think:
"I can sense how painful this must be for you."
I may feel sadness, compassion, concern, or tenderness. But I can remain grounded enough to listen, think, reflect, and choose an appropriate therapeutic response.
There is emotional connection, but there is also psychological differentiation.

Trauma response:
In a trauma response, something in the client's material may activate the therapist's own unresolved traumatic experience or threat system.
The therapist may experience:
physiological arousal
increased heartbeat or palpitations
sweating
tension
anxiety or fear
emotional flooding
feeling overwhelmed
an urge to rescue the client
an urge to avoid or emotionally withdraw
strong anger, sadness, helplessness, or protectiveness
difficulty maintaining reflective thinking
The therapist may consciously believe, "I am feeling my client's pain."
But underneath that experience, their own nervous system may be saying:
"Something about this feels familiar and threatening to me."

The two can coexist.
A therapist can genuinely empathize with a client while simultaneously experiencing personal activation.

The goal is therefore not to eliminate every emotional reaction. That would be unrealistic.
The goal is to develop enough self-awareness and regulation to distinguish the client's experience from our own internal response.
How can I know what is happening inside me?

One of the most useful questions is:
"Am I understanding the client, or am I becoming emotionally flooded by the client's experience?"

Some questions can help a therapist pause and observe:
What am I feeling right now?
What is happening in my body?
Did this reaction begin after the client said something specific?
Is the intensity of my reaction proportionate to what is happening in the room?
Am I thinking primarily about the client's experience, or about something from my own life?
Do I suddenly feel an urgent need to rescue, protect, advise, confront, or withdraw?
Am I still curious about the client's experience?
Can I think clearly and therapeutically?
Does this particular client or topic consistently produce a strong reaction in me?
Does the reaction continue after the session?
These questions can help us move from automatic reaction to reflective awareness.

The body can sometimes tell us before the mind does
One of the important things I learned from my own experience is that trauma activation may become visible in the body before we consciously recognize it.
For example:
Client shares something → therapist's body reacts → therapist interprets it as empathy → therapist becomes increasingly overwhelmed.

Instead, we can learn to notice:
Client shares something → therapist notices bodily activation → therapist pauses → therapist observes → therapist differentiates the client's experience from their own → therapist chooses a therapeutic response.

The body therefore becomes an important source of information.
A racing heart, sweating, sudden tension, shallow breathing, emotional flooding, or a strong urge to act does not automatically mean "I am empathizing deeply."
It may simply mean:
"Something important has been activated in me."

What can a therapist do when trauma activation occurs?

-Develop moment-to-moment awareness

-Ground before responding

-Separate "their story" from "my story"

-Notice patterns across clients
If the same type of client, topic, relational dynamic, or trauma narrative repeatedly produces intense reactions, it deserves attention. Patterns can provide important clues about unresolved material.

-Use supervision
Supervision is not only for discussing difficult clients or therapeutic techniques. It is also a space for examining our own reactions to clients-Countertransference.

-Engage in personal therapy when appropriate

The objective is to become a therapist who can recognize, understand, regulate, and responsibly work with their own reactions

29/07/2026

TA-Based Peer Learning – Season 3-Session 2 | Post-Session Highlights

Another enriching evening of learning, reflection, and connection!

On 26 July 2026 (Sunday), we successfully completed Season 3 of TA-Based Peer Learning, where a small group of dedicated TA practitioners came together online to explore "Racket: A Powerful Diagnostic Tool in Transactional Analysis."

Through thought-provoking discussions, case reflections, and shared experiences, participants deepened their understanding of how racket feelings develop, how they influence behavior and relationships, and how this concept can be applied in therapeutic assessment and practice. The interactive format encouraged meaningful dialogue, mutual learning, and professional growth in a safe and collaborative environment.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined and contributed with openness, curiosity, and valuable insights. Participants' Mindful participation made this session engaging and impactful.

We look forward to hosting next sessions in this season as we continue to Learn • Reflect • Connect • Grow together.

24/07/2026

Supervision is open, anyone can join who curious to know and learn more about you and your client.

Date: 13 August 2026 (Thursday)
Time: 8pm

Supervision is a process and part of psychotherapeutic practice that enhances therapeutic skills, ensures ethical practice, and boosts therapists' well-being. It provides a structured framework for reflection, learning, and development; ultimately benefiting both the therapist and their clients. In supervision, a practitioner can find out different ways of assisting clients, address the stuck point of work, as well as focus on the countertransference issue.
Autonomy is offering supervision that can be taken individually or in group. Anyone who is a mental health professional can join.

Facilitator:
Tasnuva Huque
Counseling Psychologist, Psychotherapist, and NLP Trainer

Registration fee
Individual Supervision (1 hour): 1200 BDT
Group Supervision (30 minutes for each): 800 BDT.

For details and registration, please contact +880 1873-441833

15/07/2026

TA-Based Peer Learning – Season 3

Learn • Reflect • Connect • Grow

We are delighted to invite you to Season 3 of TA-Based Peer Learning—an interactive online learning space for individuals who practice Transactional Analysis (TA).

This peer learning initiative offers a supportive environment where participants can share experiences, discuss real-life cases, strengthen their understanding of TA concepts, and learn collaboratively through meaningful dialogue and reflection.

Featured Session
Topic: Racket: A Powerful Diagnostic Tool in Transactional Analysis

📅 Date: 26 July 2026 (Sunday)
🕗 Time: 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM (GMT+6)
💻 Platform: Zoom
👥 Participants: Maximum 8
💰 Commitment Fee: BDT 200

Register here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11__qkghwtmZxWdS5ojbsDzYEtPHLlNAsG13t64V8sy0/edit

Seats are limited to 8 participants to ensure an engaging, interactive, and meaningful learning experience. Reserve your place today and join us as we explore how rackets shape emotions and behavior, and how understanding them can enhance assessment and therapeutic practice within Transactional Analysis.

For registration or queries, please contact:

Tasnuva Huque
📞 +880 17 1790 1494
✉️ [email protected]

Monzia Mushtaq
📞 +880 1784895561
✉️ [email protected]

05/07/2026

Unlock the Power of Your Mind with NLP Primer!

NLP Primer is a signature course of Heal Bangladesh Foundation (HBF), designed to introduce you to the powerful world of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).

Have you ever wondered how your thoughts shape your behavior, communication, and success? This course will give you a basic understanding of the few models and practical techniques of NLP that can help you:

Whether you are a student, professional, trainer, or simply someone interested in personal growth—this course is for you!

Take the first step towards transforming your mindset and life.

Registration & Details: +8801717901494 (WhatsApp available)

Seats are limited—reserve yours today!

28/06/2026

TA-Based Peer Learning – Season 3: Session Reflection

The TA-Based Peer Learning – Season 3 session was held on 23 June 2026 (Tuesday) from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM (GMT+6) on Zoom. The session brought together a small group of participants interested in Transactional Analysis (TA).

The focus topic, “Drivers: A Powerful Diagnostic Tool in Transactional Analysis,” offered an engaging space to explore how Drivers influence behaviour, emotions, and relationships in everyday life and practice.

Participants actively shared insights, reflected on experiences, and connected theory with real-life situations. The session supported meaningful discussion, peer learning, and a safe space for exchange.

Overall, the session was interactive, insightful, and well received, with participants expressing enjoyment and appreciation for the learning experience. It continued to strengthen the spirit of learning, reflection, connection, and growth within the TA peer learning community.

07/04/2026

“Tradition is nothing but ancestral peer pressure.” - Indya Moore