The variety of jobs gave Arpita a fascinating opportunity to meet different people. In her lived experience she was facing too many questions which demanded further search. Her exposure in the professional life helped her to understand the unwritten structural disparities prevailing in the job market as well as in the society too. At the same time, she felt that the real strength of people goes unnoticed in the mainstream culture. Perhaps all these drew her towards psychology, social psychology and close to the world of mental health. Since 2009, she pursued relevant courses like MA in psychology from IGNOU, counselling course from Jadavpur University, Post PG Diploma in school counselling from Calcutta University, etc.

She has completed her PhD work on Stigma and marginalization in mental health, from the Psychology department of Calcutta University. She was attached to different Kolkata based private hospitals as a counsellor and also worked in the SPU unit of Applied Psychology, Calcutta University. Arpita participated & organised different workshops & group works associated with mental health and narrative practices in schools, colleges and universities. She worked with the children and caregivers of a special school by organising group works with them at the time of pandemic. The idea of narrative practices has brought new meaning in her work, and life too.

She is focused as a narrative therapist since 2017. She realised from her lived experience, from her personal as well as professional life that there prevail different kinds of intersectionality of marginalization in the society which are very often structural. She also believes in the principles of narrative practices from the core of her heart and value the knowledge hidden in the lived experiences of people which constantly challenge these structural inequalities. She also nurtures a special interest in feminism from her very childhood. She believes that ‘personal is political’.

She has presented papers and participated in symposiums in different national and international seminars/conferences starting from 2015. It principally involved qualitative methodology, mental illness stigma and case studies giving experiential accounts of people’s lives who are facing different kinds of marginalisation.  Some of her presented & published works enlists articles titled: 

‘In Search of a Methodology Beyond A Number’ (2020) 

‘Relatedness, Integration and Reality: An Exploration in Counsellor’s Chamber’ (2018)

‘Psychology and Philosophy of Care as a Concept: An exploration with a Feminist Lens’(2019)

‘Beyond the Dominant Concept of Aging’ (2019) ‘My experience with ‘Others’ (2020)’

‘Narrative Conference: Where Sparkling Hopes Dance in Every Corner’ (2020)

‘Exploring moments during Pandemic Days: Disability redefined’ (2022) 

‘Wives as Caregivers of Persons having Mental Illness: Structural Stigma and Intersectionality Revisited’ (2023)

She has edited & published a Bengali book called “Seuli Bela” by Basanti Chatterjee in August 2018. It is a lived account of partition of Bengal, Migration and a new struggle of a child named KHUKU(who is Basanti Chatterjee herself). Her articles were also published in Bengali feminist anthologies by eban mushayera(2017, 2023). She believes that any art form hidden in our lived experience can take us deep into our comfort zone. She loves to be in solitude and nature too besides spending time with people.