Our Story
How it all began. What’s love got to do with it?
During the fall of 2016, I was living and working in Kyiv, Ukraine as site director for a USAID-JHU mental health and humanitarian assistance program with war-affected persons. I had also just begun working on a new research project with Syrian medical staff impacted by the violence and traumas of their civil war. At the same time, back home in the U.S., a turbulent presidential election season and massive social movements were under way. Various global shifts were taking place, and so much felt charged and uncertain.
The previous month, during a short break, I attended a yin yoga retreat on the western coast of Estonia. The opportunity to slow down, breathe, and feel into my body felt magical after months of overwhelm and 80 hour or more work weeks. The experience was a salve, and it allowed me to become more conscious of the psychological pressures I had been experiencing while running a large-scale community mental health operation that served people impacted by devastating traumas.
“Without love, our efforts to liberate ourselves and our world community from oppression and exploitation are doomed.”
When I returned to Kyiv, I brought this embodied awareness back with me, as well as new yoga practices . Each morning, while it was still mostly dark, I went from my sofabed in the small apartment I was renting straight to the floor. I would light a candle and settle on my lavender-hued yoga mat that felt infused with the centering energy of the retreat. With my forehead touching the ground, I would feel my body settling downwards, until I felt as though I could connect to the concrete structures of the multi-storied building, all the way down to its foundations, and even deeper, to the earth below.
While holding that pose for half an hour every morning, I would allow my body and mind to slow down and tune into a deeper knowing about the work I was doing - an intuition that went beyond the many to-dos, spreadsheets, and emails I had on my plate. During those sessions, I felt as though my body were absorbing, and experiencing, the varied pain and suffering of the communities I was working with, of friends and loved ones back home, and, more broadly, of peoples around the world impacted by violence, war, conflict, marginalization, and trauma.
With a single deep breath, I could feel both that pain and a deep, all-encompassing sense of love for all of them - for all of us, together, as one, big, hurting collective. It was a feeling of communal love that resonated through me, to my bones.
I had a sense that there was something lacking in the work I’d been doing and the way most of us in this field had been trained - it was in the disconnect and often forced scientific detachment, the limited availability and use of approaches that deeply engage communities and respect their wisdom, and the lack of space or tools for practitioners to bridge their personal experiences and worlds with the professional.
It was in those moments on the mat that I felt called to bring a love-based approach to my public health work and to systematically develop new methodologies and tools grounded in equity, justice, and love. As burnout began to build in my own body and mind, I knew that we, as global community health workers and others doing similar work, needed more tools and approaches that recognized our own humanity and wellbeing, as well as that allowed us to bring our identities, values - our whole selves - to our work.
We needed heart-based methods and to cultivate a community where we could practice these skills and show up more consciously in our work. We needed trainings and tools that honored the strengths and knowledge of the people we aimed to serve. And this had to go beyond buzz words and checking a box to an authentic commitment to equitable work.
I knew that talking about love and heart with fellow scientists and health professionals would not be easy, and I was nervous to bring my vision to reality. Would any of this be taken seriously? But I also knew that there were many who needed a new way forward, just as I did. I felt this work was something that had to be done, no matter the risk. When I left my position and returned to the U.S. nearly a year later, I spent time cultivating my ideas for this new approach, building my organization and its presence, and honing my skills in health equity and ways in which to infuse justice and values-based techniques into public health work.
When we can hold space for our own inner transformation, we are more able and equipped to do so with communities.
Let’s create impact and improve collective wellbeing together.
Namrita S. Singh, PhD MSc
Founder, Health Research Toolbox (HEART)
2021Growth
The next phase of our evolution involves expanding our network and working with a range of clients and partners, including: state and local health agencies, universities, survivors of trauma, and more. We’ve partnered with international humanitarian organizations, the CDC, and smaller community-based service providers as well. The common thread has been a commitment to embedding equity, and values-based approaches, into our coaching, courses, and consulting.
2016Vision
The idea for a heart-based approach to public health emerges out of humanitarian assistance work and global health research in conflict-affected Ukraine and with Syrian medical professionals. What if our community health work, and the methods we used, were powered by love and social justice principles? It’s time to chart a new path forward.
2018Preparation
HEART’s expertise and tools are grounded in years of training and hands-on experience in health equity, social science research, and global health work. This time is spent cultivating ideas for a new, heart-based approach and honing methods in health equity and ways to infuse justice and values-based approaches into public health work.
2019Formation
Health Research Toolbox, or “HEART,” is established. We use the name HEART as an abbreviation for our full name, an acronym for what we do (health equity and action research for transformation) and an indicator of our values. At this point, we work on developing our consulting and coaching portfolio by working in the health equity and EDI spaces. The learning and growth continues!
2023Evolution
Now we’re upleveling and moving forward with implementing the next phase of our work - one that we’ve been dreaming up since the start. We’re working behind the scenes to create new digital products and other offerings, including intimate group coaching experiences and high caliber courses on our heart-based methods. Our team has grown and so has our impact!
Do you want to be the first to know about our new offerings? Get in touch and we’ll make sure you don’t miss out!
Our Logo
Coming soon!