Hidden Gems: Meet Hasti Raveau of Mala Child & Family Institute

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Hasti Raveau.

Hi Hasti, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My family and I immigrated to America from Iran when I was 12. During acculturation, I became fascinated by psychology, culture, and family systems. I attended Wayne State University to obtain my bachelor’s in psychology and became involved in research projects focused on studying the parent-child relationship during infancy. This led to pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology, where I studied resiliency factors in toddlers and their families when faced with significant adversity and risk. I had the privilege of training in pediatric care at major universities and health institutions, such as Children’s Hospital in Detroit and the University of Michigan.

During my last year of graduate school, my only sibling died of suicide at the age of 17. He had been diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety only a year earlier. My world was shattered. I felt so traumatized, confused, and lost. With the immense amount of support and love from the people around me, I learned that we never fully recover from such trauma but learn how to move on in life with it. Eventually, I could understand what happened to my brother and my family. I made it my life’s commitment to keep my brother’s memory alive through my professional work and my relationship with my own children.

Motherhood and the COVID-19 pandemic truly changed the course of my professional career. I always envisioned myself working in a hospital setting. Instead, in 2018, I started my own business and opened my practice, allowing me to set my own schedule. When the pandemic started in 2020, there was an outpour of patients needing mental health care. This gave me the motivation to start an organization focused on quality training and mental health care. In January of 2021, I began to grow my practice. Soon after the Mala Child & Family Institute was born. In the past three years, we have grown into a team of 40, with three locations in Ann Arbor, Farmington Hills, and Plymouth.

A mala is a string of beads used to help focus the mind and body during meditation or prayer to shift us to calm and presentness. Each bead connects with the others to form a whole strand, just like each of us as humans is connected to our families, communities, and the world. Mala is a reminder that we need each other and our nurturing communities to be at our best and to live the most fulfilling lives we are meant to live. It is a true daily reminder to me of what I have been able to accomplish with the help of my incredible community and higher power.

Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
I don’t think many roads to success are smooth. Mine, for sure, has not been. Navigating my educational and professional career as an immigrant and a woman of color has always come with challenges. Losing my brother to suicide and finding faith, hope, and meaning again in our field of mental health was a huge challenge for me. I wanted to give up, but something kept me going.

Lastly, raising a child with special needs has been another challenge. My son was diagnosed with autism and a speech disorder when he was a toddler. Our world is not best suited for supporting children whose brains’ are differently wired. The journey of raising him in the best way possible has been an incredibly emotional one for me. It has challenged me to let go of control and obsessive anxiety, grieve what I thought motherhood would look like, let go of my ego, and embrace the present moment.

Finding a balance between motherhood and work has taken a lot of effort; it can be easy to feel guilty for working and always want to put my needs last. However, I feel proud of myself for feeling more grounded in my various identities and leading a life of purpose for myself and others. My son has been my biggest teacher, and I am forever grateful for him.

We’ve been impressed with Mala Child & Family Institute, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share about what you do and what sets you apart?
Mala Child and Family Institute is an integrative mental health organization focused on ending intergenerational cycles of trauma and training the next generation of mental health practitioners.

My organization has flourished into a beacon of support for clients and families navigating the intricacies of mental health. Our initiatives range from trauma-informed, culturally sensitive, and neurodiversity-affirming care, community outreach work, to intensive training programs for mental health providers, all aimed at fostering a more compassionate and integrative approach to mental well-being.

Our therapy services for children, families, and adults include play therapy, art therapy, parent coaching, executive function coaching, exposure therapy, reunification therapy, couples and family therapy, and integrative talk therapies (e.g., ACT, DBT, TF-CBT, IFS, EMDR). We also provide specialized care for eating disorders, substance use disorders, and high-conflict divorce families. We currently service over 700 clients between our three clinics.

Our comprehensive evaluation services are focused on diagnostic clarification for attention deficit hyperactive disorder, learning disorders, anxiety and obsessive and compulsive disorders, trauma disorders, and personality disorders. We provide a roadmap to clients seeking academic and occupational accommodations and offer school advocacy services if needed.

50% of our efforts go towards training the next generation of mental health providers. We are an approved training site for the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and the University of Detroit Mercy. We have intensive training programs, ranging from undergraduates to post-doctorate for social work, psychology, and professional counseling.

This year, we birthed our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility program to provide even a more safe, supportive, and inclusive space for our staff and patients. Our future plans include bringing on psychiatric prescribers, occupational therapists, and starting a non-profit in my brother’s memory.

What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is to be of service to myself, my higher power, and those around me in authentic and fulfilling ways. I care about my own commitment to myself to never stop growing.

I care deeply about community and connection because I deeply believe that relationships are the core of our existence. I believe I am on this earth to leave it a better place, which would be the biggest honor of my life.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.malafamily.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/malainstitute/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/malachildandfamilyinstitute
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hasti-raveau-phd/

Image Credits
Alvyn Marianan Photography