Tuhoon Podcast: Discussing Traumas of the Pandemic

What started as an idea to help people, evolved into becoming a healing space for those struggling with social isolation and past trauma. Tuhoon App is a mental health application started by Naif Al-Mutawa, who is a licensed psychologist as well as a professor of clinical psychology at the College of Medicine at Kuwait University. The app was launched as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and includes meditations, podcasts, masterclasses on topics like productivity, stress and mental wellness, and more. The app’s unique offering is that it is research-based and is backed by Al-Mutawa’s knowledge in clinical psychology.
During the first lockdown, Al-Mutawa conducted research on 14,171 people in the GCC, half of which were from Kuwait itself. The research, which dealt with mental health struggles during the lockdown, showed that 80 percent of the people interviewed were depressed. “Which is a very huge number,” Al-Mutawa said. “But bear in mind that it was six months into lockdown with no end in sight. Two-thirds were anxious and the other two-thirds had insomnia and sleep problems.” They decided to first tackle stress and insomnia, and then deal with depression at a later point.
These findings were the basis of which most of the content was created on the Tuhoon App, including a podcast that Al-Mutawa hosts with support from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences called the Tuhoon Podcast.
Similar to other pandemics like the 1997 Avian Flu, Al-Mutawa noticed a repeated pattern of triggers caused by social isolation. He said that people he hadn’t seen at his clinic for many years had come back during the pandemic because the lockdown had triggered many past traumas. These vital issues were also discussed in season one of the Tuhoon podcast, which airs every two weeks on Monday on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Shopify and the Tuhoon App itself.
The podcast has featured many guest hosts like Sheikha Majda Al Sabah, founder of ASAP Initiative - a nonprofit organization for mental health awareness - Sheikha Intisaar Al Sabah - a social entrepreneur – who discussed topics like the meaning of happiness and coping with depression. While Al-Mutawa discussed personal issues about life-altering situations like divorce and death with his guest hosts, he also ensured that the episodes also discussed mental health during the lockdown.
“We’re just starting out and the podcast has a couple hundred listens in a day,” said Al-Mutawa.
The Tuhoon Podcast has been approved for season two and is gaining more listeners by the day.

Pearl Coutinho