From Science to Systems to Soul: My Path to Purpose
I’ve always known I wanted to make a meaningful impact on people’s lives. I didn’t always know how; only that I was driven by a quiet, persistent tug to help others thrive. It wasn’t a master plan. Just a feeling that shaped my choices, even when I didn’t fully understand them. Little did I know that quiet tug would guide me all the way here.
Like many children raised on Indian values, I was taught that hard work and academic achievement were the surest paths to a good life. When we immigrated to Canada at age eight, I watched my parents live out those values, working day and night shifts, retraining in new professions, and sacrificing so my sister and I could have every opportunity to succeed.
So, I pursued success in the ways I was taught to recognize it: prestigious schools, science degrees, impressive titles. On paper, I was doing just that. But internally, I felt restless. I was still searching for something more personal, more human.
Then I began to wonder: Who was I doing this for? What did success really mean to me? Could a meaningful life be built on other people’s definitions? I dug into my core value of service; it wasn’t just about impact at scale, but about deep personal impact. I recalled Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote: “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded.” Nothing felt truer to my own meaning of success. That’s when I knew I was on the right path in choosing to train as a psychotherapist.
This blog is my attempt to walk you through this personal and professional origin story. It’s framed in three chapters, each marking a shift not just in circumstance, but also in mindset. To make sense of these stages, I borrowed a tool from leading happiness expert, Arthur Brooks, who suggests asking two questions:
What did I learn from this?
Six months later: What good came from it?
This approach helped me see my career not as pivots, but as an evolution. Each chapter added something I didn’t know I needed.
Phase 1: Fervent Discovery
Fresh out of school, I was hungry for purpose and a little addicted to momentum. I racked up experiences quickly: neuroscience undergrad, an MPH from Columbia, an internship at the WHO.
A pivotal moment was turning down a PhD in clinical psychology to take a consulting role at Deloitte. It felt practical, safe, and aligned with my belief at the time that success came from ambition, speed, and proximity to prestige. Clinical psychology fascinated me—but it felt slower, harder to explain, and further from the glittery metrics of success I was chasing.
What I learned: Validation is fleeting. Achievement isn’t the same as fulfillment. Impressive isn’t the same as meaningful.
What good came from it: I met brilliant people and saw that there wasn’t just one formula for a good life. That realization planted a seed for something deeper.
Phase 2: Focused Unpacking
This phase began with a sabbatical. I wanted to shake up my idea of a singular path to impact and explore different ways to serve others. I was a case manager for individuals on ODSP, a DiverseCity Fellow at CivicAction to see how to embed DE&I at all levels of the organization, and a Leadership and Innovation intern at MaRS.
During this exploration, I realized the role technology would play in shaping healthcare; if I wanted to improve health at scale, digital solutions were the future.
And so began my health tech chapter. I helped build digital tools at UHN, including the Medly platform for heart failure patients. I moved to Canada Health Infoway to work on scaling digital health nationally. Later, I joined Amazon Web Services, where I learned the commercial side of healthcare transformation.
This was my season of rolling up my sleeves. Learning how things actually get built, implemented, and sold. At the same time I began questioning who we were really building for.
What I learned: Health tech often moves faster than the people and systems it’s meant to serve. Without pausing, we risk building sleek solutions to the wrong problems. Outside of work, I saw clinicians and patients still grappling with access, equity, and cultural barriers—not the lack of a better product. Somewhere in that gap, I felt removed from the human needs that first drew me to this work.
What good came from it: I gained fluency in how healthcare systems and technologies operate. I was exposed to the breadth of people, processes, and tools that keep a health system running; knowledge many clinicians are never taught. But in immersing myself in this systems lens, I realized how far I had drifted from the patient experience. I began to envision a new role for myself: a therapist fluent in systems. A systems thinker fluent in human behaviour.
Phase 3: Leading with Alignment
This phase didn’t begin with a new title—it started with a pause, a reflection on my values, and a choice to return to the heart of what called me to this path: helping people.
While I was still working, I enrolled in a graduate program at Adler Graduate Professional School to become a psychotherapist. I found that Adlerian psychology provided the framework and language that really spoke to my latent inner drive to help people. It’s grounded in the belief that our sense of belonging and contribution shapes much of our mental health—and that healing comes from fostering connection, courage, and purpose. It felt like I was coming home.
A year into my studies – I decided to leave my job at Amazon. This wasn’t about stepping away from systems work; I’m proud of how that work shaped me and taught me how people, processes, and technology come together to enable high-quality care. I see this step more so as an integration. I now think like both a clinician and a strategist.
In the therapy room, I consider the systems around my clients, the social determinants of their health, and how culture and identity shape access to care. I embrace technology to support, not replace, the therapeutic relationship. Outside the therapy room, I aim to bring my clinical lens back into health systems work: applying behavioural insights, human psychology, and patient experience data to design healthcare products and programs that truly meet people where they are.
At the moment, I’m beginning my clinical practicum at Redbird Therapy Centre: working with clients, deepening my skills, and learning every day. As for the rest of my time: I’m open to the possibilities.
What I’m learning: Alignment isn’t a destination—it’s a practice. Knowing yourself is the first step in helping others. Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is start again.
What good came from it: Well… check in with me six months from now!
One Last Reflection
Harvard psychologist Dr. Ellen Langer says we often get stuck trying to make the right decision, when what we really need is to make our decision right. Not by predicting the perfect outcome, but by showing up with presence, intention, and care.
For years, I agonized over the “right” move. But when I got clear on my values, especially my desire to serve people directly, the decision to return to school and leave a stable job to strike out on my own felt less like a risk and more like a realignment. So I took a deep breath, made the choice, and told myself: Let’s make this choice right.
So here we are. Thank you for reading. Thank you for witnessing.
If this resonates—whether you’re a healthcare leader rethinking systems or someone curious about therapy—I’d love to stay connected. This is just the beginning.
More soon,
Mala
