Wellness skills for students, before a
crisis is the only reason anyone shows up.
Soul Sojourn brings volunteer-led breathing and nervous system regulation sessions to schools, colleges, and universities across Pakistan, at no cost to the institution or its students. Not for profit, free of charge.
Most students never get help before it becomes urgent.
Mental health support in Pakistan is built to respond after things have already become severe. Soul Sojourn works upstream of that moment, teaching simple regulation skills to students long before a referral would ever be considered.
Adolescents aged 10 to 19 worldwide live with a diagnosable mental health condition, most unrecognized and untreated.
WHO, Mental Health of Adolescents
Of surveyed Karachi high schoolers screened positive for anxiety or depression symptoms.
2020 cross-sectional study, n=400, PMC9121923
Of adult mental health disorders are already present, mostly undetected, by age 18.
WHO, Mental Health of Adolescents
Current weighted prevalence of psychiatric disorders across the general Pakistani population.
National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of Pakistan, 2022
Pooled prevalence of depressive symptoms among Pakistani university students, across 26 studies.
Systematic review & meta-analysis, PMC7820542
A separate, more recent pooled estimate across 35 studies and over 11,000 students.
Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health
Psychiatrists per 100,000 people in Pakistan, against a WHO benchmark of 1 per 10,000.
Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 2025
Estimated treatment gap for people with a diagnosable mental health condition in Pakistan.
WHO-AIMS evaluation
The two university prevalence estimates (~43% and ~51%) come from separate meta-analyses with different study sets, and don’t fully agree — that’s normal given how much screening tools and sample populations vary across the underlying studies. Treat both as directional evidence of a large, real problem rather than a single precise figure.
Regulation works because stress narrows the mind, and calm opens it back up.
When the body is in a stress response, attention narrows to the immediate threat. This is a well-documented feature of how the brain handles acute stress: the parts responsible for weighing options become harder to access, while the parts focused on immediate reaction take over.
Simple regulation techniques — an extended exhale, a grounding exercise, a moment of stillness — work by signaling to the body that the immediate threat has passed. As the stress response eases, more of the brain’s reasoning capacity becomes available again.
Most services in Pakistan only meet a student after that curve has already tipped into crisis. Soul Sojourn works earlier, at the point where the skills are still simple to teach and easy for a student to use on their own.
Most services in Pakistan meet a student after the crisis marker. Soul Sojourn works at the early-signs stage, while the skills are still simple to teach.
The same skill, adapted for three very different rooms.
Building a first vocabulary
Age-adapted sessions for students still learning to name what stress feels like, plus a parallel track for teachers and parents so the skills are reinforced at home and in class.
Exam pressure, first independence
Sessions built around exam stress, social comparison, and the transition to more independence, delivered in a format that fits into a free period or a society event.
Deadlines, debt, and the job hunt
Sessions for undergraduate and postgraduate students facing thesis deadlines, financial stress, and job pressure, with an optional peer-leader track so the skills outlast a single visit.
Offered as part of Soul Sojourn's community give-back program.
A single, age-adapted session covering one clear idea: how to notice stress in the body before it takes over, and one or two techniques — breath-based and grounding — students can use immediately.
For institutions that want more than a single touchpoint, a short multi-session series builds on the core session, layering in additional techniques and giving students repeated practice.
A shorter session for teachers, faculty, and campus counselors, so the techniques introduced to students are reinforced day-to-day rather than fading once volunteers leave.
A small group of student volunteers is trained to lead basic breathing and grounding exercises themselves, so the skills continue to spread across a campus between our visits.
A short, age-appropriate questionnaire institutions can use before and after a session. Not a clinical or diagnostic tool, but a way to see whether the skills are landing.
Bring this to your students, wherever they're studying.
This program exists because we believe every student deserves these skills, regardless of what a school or family can afford. If you’d like to schedule a session or ask questions first, get in touch and we’ll take it from there.
- WHO, “Mental health of adolescents” fact sheet (2025 update); WHO, “Adolescents: health risks and solutions” fact sheet.
- Prevalence of anxiety and depression in high school students of Karachi, Pakistan (2020 cross-sectional study, n=400), PMC9121923.
- Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, “Highlighting Pakistan’s psychiatrist shortage amid a persistent mental health crisis” (2025), citing the National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of Pakistan (2022).
- “Closing the mental health gap: transforming Pakistan’s mental health landscape,” PMC11835998.
- “Evaluating Pakistan’s mental healthcare system using WHO-AIMS,” International Journal of Mental Health Systems, PMC11515678.
- Prevalence of Depressive Symptoms Among University Students in Pakistan: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, PMC7820542.
- Prevalence and epidemiology of depression symptoms among Pakistani students: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2000–2025), Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health.
- The link between acute stress and reduced prefrontal cognitive function is well established in stress physiology research; this page describes the general mechanism rather than citing a single study.