I distinctly remember that I was in 9th grade when a school counsellor took a class for us and it really fascinated me. It was then that I was exposed to the word ‘psychology’ and the field as well which led me to eventually pursue humanities.

As I grew up, pursued my higher education in psychology, I increasingly grew aware of the generational trauma and mental health struggles in my community, family and within me. The desire to understand its impact more alongside my experience of working with marginalized communities during my fieldwork led me to experiment with myself in the role a counsellor.

Being in that role brought me closer to myself, gave me hope and made me see my own human experience as something to be treated with love rather than “erasing” or “suppressing” it through what oppressive systems in society ask us to do. It was this desire and hope that made me decide to pursue being a counsellor.

As a therapist you encounter new stories and perspectives on human experiences everyday. This particularly excites me and intrigues me as well; the curiosity to know people’s experiences, what led them here and how their experiences developed a certain way in their context as they navigated life. Two completely different individuals can have a similar concern but its trajectory and manifestation can be entirely different; knowing and sitting in the ebb and flow of these stories; realizing that you will be listening to more of these often now makes me want to be a therapist even more. Everyone’s experiences are like snowflakes or fingerprints - distinct and varied, this excites me the most.

Moreover, feeling the impact of these stories in myself pushes me to constantly learn more and delve deeper into the subject of human experience which fascinates and nourishes me.

First therapy sessions can often be a mix of various emotions for both the client and the therapist. There is uncertainty, nervousness, a feeling of not knowing and various other emotions, thoughts and questions that can tickle one’s mind and heart.

In all of these, first and foremost I hope to give the clients a “sense of ease” as they decide to sit with me in the space. Alongside that, I hope to convey to them a “sense of safety, being seen, validated and reassured” since they have chosen to become vulnerable with me. My attempt is to also give them an experience of “we-ness”; where therapy with me feels like a collaborative process. We attempt to understand their life together and I am along-side them.

I do acknowledge that creating these experiences for the client will be a work in progress and not just reserved for the first session. So I do hope I can give them a first impression or a hint that this is what potentially the least they can experience and take with them as we embark on the journey.

Therapy is a space to investigate your inner world in the safety of being seen and understood by the other. Therapy isn’t about a quick fix or immediately getting a solution to the problem. Rather it is more of an exploratory process where you sit with someone who is trained to look at and help navigate your experience in ways that you couldn’t before. This eventually leads one to develop more awareness and insight; giving them more choice, efficiency and control as they tackle their concerns and problems.

You also have the agency and power to decide when you want to start therapy, how you would like to go about it, ask for a change if it isn’t working for you and terminate if you feel the need to.

I hope to cultivate a collaborative relationship with the client where a dialogue can unfold safely in the spirit of openness, kindness, authenticity and non-judgement. Building a foundation of trust in me as a therapist and the process as well is integral to the relationship that I wish to create. I also hope that a sense of curiosity and excitement for the process takes shape as this relationship is slowly forming and evolving. A therapy relationship is a lot like music - in the relationship, both the client and the therapist find their unique rhythm, to sway and sing in.

All relationships come with conflicts, ruptures and tensions - and a therapy relationship is not exclusive of that. I hope to create a relational foundation where ruptures can be treated gently with love; without arousing shame and judgement, that allows us to strenghten and repair the relationship instead of immediately terminating.

My therapeutic approach is psychodynamic and psychoanalytically-inclined.

By this I mean, that we try to explore your concerns in depth by engaging with both the past and the present. By exploring this, we are able to identify repeating themes, patterns, coping mechanisms and defenses that are dominating your everyday life. By touching upon these we are able to gain more awareness, thus allowing you to gain more choice and control as you navigate your everyday life, work, relationships and other aspects. The present moment shared between the client and the therapist, as well as their relationship also holds considerable importance.

I approach therapy as a story-telling experience. Many have been told “something is wrong with you”- but I consider it vital to make a paradigm shift within the session of “what happened to you? Tell me your story”.

I also ground my work in lenses that are post-modern, trauma-informed, queer-affirmative, neuro-affirmative, sensitive to one’s socio-political contexts and other intersectional identities. I strive to build a therapeutic space that is rooted in “no one size fits all” approach, ethics, mutual respect, non-judgement and collaboration.

We are all born and brought up in a society that is dominated by ideologies that are patriarchal and heteronormative. This makes all of us consciously and unconsciously - internalize narratives about bodies, biology and identities whether they serve us or not. Therapy work, much of which is informed by such dominant ideologies needs to be sensitive to this. I incorporate this by first and foremost by being continually mindful and reflective of my own values and biases that I hold and can impact my work with queer and trans folx. As therapists we can unwittingly reinforce normativity, hence the awareness of it is crucial.

For queer and trans folx, I especially am mindful about the language and labels I use. Language plays a critical role in how one sees themselves and feels about the space of therapy. Hence using queer affirmative language and being aware about it is a vital aspect of my work.

Not operating from a standpoint of assuming that I know what a queer or trans person may want to seek help or support for regarding their identities and its impact, or even assuming that they must feeling a certain way about something is essential. It all comes down to exploring what they would want and seek help for, and doing this in a way that doesn’t intentionally or unintentionally pushes them towards embracing normativity.

Lastly, moving beyond binaries and embracing identities as a complex relational phenomenon that can develop and move in various ways. It is up to the client to decide whether they resonate with something about their identity and as a therapist believing it as their truth rather than trying to disagree with or change it to normative standards is a given.