Growing up with difficult teen years, I wish I had access to a listening space to make meaning of what I was going through and get the support I so felt the need for. A one-off therapy experience was a privilege and made me wonder how things would be if it were a long-term journey? The incident stayed with me for long enough to push me to choose my career path in creating and facilitating such a vulnerable and brave space for others to experience, and benefit.

I love learning about people, their rich stories, unique experiences, choices, interests, and patterns, and the unconscious bits! It is a privilege to be able to hold a vulnerable space for all of this and to witness their journey of reflection and growth unfold. While it is the clients’ space, it is a space for insight, learning, and growth for me as a person and my therapist self as well!

I hope for my clients to feel comfortable, heard, and understood at the end of the first session. A sense that their story matters and they aren’t alone in this journey is a powerful experience I’d like to co-create. While I might be a mental health professional, you the client are still the expert of your life and that’s the experience I hope for you to take back.

Seeking therapy is already a sign of you showing support for yourself! Healing is a slow, gradual process happening in safe relationships rather than in isolation. Co-creating such a relationship can be a powerful experience and will require some time and patience. Therapy is not a space for fixing the self or the problems. It is about identifying and feeling our emotions, processing our thoughts, understanding our behavior, and using this information about ourselves to inform all the choices we make in life. Qualifications are important, but it is vital for you to feel if it is the right fit for you. Please ask questions and feel free to bring in any doubts, or feedback you may have about the process at any point in the therapy space.

I see this relationship as a journey with you the client in the driver’s seat, and I, your co-traveler, beside you in the passenger seat. In this journey, with trust and compassion, we together try to understand your destination, the paths you take or don’t take, and all the experiences between these. While processing these experiences is important, we actively identify, build, and use your strengths and skills to inform and support your driving.

I learnt that my clients resilience is way beyond than what I witness in the therapy space. This healing journey, so unique to each is inspiring in ways that helps me understand myself better and be better.

I value my strength of empathy and authenticity that I bring into the space. My openness to my vulnerability and humanness allows me to be present, and connect with my clients. My presence with my own body enables me to pick up on non-verbals and attune with my clients, that often leaves me in surprise too!

I like to dance, cook, read, paint, play my tongue drum, or plan my next travel or it’s just another episode of Modern family.

My approach to therapy is very emotion oriented and depth focused. Through my training and my own therapy journey, I have realized that is important to understand the root cause of our distress and where it is coming from. This can range from unpacking childhood experiences, exploring needs, self-beliefs and behaviours to understanding the socio-cultural and political context of one’s life and how they are impacted and further impact the person. I believe, insight and knowledge of the body creates sustainable and effective change, if change is the goal. With a belief in the person’s resilience and expertise, my therapy approach also involves helping clients discover and build strengths and resources, that enables them to deal with their concerns.

As a queer person myself, I strive to unlearn the internalized trans and queer phobia and create a safe and accepting space for people of all spectrums of gender and sexuality. To me being queer affirmative means to view and accept self and others as fluid beings. I believe that every individual is an expert of their own unique life. While the community has shared concerns and struggles defining the context, there also exist their unique identities, needs and goals. With curiosity and compassion, I work with them to understand and explore these in a supportive environment. Despite the systemic lens, I do acknowledge the diversity of the community and my blind spots. Thus, I am committed to learning more through real life conversations with folks from the community, as well as formal trainings in QACP as well.