Being a counselor came very organically to me. My journey in the mental health field began when I started volunteering for an organization that worked on raising awareness for abuse. Working and interacting with survivors and spreading awareness felt like home to me.

The interactions and narratives I came across helped me understand mental health more in depth. I dove into understanding trauma, its impact and how I could provide assistance to anyone who may have faced challenges.

The different topics of conversation and insights you learn in every session. It’s amazing to see how take-aways from a session can be so different; sometimes it’s the little things that are said in passing that hold the biggest value.

First sessions can cause a lot of anxiety! I just hope for my clients to go back with a sense of calmness and safety. A feeling of ’that wasn’t scary at all’ and that it feels like its just another conversation! I feel like having a catch up or ranting about the most random facts helps so much in first sessions because it warms you up so much to the process and makes it easier to open more parts of you that you’re ready to explore!

Therapy can be fun. It need not be only about the presenting problem but can be about the most random fact that you have learnt, a rant session about something that irritated you, or even about just bettering yourself. You don’t need to find big events in your life to feel like it is valid to approach a therapist. People always question themselves, whether they are over thinking and minimize the problems. But as long as there is something that is bothering you, it is worthy of being addressed.

I like working with the client to understand their need at the moment and take every session as per their requirement. I strongly believe that the client should hold most of the control and power when they come to therapeutic space. I feel like we both are co-travelers in the therapeutic process and their opinion holds far more value. I like to base my approach on feedback to understand the comfort of the client and alter the session as per their needs.

My greatest learning has been how fun therapy can be. We often make it sound quite intimidating, scary and a tough space to be in. But what I bring to my sessions is holding space for multiple feelings which could be moving from an important conversation to laughing about something making it light.

I love how I can bring myself into the therapy session. I bring my funny, quirky and goofy self in, where I dont have to feel the need to have a ‘formal’ conversation detached from how i would present myself. I love how differently I can articulate myself depending on how they’re best able to build that connection with me. I like to bring in culture and my desi-ness into therapy because I think that plays a huge role in making therapy feel less scary and more human!

Making my special kadak chai, baking or going for a walk!

My approach is very eclectic in nature. This means I like to incorporate different techniques from different schools of thought depending on whats the comfortable process for you! I have a person centered and unstructured approach which basically means that my session planning is based on your needs and you’re the one in the drivers seat in our sessions. I follow a collaborative approach which means I work alongside the client to prioritize their comfort.

I also like to use a trauma informed approach which means i like to understand how our body plays a role with our emotions. Sometimes, when our mind can’t take too much and we prefer to push things down the deep end, our body does the remembering for us. I like to help you discover how our body holds a lot of feelings. I like to work with the body and the mind as a whole where we can understand and connect with our bodies in a whole manner.

I always introduce myself with my pronouns, and always ask my client to share theirs if they’re comfortable. In my approach, the one thing I’m always mindful of is my language. Words hold lot of power when addressing/understanding someone’s gender identity and sexuality. Holding a space for them where they can safely explore their identity, whether it is to define it or just understand it for themselves is something that holds a lot of importance in my practice.

I always ask my clients for the name that they would like to be addressed as and also encourage them to dress or keep some small trinket with them which makes them feel more like themselves in this space.