Counselling is a process, where you discuss your concerns and issues with a trained professional(mental health – human behaviour), who with his/er skills will help you navigate through the chaos and get clarity.

They are trained to be non-judgmental and help you analyze, synthesize and understand what is happening in your life.

This Discussion happens in a safe setting, and is called a “counselling session”

Depending on their expertise and specialization, there are many types of counsellors, you can choose to consult.

• Marriage Counsellor: Helps sort out marital problems
• Divorce counsellor: Helps you recover from the trauma caused by the process of divorce.
• Relationship Counsellor: Helps you sort out and get answers regarding important relationships in life – friends, colleagues, others , etc.
• Family Counsellor :Helps you and your family to sort out differences in the family.
• Grief and Bereavement Counsellor: Helps with overcoming loss of a loved one.
• Child Counsellor: Helps children with their issues, and also supports parents in, helping with important milestones of their child’s mental development.
• Adolescents’ and Teenage Counsellor: Helps deal with teenage issues like bullying, peer pressure, early addictions, poor behavior and conduct, early romantic relationships, exam pressure, etc.
• Corporate Counsellor: Helps employees deal with work pressure, improve their work efficiency and performance in the workplace. Many times they also head the sexual harassment -grievance cell in companies.
• Student Counsellor: Helps students deal with academic issues, friends and family issues.
• General Counsellor: Helps in personal empowerment and sort out personal issues like stress, emotional balancing, thought corrections, etc.
• Geriatric Counsellor: Deals with the issues and problems of the senior-citizens’ population.
• Women Counsellor: Deals exclusively with women’s mental health and associated areas like hygiene, general gynecological counselling , etc.
• Health Counsellor: Helps maintain physical health, diet and healthy lifestyle.
• Sports Counsellor: Helps with performance on field and mental health of sportspersons.
• Spiritual counsellor: Counsellors appointed within the community/religion, who help using the religious concepts and laws of the community. Example :Church counsellors.
• Oncology Counselling(Psycho-oncologist) : Deals with Cancer patients exclusively. They help with handling the stress and aftereffects of the treatment.
• Clinical – Psychological Counselling(clinical psychologist): They often work in hospital settings and work alongside psychiatrists and help patients in the recovery process. They also help the patients’ families in understanding and looking after the patients after and during the treatment.
• Rehabilitation Counsellor: Help People rescued from difficult situations, to get back into the society and live a healthy-normal life.
• De-Addiction Counsellor: Help People who are into substance abuse to come out of the addiction and live a normal life.
• ….and much more…

FAQs about Counselling

Why do I need a Counsellor?! My friend/Parent also do the same thing!

YES!, A Counsellor is a trained professional, who will know to help you analyze and handle the challenges in your life. A Friend or a Parent, though know you well, might be biased in their understanding of your situation.

A counsellor is able to bring out your untapped potential. They are a shoulder to lean on and rely on, without any added complications in your personal or social life.

Sharing deep feelings and thoughts with a stranger, who accepts you unconditionally and with “no-strings-attached” is more easy and healing than, attempting to jeopardize your existing good relationships.

Everyone’s life experience will be different; hence their learnings and methods of handling situations will be different. What works for one person does not necessarily work for the other! Hence you need an expert and unbiased eye-mind, to look again at your situation and help you out.

What is the Difference between Counselling, Guidance and Therapy?

Counsellor is an expert in human behviour who helps you reflect, and understand your situation. They give suggestions based on studies and, facts derived out of your situation.

Guidance is done by a person, who is not an expert in the field, but talks out his/er personal experience. Example: An accomplished engineer will give you “guidance” on how you can also be as good as him/er. However, he is not an expert on motivation and personal empowerment; to figure out what your potential is, and then help you bridge the gaps to success. This “figuring out” and “helping out” is done by a Counsellor.

Therapy is a session , where during the process of counselling, the client encounters a situation where an intervention /a certain technique, is required to help them get unstuck and come out . Example : too much of suppression(bottling up) of emotions and feelings, over a long time can lead to physical body symptoms like chronic pain, migraine, etc. In a therapy session, special activities/techniques are used to help you throw out this suppressed (bottled up) emotions and feelings- thus making you feel better.

Many times, counselling and therapy are used as synonyms, because they overlap each other (a lot!) in actual practice.

I Don’t need Advice, why should I go for Counselling?!

Counselling is recommended to everyone and anyone who feels like sharing, and talkin their mind out to get some clarity.

You don’t need to be in serious trouble to opt for counselling.

It is like going to a Dentist; you should get regular checkups done, and not wait until your teeth are rotten, for you to see a dentist. It is recommended that you check in, once in a while with your counsellor, to make sure your mental health is fine. This helps identify potential problems, and more than anything else – it helps you make conscious and proper decisions in life.

What happens in a Counselling session?

A session lasts typically from 30 mins to 60 mins, depending on the issue and type of counselling.

It begins with basic introduction of the client and outlining the issue at hand. It involves filling a basic bio-data form and any other important documents, to ensure and say that confidentiality is and will be maintained.

With the cooperation (open-mindedness) of the client, the counsellor will be bale to use their skill set to help them find answers (solace) to their questions and gain clarity.

Do they give Medicines?

A Counsellor, does not necessarily have a background in medicine. They will NOT GIVE MEDICATION of any kind.

Who can do Counselling?

A Person who is studying Psychology for 4 or more years(4 year Bachelor’s degree or Post Graduation in the subject), and has acquired a permission/license to practice is qualified to be a “Professional” that you can trust your mind and life with.

A Person who studies a month’s crash course or, does a study of less than 4 years in the subject is A DANGEROUS PEROSON, who is equivalent to a fraud, or an imposter in the Profession (they can be legally sued for this)

What happens in the professional courses is, the human mind is studied extensively and, the student gets trained to maintain an unbiased and non-judgmental mindset, while practicing the profession. Above all, they are trained in various skills and techniques that help handle the complications and working of the mind in a large variety of situations.

In the real sense, it is not possible for a human being to sit all day and listen to people complain about how bad their life is! But a trained professional is taught and made to practice adequately, until they are almost flawless, when it comes to the skill of dealing with real-time negativity.

Being exposed to the negativity of life is a serious professional hazard for mental health workers, for which you need to be trained- well to handle it . Otherwise, it will affect the clients! The person, who is most at risk, when it comes to unprofessional sessions is the client! Please be careful!

PLEASE CHECK FOR THE PROFILE AND EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION OF THE PERSON, before you go to them for a session. Best still, is check out their testimonials (if any) or their Work experience to help you choose.

Can a 6-month course qualify you as a Counsellor?

DEFINITELY NO! It is a risk to trust your life with a person who has half-baked knowledge and (possibly)strong personal opinions (bias).

Some State and Central Governments actually legally allow people to practice , after a 6-month course or a crash course, however it is not advised to receive counselling from them.

Please note : Skills in different types of Counselling can be a 6-month course (CBT, CAT, REBT, etc), but the art and skill of Counselling (per se.) should be a Post-Graduate Degree, to be most effective .

Should they have a RCI License?

Counsellors dealing with rehabilitation, special needs cases, differently abled, people or children with mental retardation, etc require RCI license. There are specific courses and completion criteria they need to fulfill, before being able to work with these Special Populations.

Counsellors dealing with General population DO NOT REQUIRE RCI License. Example : your counsellor who helps you get over a heart break, sort out your marriage, help your child perform better, deal with stress, etc does not require an RCI license to practice.

Counselors need to be certified as “Clinical Psychologists” to be able to work with cases of mental instability like dementia, personality disorders (narcissism, violent behavior, criminal tendencies, etc), schizophrenia, substance abuse disorders, etc

How do I find the right counsellor for me?

Please go through the list given above and check which category of specialization best suits you/ connects to your issue.

Then, look them up in public forums, media etc to get an idea of their type of counselling, qualifications, experience etc. Only after you are satisfied with the background information, please book a session.

After a session with them, if you feel uncomfortable with them, you can choose to stop and seek another professional. It is important to feel comfortable and to be able to trust your counsellor for the counselling process to work.

Like how one doctor does not define an entire profession, one counsellor does not define counselling.

How much does a Counselling session cost ?

A Session normally should cost between 500/- INR upto 5,000/-INR, depending on the expertise and work experience of the counsellor.

It is strongly advised that you don’t opt for “free counselling”, cause it is mostly offered by people who are not qualified enough or novices(beginners) in the profession! The “free” session might possibly make things dearly expensive later on!

Should I go for repeat sessions? how many??

Most Counselling sessions will require 1 Repeat session to check your progress and such. In any case, the number of repeat sessions depends on the type of case/issue in question.

What will the counsellor ask me?

You will be requested to disclose you basic information about – where you are from, your family tree, past illnesses- if any, past counselling session details- if any along with your name – identity and Age.

Will the personal information I share, be confidential ?

YES. As per the professional code of conduct and ethics, all information shared to a counsellor is legally binding – in a “confidentiality” clause. You will receive a form stating this from your counsellor in the first or second session. Some Clients don’t care for a formal agreement in the form of a “form”, but will choose to go with the verbal promise of the counsellor(each one to his own!)

If your counsellor is seen using this information in in any form of publicly sharing /advertising or using for personal gain, they can be sued in the court of Law. – this is where the “confidentiality ” form becomes helpful.