COUNSELING SERVICES
Divya
Divya is a Counseling psychologist and Licenced Special Educator, experienced in dealing children with behaviour issues and disabilities.Trained in Cognitive Analytical Therapy and certified to provide Psychological First Aid. Her umbrella of interest in working with children include substance abuse, reproductive health, behavior addiction and learning difficulties.
Jebin
Jebin has been the field of psychology for 4 years. He is specialized in dealing with clinical cases such as depression, anxiety and relationship issues as well. He currently works with Docsapp, with online and face to face consultations.
Mona
Mona is a Counselling Psychologist in the field of Psychology for the past 5 years. She is trained in transactional analysis, gestalt therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy and family and marital therapy. She is adept in dealing with issues regarding relationships, self esteem, body image, depression and anxiety. She provides a supportive, understanding and confidential environment to her clients. She helps them understand and manage their relationships, challenges and stress better so that they can establish emotional wellness in their lives.
Rakshitha
Rakshitha is a social worker trained to address social injustices such as poverty and discrimination against girl child. She is dedicated to working for the welfare of the community and has helped resolve many family dispute cases and domestic conflicts. She is a gold medalist in MSW from the University of Mysore. She has a rich experience of working as a MSW lecturer, family counselor and geriatric counselor for 2 years. She has been a child counselor for 3 years. Her empathy and communication skills are strengths she brings into her work to help the individuals, families and groups of people to cope with the problems they’re facing so that it can improve their lives.
Introduction
One of the skits that we enact in schools, is to voice out the stress that parents face. Children enthusiastically reveal the daily grind that parents go through from dawn to dusk. We end the skit by asking a rhetorical question “Father has stress. Mother has stress. But what stress could a child have? Are children not stressed?” And invariably, irrespective of the socio-economic status of the school, the answer is a resounding ‘children do face stress’! Stress from academics, from peer-pressure, from parental expectations, from sibling rivalry etc. Deep down there are other hurts of rejection, fear of real and perceived threats, and anxiety over behavior which is not in line with societal norms.
Children at government institutions, are at an extreme end of the deprivation spectrum. They are more often than not neglected by family, forcing them to take huge decisions for their lives very early on in the life-cycle. They usually face traumatic upbringings, which leaves huge scars on their concept of family and their roles and responsibilities to one another. To unwind these knotted areas of their lives, takes a long time. It can be done only in a holistic setting of love, care and unconditional empathy.
Schools are mandated by education boards to have counselors in their team. But a quick dip-stick survey of counselors reveals that they are overloaded with work. The ratio of counselor to student is often 1:600. This is true for even the best of schools, which have separate counselors, to manage primary, middle and high school Apart from the skewed ratio, counselors have to take care of substitution work and also interface with irate parents and teachers. It is no wonder that counselors feel the work strain, resulting in burnout and a gradual deterioration of quality.
The need for child\youth counseling services is well established. But having said that, the grassroots challenges to meet the pent up demand are manifold.
- First and foremost, younger children clearly do not know whom to approach when distressed.
- Older children, on the other hand, might find it stigmatizing to approach a counselor.
- Outside of the school or institutional space, children and youth may find it daunting to pay the counselors fees
- And finally they certainly do not have the wherewithal to know if they are getting quality service for the money paid.
To address this gap, MyChild seeks to sponsor a platform to
“Provide clients (children and youth below 22 years) access to empaneled therapists for their mental health needs, without concerns over cost or quality.”
MyChild has tied up with a group of young and enthusiastic therapists, who are ready to support this initiative as a gesture of good will. These therapists have their own well established practice in schools, workplaces and private clinics.