What Is Counselling ?

Counselling is a structured meeting between the client and a trained professional in a one-on-one setting. These counselling sessions offer you a safe and a confidential space to share your concerns which will in turn help you reduce internal distress, enhance relationships, and improve your overall quality of life.
Frequently Asked Questions
Therapies are structured meetings between the client & the therapist. It starts with an intake session where the therapist first attempts to understand the concerns of the client. In the sessions following that we work towards :
- Reducing the symptoms
- Reducing the symptoms
- Building skills to cope
When we see the goals of the therapy are achieved, we terminate the therapy.
The client-therapist relationship starts with the intake session, in which we do five things:
- Understanding the present concerns which brought them here
- Noting all relevant information about their past and present
- Educating the client about their mental distress & the process of therapy
- Discussing about the goals of the therapy
- Assigning the tasks that they have to do before the next session
- Therapists practice unconditional positive regard which means that even if you feel you have done something questionable, they will still be warm & accepting. It helps in creating safe spaces.
- Therapists do not advise in fact they work towards developing insights and building skills so that you can make your own decisions.
- Therapists are not biased and keep your information confidential so that you feel comfortable in sharing everything that you think or feel.
Each therapy session ends with home-work assignments which could be: To revisit the conversation from the session and share their views about it Worksheets to work upon which could involve monitoring their thoughts, feelings, behaviours. To try out solutions that were identified in the session. To plan their daily activities, use the techniques that were learnt to reduce symptoms, read books or try new things that would help them feel better.
Therapies are structured meetings between the client & the therapist. It starts with an intake session where the therapist first attempts to understand the concerns of the client. In the sessions following that we work towards :
- Reducing the symptoms
- Reducing the symptoms
- Building skills to cope
When we see the goals of the therapy are achieved, we terminate the therapy.
That working towards healing and bringing change is a shared responsibility between the client and therapist. Sometimes clients come with an unreasonable expectation that a 45 minute session will solve all their problems and there it becomes important for me to help my client understand that we will both have to equally work to make things better.
A safe space is a space for you to feel supported, safe, and empowered. Holding a safe space requires your therapist to listen to your concerns without any judgement and offer suggestions to help you deal with what’s bothering you.
Clients come to us with wide-ranging problems, including:
- Anxiety (generalised anxiety problems, panic attacks, agoraphobia, social anxiety, claustrophobia)
- Workplace issues (stress, work-life imbalances)
- Relationship issues (breakups, divorce, affairs, choosing inappropriate partners, loneliness, life adjustments, marital problems, arguments, jealousy, wedding and premarital issues)
- Depression (including suicidal thoughts, low mood, social withdrawal)
- Low Self-Esteem and Lack of Confidence
Trauma (including post-traumatic stress disorder from accidents, rape and other attacks/incidents) - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
- Eating Problems (including bulimia, binge eating, negative body image)
- Phobias and Fears
- Addiction and Substance misuse
- Abuse (including physical, verbal, and sexual abuse)
- Bereavement/grief/loss.
There is no barrier to whom counselling can assist. We welcome you, regardless of your culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or employment group. Counselling is also not just for adult individuals, but is beneficial for couples, families, teenagers and children.
- The length of your treatment will very much depend on your unique circumstances and needs, with six sessions often recommended and a review after that.
- It also depends on the type of therapy you choose to try. Cognitive behavioural therapy is designed to be short-term and lasts six to 20 sessions. Psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and existential therapies tend to be longer term, and many last for many months or even years.
- Keep in mind that once you start sessions, new issues and angles can arise of which you were not aware and you can decide to explore them as well. It is of course possible to also see improvement faster than you expected.
Yes, counselling sessions are confidential. The exception would be if you were to pose a danger to yourself or others, in which case the relevant parties would be notified.
Generally your first session will be used as an assessment and consultation, rather than for treatment. This allows you to identify your issues as you see them, and for your therapist to start to gain an idea of what your needs are. So unfortunately, having just one session is unlikely to have any lasting benefit for you.
The standard format of weekly sessions helps you make gradual and steady progress that means you see real results. In some cases, a therapist will agree to one session every fortnight, if you both deem it beneficial.
- Yes, If you require more than one session a week, therapists may be able to accommodate this, with a review as things start to improve for you.
- Sometimes, however, the therapist you are working with will not have any other availability, so will not be able to offer multiple weekly sessions.
In basic terms, a psychiatrist is a registered doctor who can diagnose mental illness and prescribe medication. Psychologists and psychotherapists will offer talking therapy and would not typically provide diagnoses or medication (though they will have a good understanding of the diagnosis or even medication that might be applicable). Where necessary they will liaise with psychiatrists to support you further.
The counsellors are not eligible to prescribe medication. There is, however, a private consultant psychiatrist who can assess you for a prescription, and this can complement your therapy work. Please note that the fee for psychiatry is significantly higher than that for counselling.
Stories of Hope
Get In Touch
- Anisha Jhunjhunwala: +919726482843
- F-110, Times Square, Next to Sangini Arise, Canal Road, Vesu, Surat
- [email protected]