FAQs

Counselling is a private and confidential process in which you share and discuss, with a counsellor, your feelings, emotions and thoughts related to problems that may be causing you distress.

The aim of counselling is to help you gain insights into your problem area and learn how to cope more effectively with these problems.

The counsellor creates a conducive environment to help you relax and share your problems and concerns openly. She/he does not judge your actions or behaviours – instead, she/he empathises with you and ensures that you feel fully supported, heard and understood.

The counsellor does not tell you what to do and does not advise you or direct you on the “right” course of action. On the contrary, she/he helps you gain clarity on your problem area and recognize unhelpful and self­-defeating habits and belief systems that are unhelpful. He/she will also help you gain a fresh, new perspective on your situation.

The counsellor can teach you skills and attitudes required to effectively deal with the problem. She/he will work collaboratively with you to help you arrive at appropriate solutions to your problem.

Each counselling session is 45-60 minutes long.

Sometimes just 1-2 sessions are all it takes to experience a positive shift, but most people require 6­-8 sessions to bring about significant, enduring changes.

Deep-­seeded or complex issues may require several months of counselling.

Counselling can help deal with a wide range of everyday life issues. Some typical problems that people bring to us are:

• Acute or chronic anxiety or stress
• Dealing with personal loss or bereavement
• Relationship issues – e.g. family conflict, marital stress, lack of love/intimacy, physical, verbal or emotional abuse
• Parenting issues ­- e.g. adolescence, sexuality, bad behaviour, poor academic performance, digital addiction, substance abuse, etc.
• Work-life issues ­- e.g. work life balance, harassment, coping with change, inter­personal relationships, managing people, time management, etc.
• Removing personal growth blocks for self­ development -­ e.g.  lack of confidence / assertiveness, communication skills, anger management.
• Loneliness and depression
• Fears and phobias

We currently do not provide legal, financial or medical assistance.

• Once you have signed up for our counselling service, you will have the same counsellor for all your sessions. Your emails and messages will be automatically directed to the same counsellor.

  If at some point you are dissatisfied with your counsellor or would like a different counsellor, you can write to prismcounselling@gmail.com  requesting for a change of counsellor and giving reasons for the change.

Booking a session is a very simple 3 Step Process:

#1 Send a request for booking a session in any of the following ways:

• Online – Click on the “Book A Session” tab and provide the details requested for in the form
• WhatsApp – Send a WhatsApp message on +91-8800485003 providing your name, age, nature of problem, etc
• Email – Send an email to prismcounselling@gmail.com providing your name, age, nature of problem, etc

We will respond to you within 48 hours to book your appointment.

#2  Read and sign the Service Agreement between you and the Counsellor/coach before the sessions begin. A copy of the service agreement can be found on the Contact Us page 

#3 Make advance payment for your session. The pricing and fee structure is provided on the Contact Us page

• It is always advisable to be completely honest with your counsellor so that they can help you to the best of their abilities and you can maximise your benefits.

  Some of the things you should share with your counsellor include:

  • any past experience you may have of counselling or therapy
  • any medications you may be taking currently or have done in the recent past
  • any mental health issue you may have – whether or not you have had treatment for it in the past
  • if you are being physically abused by someone
  • if you fear for your safety
  • if you have suicidal thoughts

• Your sessions are conducted by the counsellor in strict confidentiality adhering to the global code of conduct of the counselling profession.  Your counsellor will not disclose your identity or discuss the details of your case with anyone, unless their are exceptional circumstances explained below.

• Breach of confidentiality: Exceptional circumstances under which the counsellor will need to inform a doctor, a responsible person in your family or an appropriate organization or entity about the feared risk or danger are:
  – If the counsellor believes you are at risk of seriously harming yourself, injuring someone else or at serious risk of being harmed by someone else
  – If during the counselling session, it becomes evident that you have committed or intend to commit a crime such as robbery, child abuse, sexual abuse, murder or terrorism

• You would have to share basic personal information with the counsellor such as your name, age, gender, marital status and occupation.
• You can decide to withhold further personal information such as names of family members, your location/address, details about your job or your family if you wish to. However, if some of this information is part of the problem it will really help to share as much details as possible.

Online counselling is simply about communicating with your counsellor through a telephone, mobile phone, computer, laptop or other digital devices, rather than making a visit to your counsellor’s office for a face-­to-­face session.

Online counselling can be done through various platforms:  WhatsApp, Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meat, Facetime, Skype, etc.

While we offer all the above options for online counselling, along with telephone and email counselling, we would highly recommend you go for video sessions as they allow for face-­to-­face communication. You could also use a combination of these formats depending on your preference and convenience at that point in time.

All these modes of online ­counselling work well, but obviously they have their individual pros and cons.

• Convenient -­ Online counselling allows you to get counselling at a time and place suiting your convenience – at home or in your workplace or any other location. You simply need to choose the communication mode that suits you best.
• Private and discreet ­-You can get counselling in the privacy of your own home or any other secure place. No one needs to know you are getting counselling if you don’t want them to.
• Anonymous ­- If you feel embarrassed or awkward about what others might think about your issues, you can choose to remain anonymous – although it is not ideal.
• Safe – Due to the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic situation, it has become necessary to avoid places where there is risk of exposure. Online counselling offers a safe and secure option for those that are particularly vulnerable or concerned.
• Saves time & money ­- By choosing online counselling, you can save hours of travel time and / or waiting time.
• Maintain records ­- You can keep recordings or transcripts of your sessions with the counsellor. You will also have access to all the online submissions you may have made to your counsellor – especially homework tasks such as mood diaries, self-awareness tasks, etc.

With the option of video counselling using online, the face-­to-­face aspect of traditional in­-person therapy also gets incorporated into online sessions, making them even more effective.

• Before you take a decision to opt for online counselling, you need to be aware of some downsides to this mode of counselling vis­-à-vis in-­person face-­to-­face counselling:

  • Open sharing by you becomes even more critical in online counselling as the counsellor cannot read your facial expressions or body language (unless you opt for video sessions). With telephone counselling or online audio chats, he/she can gauge your feelings and emotions to a large extent, but not as well as they would in a face­-to-­face format.
  • There is a risk of misunderstanding or misinterpreting if there is heavy reliance on written text i.e. through email or instant messaging – the onus is on the counsellor to ensure they have fully understood what you are trying to say and it is also on you to ensure there is no ambiguity in the sharing. This problem obviously does not exist for audio / video counselling.

• Yes. The support provided though online sessions can be insufficient for clients with serious issues such as suicidal tendencies or those  facing a life-­threatening situation. Online counselling is also not advisable for clients suffering from serious mental health issues such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, hallucinations and acute substance abuse.

  Such clients should immediately be referred for/opt for in-­person face-­to-­face counselling.

• Yes – you must carefully read all the terms and conditions of the agreement before starting your sessions.

• The Service Agreement

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