Category: Mental Health

Written by Ms. Sumathi Raja, Volunteer, Ātmaprasāra 

Five years on, Ātmaprasāra is growing stronger, having served more than 900 clients and contributing immensely towards the mental well-being of our town and beyond. When volunteers were brought on board five years ago to be trained as counsellors, the founder, Ms. Nirmala Raja, Chairperson, Ramco Group, along with mentors Anna Chandy and associates, had a vision. They formulated a three-pronged approach to constantly enhance the competence and expertise of counsellors, refine their skills and knowledge, and enable them to serve the community more effectively.

The three prongs that hold Ātmaprasāra in a position of strength are seminars and workshops, supervision, and personal counselling for the counsellors. The direct learning workshops are conducted by certified Transactional Analysis (TA) counsellors from the mentors’ team, wherein theories, concepts, and academic principles of psychology are shared.

Occasionally, we volunteers also get the opportunity to learn from experts of global repute, and this helps expand our frame of reference. Lay counsellors also have scheduled supervision sessions with the mentors. In supervision, we lay counsellors have the opportunity to share our experiences with clients when we feel stuck and are unable to move forward. This collective sharing gives us many opportunities and greater clarity to learn from each other’s experiences.

Finally, each one of us undergoes personal counselling once a month. This helps us process our own personal experiences as we conduct ourselves in various roles in our lives. This three-pronged approach has immensely helped us feel confident and professionally prepared as we counsel and care for the mental health of the citizens of our town.

Our goal as volunteers is to give 3 to 3½ hours of our time each week to work towards a shared vision, ensuring that the mental health and well-being of our citizens is a priority. We, the first batch of volunteers, are now able to lead and guide the next batch of volunteers who joined Ātmaprasāra in March this year.

The same three-pronged approach is used for the new batch, with senior volunteers taking the lead in providing personal mentoring, observing their counselling practice sessions among themselves, and reviewing the theory they learnt earlier at the workshops. With continued practice, self-reflection, and supervision, our new volunteers will shortly start counselling the public in our town.

Five years of dedicated implementation of this three-pronged approach has consistently delivered remarkable results, transforming vision into achievement and establishing it as a proven path to success.

Just as a diamond shines brightly, held securely by the prongs in which it is set, Ātmaprasāra, set within these three strong prongs, shines brightly, offering its valuable free service for our town’s mental well-being now and forever.