In today’s fast-changing world, stress has become inevitable. Work loads, increased tension and time urgencies have contributed a lot to psychological problems including anxiety, adjustment problems, depression and other psychosomatic illnesses. The imbalance in life rhythms and style are causing imbalances in our physical and emotional health. Research has repeatedly shown how fast lifestyles, working under psychological and time pressure, and dealing with emotional discords leads to hypertension, heart attacks and even cancer! Counseling is a service that aims to overcome this by generating health, both physical and emotional.

Similarly, parents of children with special needs, go through immense grief when they learn about the child’s diagnosis. They need support to come to terms with their grief in order to help their child. Healing of the child and parents is very essential for the growth of the child. Our experience of working with children led us to start counseling services for parents.

As listening in counseling helps heal great pain and suffering in adults, so too does play heal the pain for children. Play therapy helps children with emotional problems, special needs, and learning difficulties overcome their issues a in non-threatening environment. Today children bear great pressures of academics, parental and societal expectations, peer pressures and materialistic achievements. This leads to emotional and physical ill-health. Play Therapy gives children opportunities to explore and overcome their fears and anxieties in natural settings. Play is the language of the child.

Counseling is a process in which individuals have the opportunity to improve upon their understanding of themselves, including their patterns of thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and the ways in which these may have been problematic in their lives.

Psychotherapy, on the other hand, is a set of techniques intended to cure or improve psychological and behavioral problems in individuals having clinically recognizable psychological problems like anxiety, stress, etc. Psychotherapy works at a deeper level, where a person’s personality may change and put him on different life course.

Some of the problems that we deal with include:

• Anxiety or Depression
• Adjustment problems (home, work)
• Adolescent and teenage issues
• Career and educational concerns
• Counseling for special needs/disabilities (children and adolescents)
• Marital problems, Parenting
• Psychosomatic problems
• Stress (home, school, work)

The institution has well-trained experts in the field of clinical, child and educational psychology who provide counseling, psychotherapy, play therapy and formal assessments for any person/child. Along with mainstream counseling methods like Cognitive- Behavioural, RET and Person Centered Therapy, we use Anthroposophical, Biography, and Art Therapies to help our clients find their own paths. Please do call 24461986 or 24956373 for further enquiries.

Puja Bhalla
Puja has completed M.Sc. and M.Phil. in Counseling and assessment from Women Christian College, Chennai. Deeply involved and intuitive about children in our school, Puja is an asset for the department. Her interest in Autism began with her project on Music and Autism, a journey that culminated in her working in V-Excel as a counselor.

Puja wears multiple hats in our institute. She is a play therapist, teacher, curriculum guide and conducts educational assessment. Her knowledge of anthroposophy and art makes her a creative therapist who is ready to explore beyond boundaries. Her warm and accepting nature helps the children she works with connect deeply with her. According to Puja the children and their qualities of compassion, forbearance and truth inspire her. Those qualities also help her grow as a person and professional.

Anandhi Balan
A young and dynamic counselor, who has double Masters in Psychology and Medical Sociology, Anandhi joined the V-Excel team in 2009. She has also been trained as a Counseling Skills Trainer from Anugraha, Institute of Psychotherapy and Research (Madurai) which is affiliated to Toronto University, Canada.

Her wide range of experience working with adults includes NLP, Art Therapy and RET. She has deep interest in psycho spiritual topics and reads extensively on those. She is an avid reader and ready learner. She started using play therapy with children with emotional and learning issues. Her easy and non-direct manner makes her a popular therapist among children. The clients who come to her for therapy have greatly benefited and appreciate her work. As a professional she is very well organized, systematic and uses various techniques to address any problem.

Sushama Sridharan
Sushama has a Master’s in Clinical and Counseling Psychology and a M.Phil. in Counseling Psychology. She has also done a course in System Family Therapy from the Institute of Family Therapy in association with Tavistock Clinic, London.

Sushama’s experience in the field spans 17 years. She is an extremely dedicated and conscientious therapist. She has been working with the school parents and our corporate clients for the past four years. Her wide range of experience in a humanitarian approach make her a valued asset in the department. Her interest is family and marital therapy and clinical work. Her work with our corporate clients is widely sought and appreciated. A very sensitive and adept clinician she has helped many parents, teachers and others in V-Excel.