Frequently Asked Questions

Counselling is a process of facilitation where a client works with a counselling psychologist, through ‘talk therapy’ and counselling skills. The aim of the counselling relationship is to help declutter & unravel the client’s path in order for the client to see and understand various perspectives to identify and build up his own coping mechanisms. People who are otherwise distressed in their daily lives can benefit a lot from counselling. Exploration, facilitation, confrontation & empowerment are the key factors in counselling process where effective interpersonal skills and empirical interventions are used by a professional counselling psychologist. Empathetic stance and rightful listening build the foundation to positive working relationships between client & the counselling psychologist. Counselling is effective when clients feel safe, understood, and accepted without judgement. As all of us are different, the support offered varies depending on one’s situation and the techniques involved are customised.

There is no barrier to who can seek counselling. We welcome you, regardless of your culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or employment group. Counselling is also not just for adults, but is beneficial for couples, families, teenagers and children.

Counselling sessions can help you gain clarity on any concern, change old patterns, untangle complex personal issues, or embark on a journey of self-development. You may seek counselling as a result of a crisis, or you may be encouraged to seek counselling by family members, friends or colleagues.

To book a general consultation you can use our contact form, email us, or whatsapp us. We will set up a mutually agreeable appointment slot for you.

The length of your sessions depends on your unique circumstances and needs. However, 8 sessions are often recommended and further review sessions can be taken up. It also depends on the type of therapy you undergo. Few are designed to be short term & lasts about 6-20 sessions whereas others tend to be longer in term and may lasts for months/years.

Yes, counselling sessions are confidential and safe. However, in circumstances where you pose a danger to yourself or others, the relevant parties would be notified.

Generally, your first 2-3 sessions are used as assessment/consultation sessions. This allows you to identify your concerns as you see them & for your counselling psychologist to have 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 help you make gradual yet steady progress. In certain situations, 2-3 sessions per week might also be needed, only if you and your psychologist find it beneficial alongside the availability concern of your psychologist.

Your psychologist may or may not be able to accommodate this depending upon their schedule and also your requirement. Only after a review can that be determined.

You can ask any questions that you may have at the time of your consultation session and discover the connect. However, before your first appointment, it might become difficult for your psychologist to chalk out time. In between sessions, you would have the facility to keep in touch with your psychologist only for updates on your self-development.

Your psychologist will be available to you at your scheduled appointment time only. In the case of any emergency, you will need to seek other resources or a crisis intervention helpline for your rescue.

Absolutely not. Counselling & therapy is for anyone and everyone who is trying to come out of their distress from general life events. Therefore, no medical recommendation is needed for the same. However, if you are already going through psychiatric aid or clinical therapy/therapies then a referral/recommendation for counselling in written is required. At the same time, if we at our center feel that counselling is not for you, we would refer you for an appropriate service with full refund.

In no way do we disclose any gp details until legally required. However, for any medical exigency that you might get in while in our sessions is where we would want to have the emergency contact of your local doctor for your well-being & safety.

As you might be extremely concerned about someone’s well-being and would like them to seek counselling, we, on our end would only be able to take enquiries on your behalf for someone else. However, it would be in best interest to have full consent for counselling with the concerned individual. We would recommend you to suggest them counselling with extreme calmness and no judgement. In this way you would also be able to express your concerns however, leave them with the power of taking decisions for themselves

A psychiatrist is a registered doctor who diagnoses a mental disorder/condition and prescribe medication for the same whereas a counselling psychologist would offer counselling and therapy with no medical interventions. They would use empirical methods to deal with emotions and feelings. A strict demarcation is also needed to be understood between a clinical psychologist and a counselling psychologist for your awareness.

No, a counselling psychologist is not eligible to prescribe any medication in any condition.

Yes. Your psychiatrist may refer you to seek clinical assessment or clinical therapy in which case, you would have to visit a clinical psychologist and if you get referred for counselling is when you need to see a counselling psychologist. We do network with few highly skilled clinical therapists and other mental health professionals in case you need a referral.

Office hours are in no way the counselling hours as listed on our google page. Counselling sessions with your psychologist can only be availed on appointment basis. Walk-ins are not encouraged.

We do provide discounts on offer which you can freely ask your psychologist about. Concessions are provided if you are an old client resuming your sessions with us. We follow a certain criterion for low cost therapy provision. Kindly feel free to get in touch with us for further details on that.

You can pay in full at the start of each session via cash/google-pay/bank transfer. We do not, unfortunately have the facilities to accept credit/debit cards on site, however, e-wallet transfer can be considered. You would be sent an invoice/notification for any missed appointments that do not abide by the cancellation agreement you may have with your psychologist. Do note that any unpaid receipts may be passed on to a debt collection agency with no prior notice after 3 informed invoice clearance statements.

We do offer a cancellation policy which works on a 24 hours’ notice before appointment. We respect your time and reserve time slots for your well-being. Booking a slot and not showing up can be a loss for another aspiring individual wanting to help themselves. Therefore, as a code of conduct, missed appointments including holidays, sickness and other commitments are charged in full. The cancellation policy document is shared on your consultation day.

In case of occasional emergency where you need another slot, change is possible if your psychologist is able to accommodate it within his/her schedule but cannot be guaranteed.

Counselling psychologists are committed to your privacy, so sharing your personal information is a rare occurrence.

There are two exceptions. The first is if your psychologist were to become aware that you are an imminent danger to yourself or others, or that someone else is a danger to you. You would first be encouraged to seek necessary support, and if you are unable or unwilling to do so your therapist has a duty of care to seek this support on your behalf.

The second exception is if your therapist were to become aware that you intended to commit a major crime of any sort. In such a case they have a legal obligation to disclose such information to the relevant authorities.

*Note that for the purposes of counselling & therapy, personal drug use or addictions are not considered to be criminal activities (unless they involve anyone who is underage). They are seen only as areas to be addressed in therapy.

Ideally you will attend most sessions together as a couple. In instances where one of you is unable to attend, most therapists will see the person who can attend. The issues that arise in this individual session will then be shared at the next session when both partners are present. Some couple counsellors also work via video conference using different mediums such as skype, facetime, or whatsapp, and can see you both via one of these platforms if required.

Yes absolutely, we provide home visits & café sessions after assessing the circumstances and situation for the benefit of the client. Kindly fill in the contact us form and we would get back to you at the earliest.

We encourage one-one counselling. However, we also provide telephonic, skype, facetime, whatsapp video, zoom, google duo & other wire mediums as per the client’s requirement.

No, at this moment, we do not work with insurance companies.

Counselling is absolutely different from guidance. Guidance is external & directive i.e., providing different solutions to problems aimed at increasing the potential of a person whereas counselling stresses more on Internal  & non directive factors i.e., working on the ‘Self’ towards facilitating understanding in order to make a person independent in managing life effectively.  

Seeking counselling from nowhere reflect that you are not capable of handling your own problems or you have some mental illness. It’s just a better way to make maximum use of hidden potential and your resources. So, one shouldn’t feel ashamed  to go for counselling.

No. Counselling can be carried out to help you solve understand the problem areas of your life. It does not mean that you are in a state of severe psychological problem or mental illness. It focuses on reflecting your distress in a way that you are encouraged to find solutions that you weren’t able to see before. Counselling psychologists are non-medical personnel who work via talking cure. However, they can recognize the symptoms of severe concerns & recommend you consider medical help if appropriate.

All Employees and their immediate family members can avail employee well-being counselling services. For coaching and training, we encourage only employees to be a part of it.

The Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) as well as Employee Well-Being is an employee benefit, fully funded by the Employer and intended to assist Employees to understand and overcome a broad range of life and work issues in order to remain focused and productive when at work. The core services available through the EAP are more than counselling and include other aid such as Legal, Financial etc whereas Employee Well Being focuses specifically on the psychological well-being, transformational coaching and behavioural trainings aspects only. All services whether in EAP or EWB are completely confidential and focus on enhancing the individual’s mental health and general wellbeing.

A brief number of sessions with a qualified and experienced professional who helps you with your emotional concerns and create a plan/toolkit to cope with or overcome a broad range of life and work-related issues.  If you are looking to improve the quality of your life, or whenever there is anything that interferes with your happiness or prevents you from achieving your goals, we may be able to assist you. The range of areas typically managed by an Employee Well-Being provider at Lucid Mind include:

Counselling & Coaching to individuals facing

• Personal difficulties.
• Job stress.
• Relationship difficulties.
• Eldercare, childcare, parenting difficulties
• Separation and loss.
• Balancing work and family
• Thriving for goals
• Disability challenges
• Counselling for crisis situations (e.g., death at work)
• Specifically, for managers/supervisors in dealing with difficult situations & more

When employees are distracted by stressful personal or life situations, they are unfocused at work and tend to be absent more often. Their health may suffer as a result, leading to higher medical costs. Obviously, these circumstances are undesirable for an employer, but it is costly to recruit and train a replacement for the struggling employee, especially if that individual was formerly, and has the potential to once again be, a valuable asset to the company. A better solution for many employers is to offer their employees’ well-being in handling their personal issues so they can improve their situations and regain their former productivity levels and value to the company. EWB sessions can provide that assistance. Once an EWB plan is implemented, it can help the employer attract and retain employees, lower health care and disability claims costs, increase productivity and morale, and lower absenteeism.

Employee Well-Being services are implemented with an expectation that the benefits to the business will include increased productivity, reduced sick leave, healthier and happier workplace relationships and lower staff turnover – all such benefits subsequently leading to increased profitability.  Research indicates usage of the Employee Well-Being services can have a significant positive impact on personal and work functioning and can produce a Return on Investment (ROI) of between 5-16 times the Employer’s investment.  However, in order for any Employer to assess the return on investment of their Employee Well-Being, there must be usage of the Employee Well-Being services by its Employees and measures in place to evaluate such usage vs sick leave, productivity, performance and engagement.

Employers have a duty of care to provide both a physically and psychologically healthy and safe workplace environment.  They acknowledge that sometimes their Employees are too overwhelmed by personal or work matters to perform at their highest level.  The Employee Well-Being service is a tool for Employees to be proactive about addressing those issues.  The benefits for the Employer include happier and healthier Employees, reduced sick leave, lower staff turnover – all which will result in increased productivity.

One of the main barriers to using an Employee Well-Being service is the uncertainty or mistrust around privacy and confidentiality.  It is critically important therefore that you have complete confidence that, whilst your Employer pays for the service, they have no insight into specifically who has accessed the Employee Well-Being counselling or the reasons why.  EWB invoices only ever refer to an Employee Well-Being client code and never state the name associated with that code.  You may have to ask your manager/higher authority for permission to attend an Employee Well-Being session if it has been scheduled during your work time.

The Employee Well-Being Programme is focused on providing support to understand and overcome a broad range of life and work-related issues that someone may be struggling to cope with. The Employee Well-Being service is also funded for immediate family  as Employers acknowledge that what goes on in the personal lives and the lives of those nearest and dearest to their Employee Well-Being can also have a significant impact on their Employee Well-Being. The Employee Well-Being programme provides the opportunity to talk things through with a qualified experienced counsellor. Sometimes someone wants help but they don’t know why – they just know that they are not happy, or things are not ‘right’ for them. Employee Well-Being counselling can help relieve the emotional pressure, clearing the way to focus and decide what to do next.
There are many reasons why someone may wish to take advantage of the Employee Well-Being services such as

• feeling overwhelmed by the demands of balancing work and family
• experiencing stress, anxiety or mild depression
• dealing with grief and loss
• dealing with conflict at work or at home
• needing assistance with children or elder care concerns
• at crossroads in their lives & more

Yes, Employee Well-Being appointments are completely confidential. Employee Well-Being Services understands that your trust in the confidentiality of the EWB is crucial to its success.  No information about your participation in the Employee Well-Being counselling is provided by Employee Well-Being Services to your Employer, unless we have received your signed authority to do so.  Employee Well-Being Services have robust procedures and ethical stance in place to ensure the safeguarding of your privacy and all personal information.  We are fully compliant with our obligations regarding confidentiality.

Employee Well-Being Services’ require all counselling professionals to be qualified with minimum master’s degree in counselling/organisational psychology, with a minimum of 3 years’ one-on-one counselling experience.

Sometimes people accessing Employee Well-Being support are facing particularly difficult or complex situations and the support they require extends beyond the scope of the Employee Well-Being services.  In those circumstances we recommend you to avail our paid services for long term counselling support, which will then be outside of the employer-funded Employee Well-Being service.

Many people still prefer to attend their Employee Well-Being counselling & coaching sessions in person, however there are other options such as telephonic, skype, outdoor that may better suit and can be discussed with us at the time of booking your appointment.

The number of sessions can vary from person to person.  Some people feel they have the tools and support after 3-5 sessions and others may require few more sessions.  The EWB Professional working with you will plan a programme of sessions designed to reach an agreed outcome.  They will assess your progress from one session to the next and manage all appointments up to the intended completion of your programme.

Undertaking our behavioural training workshops would not only enhance your engagement through experiential leaning but also enable you to effectively utilise your potential life management skills. Our workshops are designed in a way that contributes to the shine of your organisation/institution.

Please send us a message using the contact form on the website, or email your enquiry. Alternatively, you can whatsapp us.

Once you book a training package with us, our team would contact you to discuss your requirements and also hold a meeting as per your convenience to discuss the packages and intake. Further which, a formal mail of training agenda and other requirements would be sent to you within 2 weeks of start date. After receiving your confirmation, we would initiate the invoice and take the balance payment on the day of training.

Once we have confirmed your booking, we will send you an invoice and details. You can pay by bank transfer, cheque or google pay as per the mutual agreement.

Please send us a message using the contact Form on the website or email your enquiry. Alternatively, you can whatsapp us.

Transformational Coaching is a professional domain that is totally different from consulting, mentoring, advice giving, therapy or counselling. The coaching process involves addressal of personal projects, general conditions, life transitions, self, relationships etc by evaluating the present scenario, discovering obstacles and choosing a course of action aligned with your personality type in higher state aimed at making your life to the best of what you want it to be like. A coach by your side acts as an accountability power, giving you a push wherever you get stuck.

A Coach is someone who is qualified to support, encourage, challenge and motivate you to achieve your desired outcomes. A coach is an active listener who will facilitate you to take actions to move yourself towards your goals and celebrate your successes, help you discover how to overcome obstacles, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and enable you to move forward at a far greater pace than you could achieve on your own, with the ultimate aim of you achieving your goals and discovering a much happier life.

We go through life constantly but very rarely do we stop and consider our future, and where we want to be. By having a coach you are able to do just that. With the aid of a coach who is 100% dedicated to you and your future. They will listen, encourage, support and motivate you. The coach is able to keep you focussed and, through their experience and expertise, you will be able to identify options available to you, that you may not have ever considered otherwise.

During each session we will recap on the actions set and achieved from the last session and look at general progress and successes. We will then set a ‘session goal’ to clearly set out what you want to achieve by the end of the day’s session. We then explore where you are at the moment with that particular outcome; what you have tried; what has worked and any obstacles you have come across along the way. We then explore all the possible options in achieving that outcome, using lots of techniques to really extract options that you have never thought of before. Lastly and most importantly we look at what actions you want to set yourself from the list of options to achieve that session’s goal.

Coaching session take approximately 60 minutes. These sessions can be weekly, fortnightly or monthly, whatever suits your life and the speed at which you can take actions to achieve your outcomes.

In the majority of cases the coaching will take place either at the coaching hub, on phone, skype or other web platforms. Any way which is the most convenient way for individuals to fit coaching into their busy lives. Face to face coaching is recommended for faster results.

For more information on packages kindly click here and fill out the form.

The benefits coaching are having someone that is solely dedicated to you and the achievement of your vision. They are non-judgemental, supportive, encouraging and motivating just when you need it. They keep you focused on where you want to be and moving forward in the right direction. They will enable you to get to where you want to be in life, much faster than you could on your own.

Coaching and counselling are similar in the sense that both counsellors and coaches ask the client questions, sometimes requiring a lot of soul-searching. Neither a counsellor nor a coach will give advice but they will listen to what you say and direct the conversation with further pertinent questions. However, whereas the typical counselling session will be dealing with emotions and issues in the past affecting the present, the coaching relationship is focussed on the future and deals with optimising the opportunities in your life for you to ultimately achieve greater happiness.

Our clients are very complimentary about us! We actively encourage feedback and you will find testimonials from people who have invested in our counselling sessions, attended our training workshops, taken our coaching programmes, undertaken psychological assessments through us and have been guided by us on other services. We’re also delighted with the ways that we’ve helped individuals in facilitating their avatars, enhancing their skills and decoded their inner wiring for a healthier and fulfilling life.

We would love to hear from you. Please give your feedback here. Alternatively, you can ask for a feedback form in hand or on whatsApp/ email after availing our services.