“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations; your consciousness expands in every direction; and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
PatanjaliWe at “Oppam”(ഒപ്പം), meaning Togetherness or Support, focus on building a confidential and non-judgmental space for clients to explore their inner world, evaluate their belief systems and understand their problems.
We believe this will help them gain self-awareness and produce meaningful construction of the past (and present) events so that they can learn to accept themselves as a whole and make the desired changes to truly enrich their lives.
It is our right to discover the inner world of thoughts and feelings and the power of light, hope, love, and beauty.
Counselling is a tool that helps us tackle a wide range of issues such as depression, anxiety, stress, self-esteem issues, anger issues, interpersonal/relationship issues, self-improvement, and career growth.
It is built on a professional therapeutic relationship between a trained counsellor and a client wherein the former offers a safe, confidential and non-judgmental space for the latter to work towards gaining insights and solutions to his/her problems.
A Counsellor is an empathetic listener. During sessions, the counsellor creates a safe space for the client and utilizes the knowledge of her theoretical orientation and counselling tools. The client and the counsellor understand the problem better to collaboratively set goals for therapy.
The client then explores, evaluates, clarifies and understands their patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors and uses these insights and their own strengths to make the desired change. In all cases, counselling should result in free and responsible behavior on the part of the client, accompanied by more insight into themselves and the ability to better understand and manage negative emotions.
Conceive the missing ingredients from our mind's awareness, desires, beliefs and actions. Counselling will help exert behavioral changes in the ways we act; our coping, decision-making and relationship skills, hopefully resulting in responsible behavior from ourselves.
My name is Sheela Mariyam Oommen (Sheela Baji). I have more than 25 years of experience in family counselling. I have worked with the Family Court, Ernakulam, Peoples Counselling for Social Justice, Ernakulam, Juvenile Justice Board, Ernakulam and Child Welfare Committee Ernakulam. I have wide experience in handling family issues, behavioral problems, adolescent issues and role of effective parenting etc.
It is necessary that people have a safe and non-judgmental space to talk about the difficult and unpleasant aspects of their lives. It is important to encourage awkward conversations that are otherwise constrained by fear. It is essential that people understand their own inner world, motivations, thoughts, feelings and actions without any judgement. It is important that people feel seen and heard, and quoting famous Psychologist Carl Rogers, I truly believe "people only seriously consider change when they feel accepted for exactly who they are". And I aim to hold such a space for my clients to help them see themselves as a whole (including the broken, unpleasant, neglected parts of self), fully accept themselves, and to heal.
| Year | Position |
| 1997-Present | Family Counsellor, People’s Council for Social- Justice, Eranakulam, Kerala, India. |
| 2015-Present | Additional Family Counsellor, Family Court, Ernakulam (Part Time) |
| 2019-2022 | Juvenile Justice Board Member, Ernakulam |
| 2012-2018 | Child Welfare Committee Member, Ernakulam |
| 1994-1997 | Additional Family Counsellor, Family Court, Trichur |
| 1988-1997 | Social Work Instructor, Anganwadi Workers Training Centre, Integrated Child Development Scheme, Kerala |
| 1987-1988 | Family Counsellor, Institute of Counselling & Transactional Analysis, Cochin |
| 1985-1987 | Research Assistant, Rajagiri Research Institute, Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Cochin |
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