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•Diploma in Counseling Skills (DCS)
•International Program in Counseling and guidance (IPCG)
•Certificate in Child and Adolescent Development (CCAD)
•International Certificate in Life Skills (ICLS)
•Post Graduate Diploma in psychotherapies

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- One Year Diploma in Counseling Skills DCS24 Classroom (admissions opening from December
- One year self-paced International Program of Counseling and Guidance (For Students outside Bangalore)
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We offer Free Career Guidance

•We conduct Holistic Career assessment (at a nominal cost) – through Aptitude Testing (Can be done ONLINE too)

•Time tested since 1992, results over 94.7% accurate! We have successfully helped over half a million people with career guidance

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Contact @ 9035679801 for more details on all our upcoming programs

Admissions Open for our 1-year classroom program: Diploma in Counseling Skills – DCS24– Train to be a professional Counselor!

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FAQs

Yes, DCS is designed to suit even those who do not have prior theoretical knowledge of psychology. If you are fascinated by human behaviour, you will get ample opportunity to dive deeper into understanding human emotions and behaviour!

The course is simple and at a very practical level and helps you to understand relationships. We  do not have textbooks or syllabus. We will mail you short notes which are easy to understand and comprehend. DCS helps you to become more self-aware and identify your hidden potential. You can certainly use DCS as a means of self-growth as well as to kick start your second innings in a new and meaningful field like counselling.

As long as you are able to understand and reflect the other person’s feelings and emotions, and have a basic knowledge of English, you will be able to go through the course without any difficulty.

While you would have gained theoretic knowledge in the field of psychology, DCS will complement your learning to enhance your practical skills to be able to actually deal with different types of human behaviour and issues. It is totally experiential without any theory or text book. Internships at various institutions of your choice help you with practical learning.

DCS can be managed along with your existing career to start with. You can use this one year journey to identify your core strengths and make a gradual shift into the world of human behaviour, which is immensely satisfying.

Counseling is a two-way process. When you work on self, you are able to help others better as you experience the change in yourself. Simultaneously, helping others also makes you a better person and expands your perception on various aspects of life. In fact you may be more effective in some ways because you will be able to empathize with others who are facing trauma.  Also, counseling at the Academy is free and you can meet up  and discuss with any one of us who you feel comfortable with.

It could possibly be a little overwhelming in the beginning. However, we will train you to emotionally insulate yourself and not get affected. Managing your own emotions and preventing burnout forms a very important part of the course. Throughout the course, we take up several case studies and role-plays to help you to empathize, and emotionally detach yourself from your counselee.

You can certainly pick up all the practical skills of counselling and reach out to people in whichever sector you are concerned about. You will in fact be more mature and understanding of people’s issues due to your long work experience.  You can, if you wish, become a part of our team of  volunteers working in hospitals, and guide, help and give emotional support to patients and their care-givers. That way you can surely do meaningful work – and of course, you can choose to take up counselling as a career option as well.

Yes, if you are a caring and sensitive human being and have keen interest in human behaviour then after detailed discussion, we will guide you how to adapt yourself to the program.  Educational qualifications do not determine your eligibility to the course.

DCS provides an ‘environment for learning’ which includes role plays, demonstrations, face to face interactions, understanding a person’s body language, building rapport using non-verbal cues etc. All this is best imbibed in a classroom environment, both from the faculty as well as your classmates. You will have personal interaction with people from different ages and stages in life which can significantly broaden your horizons and change your attitude towards life and relationships. Well you may get used to the travel since it is only twice a week, and you may find others you can share transport with.

We have four teams and most topics are covered four times. In case you are going to miss a class with your team, you can attend the same with any other team. So, if you plan systematically, you can take the break without actually losing any class.  We will guide you suitably.

We do not give any guarantee of jobs. However, our students are working in a wide range of institutions including schools, colleges, NGOs, corporate offices, government institutions, and some have even opened their own counselling centres. In fact, many organizations reach out to us when they need counselors. All such vacancies are put up on the website for the benefit our students.

We have had innumerable students coming from various places and some from even other countries to pursue this program (Salem, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Iran, Tumkur, Maldives etc) You can take up a PG accommodation near to the Academy and pursue your DCS as well as take up internship in other organisations to hone your counselling skills, or take up part-time job to occupy your free time.  We will guide you suitably.

We have consciously kept away from any affiliation or recognition, though we were offered affiliations to reputed institutions. All our courses have been designed without exams and tests, hence that gives you ease of learning with any pressure of completing portions or being worried about exams, grades or marks.

We are members with fully voting rights of the World Federation for Mental Health, USA.

Founder's Note

DR. ALI KHWAJA B.Tech(IIT),MIE, MIIE, Ph.D

Chairman of Banjara Academy, Counsellor, Columnist

Principal faculty, Life skills coach and perpetual student

When we look back on a lifetime’s work and experiences, what really matters is how much we enjoyed (and contributed) to the journey, and not the destination that we have reached. Since childhood I was fascinated with human beings (often animal beings too) and their behavior.
Wanting to contribute my mite towards welfare of individuals, I sought out ways and means to reach out and enrich quality of life through empowerment, and not by charity. It is a joy to see how Banjara and Banjarites have flourished in the past over four decades and have made a mark in the world of human behaviour and counselling, and I look forward always to include more and more people into the ever growing Banjara family.

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5Decades Of Experience
4500Certified as Counselors
100Books and Booklets
1Million Families' Lives Touched

Why Banjara Academy ?

What are we?

We grow Human Beings

We are not Tailors

Enriching Life through Empowerment

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We do not look at your academic qualifications. All that you need is 4 hours of commitment in a week, and a genuine interest to help people emotionally.

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Please do contact us from anywhere in the world. We can help with regard to Free Counselling, Aptitude testing, Career choices, or various Courses offered by us at our Academy

Role Reversal

Close relationships change so significantly over a period of time. This is most obvious in the parent-child bonding. A small baby needs 24/7 attention from mother, a toddler needs parents around him all the time, a teenager tries to avoid his parents and only be with his friends, a young adult may have either a love-hate relationship with his parents, or start taking responsibility for them.

At midlife the roles may slowly reverse and the child starts becoming the parent.

The greatest change happens if a parent becomes old and infirm and unable to care for himself.  That is when the clock seems to have taken a complete circle and it is as though the parent has become the toddler or the baby.

How do you deal with the situation?

Boosting self-esteem

For Parents and Tea­­­chers:

Here are a few important tips to parents and elders, that should be followed as far as possible at all times:

Never compare your child with a sibling, cousin, classmate, or any other person.  Motivate and encourage him, but not by talking about others’ success.

  • Do not undermine the self esteem of your child by making derogatory remarks about him. Statements such as “Why were you born?”, “You will never achieve anything in life,” “See how horrible you look, anyone will think you are a beggar,” “If you don’t pass your board exam, get ready to go and become a peon or a coolie,” can leave a permanent mark on the psyche of the child.
  • Do not make him feel unloved, unwanted, and thus making him insecure. Threatening to send him away to a hostel or to relatives, threatening to walk out of the family, or even threats of suicide, can make a child feel very guilty that he is not capable of winning his parents’ love.
  • Do not value him based on his marks or success. While it is understandable that every parent wants the best for the child, remember that some children just cannot excel academically despite their best efforts.
  • Listen to your child – encourage him to talk on any topic without inhibition. Particularly make him talk about how he “feels” in different situations.  Never ridicule or put him down when he says something wrong.
  • Give him emotional support when he is facing anxious moments like exam results. Reassure him that regardless of the outcome, you still love him and accept him unconditionally.

Unhappy with course you selected?

Dr. Ali Khwaja

Some students have very clear goals, lofty ideals and high benchmarks – most common being to get into IIT, National Law School, NDA or MBBS.  The competition being so high, barely 1% of the aspirants actually get a seat.  Even very capable students miss out if they develop stress or are not keeping well on the day of the exam.

Those who have Plan B ready and have made a list of their preferences in descending order, manage to move on to an alternative course. But many students select a particular course in a college they like (often based on what others have recommended), and then realize within a few days or weeks that they have made a wrong choice.  It could be because of the subjects, the teachers, the college ambience, or a fear that that particular course may not get them a good job.

In such a situation, you have three choices (1) continue with the course and somehow complete it even if you do not get very high marks, and plan what you would do after completion, including moving on to a different field through post-graduation or entry-level work experience. A university degree never goes waste, even if you change your field, and a strong foundation would have been laid to move into something which you truly desire (2) continue with your studies planning for entrance exams to get into a better institution next year. In this option if you do not get your favored choice even in the second attempt, you have not lost out and can go through the balance years to acquire the degree you are in (3) drop out, spend the year gaining in-depth knowledge of alternative careers and colleges, doing internship and short on-line courses in the field of your choice, and making a strong effort to get into a very good institution. In the third alternative, you should be very focused and spend the year fruitfully.  I have known students who have dropped out, wasted the year directionless, leading to bigger disappointment in the next academic year.

The essential factor in making choices is to understand and narrow down to your long term career goals, based on not just interest but on a combination of multiple-intelligences, personality traits, specific skills, social and commercial acumen, concentration and attention span, general knowledge and academic capabilities – which taken together determine your aptitude.  Then it becomes much easier to select courses that are most suitable to you and there will be no regret.  I have counseled students who selected a course such as engineering under peer or parental pressure and then felt that they could not cope or are not sustaining interest.  In frustration they dropped out and blindly took up a general course like BBA thinking it will be much easier, without knowing where it is leading them to.  Such students rarely carve out a rewarding or meaningful career in the long run.

Choices in courses and number of colleges and universities have expanded significantly in the past few years, and there are innumerable options in each field including technology, health care, life sciences, social sciences, communication, creativity etc. Detailed and careful selection can ensure that any mistake or wrong decision can still be set right.  The important factor is to select based on your capabilities, and not get influenced by what everyone else is doing, or where there is apparently good ‘scope’.

Completed 10th Standard?

Similarly, those who have completed 10th need to take a decision regarding their academics for the first time in their life i.e. to opt for science, commerce or arts, which combination of subjects, and which Board of study.  Some are very particular about a specific college, but either do not get a seat there, or are disappointed once they start attending classes.  More or less the same principle applies here. Explore whether it is still possible to change optional subjects (which should be done based on your aptitude as mentioned above), change college if admissions are still open, or go through at least one year and explore deeply to determine whether a change is required and for what reason. Taking a year off should be done only as a last resort, and with a clear goal of how that year will be spent meaningfully to ensure you move in the right direction.

One wrong choice need not mean the end of your dreams. If you do not succumb to frustration or depression, immediately start exploring alternatives, and take a calculated decision, you can perhaps move into a better and more rewarding career path.

Ali’s Notes:

“The greatest sin is the one which I don’t commit”

Give a thought to the above statement. Talking about values and principles, many of us inevitably have double standards. We hide or justify our own shortcomings, and we easily condemn others for their mistakes when we are confident that we do not commit the same. If I do not drink alcohol at all, then people who drink are “drunkards, antis-social elements.”  If I am a strict vegetarian, then all who eat non-veg food are inhuman and cruel.

At times it helps to look inward. I may have been fortunate to lead a comfortable life so I have never had occasion to ask favors from others, cheat or let down anyone, beg or borrow. So it is easy to look down upon those who are unfortunate, who have faced many setbacks in life, and who have had to cut corners to make ends meet.

Let us be more understanding towards those who have had trauma, challenges and hurdles yet are making the best of their life.

 

Self evaluation exercise to check out

How Assertive are you?

Assertiveness is the mean between (aggressive, dominating, pushy) on one side and (submissive, passive, withdrawn, scared) on the other.  An assertive person tries to balance his needs with that of others, he makes others understand what he wants, and at the same time tries to understand what makes others happy.  It is possible to build assertiveness at any age, but one has to work patiently on it.

 

 Answer the following questions marking between 1 to 5 :

(5) Always   (4) Often   (3) Sometimes   (2) Rarely   (1) Never

 

  1. 1) I ask others to do things for me without feeling  guilty or anxious.
  2. 2) When someone asks me to do something I don't want to do, I say "no" without feeling guilty or anxious.
  3. 3) I am comfortable when speaking to a large group of people.
  4. 4) I confidently express my honest opinions to au­thority figures (such as my boss).
  5. 5) When I experience powerful feelings (anger, frus­trations, disappointment etc.), I verbalize them easily.
  6. 6) When  I express anger I do so without blaming others for "making me mad".
  7. 7) I am comfortable speaking up in a group situation.
  8. 8) If I disagree with the majority  opinion  in  a meeting, I can "stick to my guns" without feeling uncom­fortable or being abrasive.
  9. 9) When I make a mistake, I acknowledge it.
  10. 10) I  tell  others  when their  behavior  creates problem for me.
  11. 11) Meeting  new people in social situations is  some­thing I do with ease and comfort.
  12. 12) When discussing my beliefs, I do so without label­ing the opinions of others as "crazy,  stupid,  ridicu­lous, irrational".
  13. 13) I assume that most people are competent and trust­worthy so I can delegate work easily.
  14. 14) When  considering  doing something  I  have  never done, I feel confident I can learn to do it.
  15. 15) I  believe my needs are as important as  those  of others and I am entitled to have my needs satisfied.

 

 

Now you can check your score to see how Assertive you are:

If you have scored above 60, you are quite assertive;

A score between 45-60 means you are reasonably assertive, but you give in at times

If you have scored between 30-45 you are quite submissive and you need to work on it

If by chance you have scored less than 30 then you need help badly, and you have become very submissive or passive.