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The most difficult phase of life is not when no one understands you; It is when you don't understand yourself.

  • Are you stressed about your child?

  • Is your marriage in trouble?

  • Are you stressed about your education?

  • Do you feel overwhelmed by anxiety and fear?

  • Are you confused about your choices?

Just mail mycounsellor@banjaraacademy.org to get free online counselling. Now sharing your problems, your worries, your anxieties, your fears. Your counsellor will reply to you, and be there for you until you need her to help you cope and get going. We guarantee the confidentiality of your personal data as well as any other information that you disclose.

Absolutely FREE – no hidden costs

No registration or formalities of any kind.

Straightforward and simple, heart-to-heart emotional support – the kind a good, understanding friend would give you!

Coordinating the online email counselling team of volunteer counsellors, I realize it is not an easy task reaching out to a person one has never met, never seen, without the added advantage of gestures, eye contact, a gentle reassuring touch, tone of voice and yet providing empathy, positive strokes, making the person feel heard and understood.

With the aid of only written words, it is quite a task building trust, making people open up and share and helping them cope and feel better. So when in many instances they write back saying thank you and that they feel so much better, the feeling one gets is priceless and incomparable – knowing one has done something right, something good!

Hats off to all the volunteeer-counsellors of Banjara Academy who have been carrying on this work silently, anonymously for the last few years. Truly commendable! – Ali Khwaja

FREE Online COUNSELLING Services of Banjara Academy: History

Under the banner, Helping Hand, Banjara Academy has always been offering free counselling in person for anybody in emotional distress, firmly believing that such support should never be at a fee.

For the last couple of decades, anybody in Bangalore, India, in dire need to talk to somebody has had to just call Banjara Academy and fix up an appointment with one of our volunteer counsellors or just walk into our offices  and meet one of our volunteer counsellors.

With the advent of the internet and emails, many have also been writing to us about their problems and we have been replying to them, doing our best to be there for them as counsellors.

With the free online counselling service by email, we are seeking to reach out, beyond Bangalore, to more people (now, you may be anywhere in the world) and provide you with some degree of emotional support, whatever we can, as we have always been doing so for the past couple of decades – emotional support that you may be struggling to find in your life.

This year has been exceptionally bad for many students in terms of exams.

Board exams for lower classes were announced, cancelled, held again, and then results have been withheld.  Those appearing for regular Board exams were told that they can appear three time to improve their scores – but many are feeling the stress of preparing and appearing multiple times for these Boards. Students have been complaining of pressure from their parents, and sometimes even teachers, to continue attempts on the hope that they will get better marks. Students who appeared for K-CET came out very distraught from the examination hall because they found many questions were not from the syllabus, and even now we are getting many phone calls of students who feel they may not score well enough to get into a good college.

The basic degree is only a stepping stone to lifelong learning & growth.  Rather than preparing only for exams, those who have a positive mindset, sharpen soft skills, and learn beyond the curriculum will succeed in the long run. They can sharpen the 10 Life Skills enunciated by United Nations, i.e.  Self-awareness Decision-making, Problem solving, creative and critical thinking, communication skills, interpersonal relationship skills, and empathy.

Learn to Enjoy Stress - By Dr. Ali Khwaja

I can communicate to you for any of the following purposes:

  • To inform
  • To entertain
  • To educate
  • To convince
  • To motivate & inspire
  • To gain control
  • To seek emotional support or catharsis
  • To manipulate

It takes courage and a lot of will-power to go against the tide.  You have taken the first step in the direction of true learning and understanding of children by plunging into CCAD.  Now, as you continue your journey, ask yourself a basic question – what is the purpose of your communication with anyone any time, particularly with children? We have tried to make this a true learning exercise i.e. empowering you to start your journey of further enriching lives.  The effect will seep in slowly, but surely.  No miracles promised or delivered.  But the slow miracle of CCAD will come like the seed hidden below the ground sprouts one fine day, and then goes on growing …. and growing.  But do remember that you need constant practice, like the plant needs watering. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the exercises and activities your Mentor is giving you, just give it your best shot – ali

Ali’s Notes:

There are so many people who you interact with regularly, some on a daily basis.  A few we give great importance to, and many others we take for granted.

If you are a middle-class person you may be having part/full time domestic help at home. Either you are lucky to have reliable continuous employees, or perhaps you have had to change them from time to time.  Either way, how much significance have you given to them as individuals, as humans?

Their experiences, and hence their priorities in life, are so different from ours. Even when we get exasperated sometimes with their behaviour, we need to understand certain issues from their perspective.  Do take time to do that and see if you can understand them better individually.  This will help you too.

We did a survey to understand them, and I presented it on Fb Live which is available on YouTube later also if you wish to watch.