Prioritising mental health is the need of the hour! If the isolation and anxiety brought on by the pandemic has not reiterated this fact enough, the recent suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput certainly must have. So don’t keep twiddling your thumbs wondering whether you should opt for therapy it not, just do it. Yes, we know you can’t step out much during the ongoing pandemic but if not for this, what are Diana Sam’s online therapy sessions for? Providing these therapies online via her Instagram page, Our Safespace, she avers it is exactly that, a safe space.
But how does online therapy work anyway? "Most people who seek therapy like to remain anonymous. In this case, I offer online therapies that offer anonymity. I encourage them to come on a video call or we have voice call sessions where I talk to them regarding their issues," replies Diana, who has been working as a therapist for almost a year now. She also informs us that people who require help can approach her through her Instagram page directly. "If a person is suicidal, I cannot ask them to meet me for therapy. My point is to discourage the person from taking extreme steps and that's the main purpose of the page," she says.
So, what else does Our Safespace offer? "There are many myths associated with mental health. For example, on social media, there are pages that say 'Psychology says that a person born in this month will be so and so', this is absolute rubbish. And yet, people continue to believe and share this kind of information. I try to bust these myths via this page by posting facts," explains the 22-years-old graduate from The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM), Chennai.
Diana adds that there is a misconception that comes with the word 'therapy'. The therapist can listen to problems and help with the solution, but they can't be the solution, she states and continues, "Nobody visits a therapist when they are happy, they visit one only when things are not going well. Moreover, imagine, as a therapist, having three sessions every day and continuously seeing people cry their hearts out. At some point, you’ll get worn out. There are situations when therapists themselves need to seek therapy due to stress."
As we live in an era where even kids go through mental health issues, Diana, who currently works with a private firm's Employment Development Service in Bengaluru, explains, "Kids try to copy what they observe from their elders. If you hit them when they are wrong, they tend to believe that they can hit those who don't listen to them. It is necessary to correct the kid but violence is not the way. Such behavioural issues are the source of much larger crimes and only a few parents seek a therapist for their kids when it comes to such issues," she concludes.
