A Day in a Counselor’s Life.

9^th April 2021, Friday

10:30pm

Dear Diary,

Hello again, you precious little diary! I had a bunch of highs and lows today that I’ve been dying to share with you! Today was not a rough day, to be true. A couple of clients had been lined up for the day that I absolutely adore.

Since breaching confidentiality lies beyond the purview of ethics of counseling. I can only do as much as discuss my clients with you, my diary. Mum’s the word! 

A supremely talented client walked into the chamber with a panache oh so striking! It almost looked like she wasn’t too keen on opening up to me. Needless to say, I made room for a decent rapport to get built between us, for which I asked her questions to find out topics to bond over. After about ten minutes of ‘small talk’ where I was juggling a zillion subjects, almost making it sound like a word salad; we finally found Prateek Kuhaad as a meeting point in our conversation. I’m so grateful to life for bestowing upon me such glorious eureka moments! She kept emphasizing how ethereally she resonated with his songs like cold/mess, chahe ya na chahe, kho gaye hum kaha, just to be with you; it took me a neat pause to put two and two together. Perhaps, she was fond of these songs because of the blistering bruises of betrayal from her soul sister, her best friend. I asked her to evaluate if her chasing the lost friend and not focusing on any other activity over weeks was a feasible option to settle for. I’m guessing I communicated my concern toward her grief satisfactorily but she walked out the door all perplexed and voracious for solutions to her problems. That’s what a follow-up session is made for. 

I met with a few more clients but this one portion of my day was worthy of being called a highlight. It’s charming how I come to grips with “brevity is beauty” in some of the most ordinary moments. They pass me by in a jiffy, without making their presence felt and it is only in retrospect that is all adds up, rendering me tongue-tied while placing me in a comfortingly gratifying niche of happiness.

Learning from them, growing with them, and finding some of my missing pieces in them is all-in-all a holy benediction that I will always be thankful for!

I fathom the whole process of counseling as treasure hunt in all dignity. I listen and I learn; I understand as I un-complicate; I follow the pattern of crests and troughs while filling and spilling my pitcher of knowledge.

By 6:00pm, my mind was inundated with intrusive thoughts that were poured out during a series of sessions, so I decided to detox by visiting a nearby park. Seeing the little children drown themselves in frolic and devour all the merriment a simple swing can offer; lit me up and replenished me with the brain cells I had lost to go home to a frustratingly frivolous family conflict.

I’d rather not put you off by going over that mess of an ordeal again! Let’s appreciate the sublime, wondrous moments I had today and I hope to make for posterity to come!

Good night, Princess Diary, more like Princess Diana! *eye wink*

Artwork by

Netra Bhave.