10 Questions with Neha Kapoor

• What led you to choose psychotherapy or counselling as a profession?

• I believe I have a strong desire to help others and to assist people with the challenges of daily living. I have always been a good listener and find that others often seem to feel comfortable confiding in me. It is something that comes to me naturally along with my genuine desire to help those in need.

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional/personal development?

• My understanding of human behaviour is not grounded in one psychological approach. Instead there are two therapeutic approaches that govern my rationale. These two approaches are Existential and Person centered. They have both heavily influenced my philosophical orientation to counselling.
  In layman terms, Existential therapy can be described as a philosophical approach that is not designed to cure people but instead help the client reflect and search for value and meaning in life. I focus on helping my clients achieve and expand their self-awareness and believe that once they have self-awareness they can find new ways of dealing with problems and except the responsibility of choosing.
  Similarly, the objective of perosn-centered therapy is to assist the client to experience self-exploration, so that they can identify problems that are hindering their growth process. Essentially, the main goal of person centered therapy is to have the client achieve a sense of increased awareness and understanding of their attitudes, feelings, and behaviours. I believe that humans are intelligent beings and capable of solving their own problems given the right tools.

• Which particular aspects of health or the human journey are you interested in?

• I have practiced and taught yoga for over a decade. So it is certainly an aspect of health and wellness that I have been interested in for a very long period of time and the research that surrounds its benefits in helping trauma victims.

• What method/s do you use?

• I do not follow a one size fits all approach. I believe we are all at different stages of life needing different experiences. So I tailor my method according to the needs of my clients. As a general rule I follow a person centered and existential approach to therapy.

• When do you think the client will start to feel that progress is being made?

• It's hard to put a time frame on when a client would start to feel progress as it is different for all clients. Depending on what your individual problem is we can discuss how long it would take for you to feel progress after our first session. But in general research suggests that up to 90% of people report an improvement in their mood after just one session of counselling.

• How has therapy made you a better person?

• An awesome benefit of therapy for me is that it not only helps me understand myself better but it also helps me understand other people on a much deeper level.

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

• Therapy satisfies my natural curiosity and my love of learning. I get to be curious about my clients, and they get to become curious about themselves. That curiosity leads us to all sorts of mysteries and then to the origins of those mysteries.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

• Don't we all? I'm no exception to the rule.

• What do you think is the most significant problem we face, in the world today?

• I think the most significant problem we face in the world today is climate change and its serious ramifications to our planet.

• Can you share the name of a book, film, song, event or work of art that inspires you?

• I love books. I could name many but a few that have inspired me are "The Deepest Well" by Dr Nadine Burke Harris, "Mating in Captivity" by Esther Perel and "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel Van Der Kolk.