Sailaja Menon is a licensed Counselling Psychologist, with over 27 years of clinical experience in the field of Mental Health, Counselling, training, teaching and supervision. She has graduated as a Psychologist with a Post Master’s Degree (CAGS) specializing in Multicultural Counseling from the world-renowned and prestigious Johns Hopkins University in the United States and following on served as a Faculty Associate in the Graduate School of Counseling at Johns Hopkins for 7 years. She has worked in Public and Private Settings as a Psychologist in the US, India, Dubai and Singapore. She has provided Individual, Couple and Family therapy on various mental health and life issues to a diverse range of multicultural clients. Ms. Sailaja has worked as a referral provider for several corporate and workplace institutions in the UAE for their EAP programs. She continues to provide therapeutic services to Indian citizens who cannot afford psychological services under the Crisis Prevention Program (CPP) that she has helped to establish under the patronage of the Indian Consulate, Dubai (a first-time initiative in the history of Indian missions across the world) for the past ten years. Due to her deep interest in teaching and research she has served as faculty at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Counselling. She strongly emphasizes the importance of incorporating a holistic model of services that takes into consideration the mental/emotional, physical/biological, social, community and the spiritual aspects of the client to ensure well-being and self-sufficiency. Her theoretical orientation is primarily client-centered; however, she is eclectic in her approach and often integrates other models of therapy such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Solution Focused Compassion based therapy, Mindfulness based therapy, Emotion focused therapy, Acceptance and Commitment therapy. She works primarily with couples, individuals and families on a broad range of mental health issues. 

What is therapy to me? Therapy to me is the confidence, courage, and comfort to be emotionally naked and candid with your therapist to become a better version of yourself . In therapy, what a client requires is not someone with a brilliant mind sitting across from them, but someone with a patient heart that listens to them. On these principles, my sessions are built from the foundations of progressive and solution focussed therapies which are navigated with the ingredients of empathy, commitment, mindfulness, compassion, and sensitivity such that my clients have the confidence, comfort, courage, and permission to explore their self, their worries, their unsaid fears and secrets, their pain, their trials and tribulations, their relationships and its dynamics and their existential crisis and their purpose of life. 

Therapeutic approach: My approach is primarily client-centered. I strongly emphasize the importance of incorporating a holistic model of services that takes into consideration the mental/emotional, physical/biological, social, community, and spiritual aspects of the client to ensure *their* well-being and self-sufficiency. I believe in nurturing and modeling a safe and empowering*environment* that can aid a patient to clarify problems, set goals, and implement teachings and learnings from therapy. I strongly advocate psycho-education and am very proactive with the mantra, ” Help my client to help themselves” I take a collaborative approach where I work with you to help you come up with the goals for the sessions, gain insight about the concern/s and *discover healthy* coping mechanisms. I also believe that the therapist is like a guide who helps you make a better decision for yourself. My approach depends on the concerns that the client is coming with. I believe that sticking to only one approach, i.e., either individualistic or collaborative will be limiting our skills as a therapist. We need to be flexible with our approaches depending on client’s needs

Areas of Expertise: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Solution Focused Compassion-based therapy, Mindfulness-based Therapy, Emotion Focussed Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Languages: English, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi

Rates: 

Individual therapy: Rs 4000

Couple therapy: Rs 6000