Being the ‘studious’ type and a teacher’s pet, Richelle Brito Carvalho had dreams of becoming a teacher. As the eldest child at home and in her society, she would often gather her siblings and her neighbour’s kids and would act as their teacher, using the doors as blackboards.
She lived in different places around Goa, but spent most of her childhood in Navelim, where she did her schooling. Post high school, because of the ‘high marks’ she scored, everyone around her suggested that she should pursue Commerce, if not Science, as Arts was never an option for a career choice. Back then, these were the three options they had and Arts was the least favoured. However, she was extremely interested in Arts, inching slowly towards becoming a teacher. Richelle’s parents were very supportive of her decision, and permitted her to go ahead and pursue her interest. One of the subjects in her 11th grade was psychology, and that’s when it all began.
Psychology opened up different doors altogether for Richelle. Doors with options that seemed far more riveting and challenging. Her innate desire was to create an impact on the people she worked with and to continue the journey of learning about herself as well. It began to look like psychology was the way forward.
Richelle moved to Mangalore and completed her Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology from the School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya. She found the course very experiential, reflective, and in- depth. She specialised in working with adolescents and young adults, after which she moved back to Goa to put her acquired knowledge and skills into practice.
She began her career as a counsellor by working in a school. In 2016, she felt that schools did not quite understand the work of a counsellor. Unrealistic expectations from the school led her to look for other options of work. In 2018, she was recruited by Sangath, a non-profit organisation that works towards improving health across all domains. Here, she got the opportunity to work with different schools in South Goa, focusing on teacher training modules, and working closely with students with learning disabilities, teachers and parents. This also included building curriculums using alternative teaching modules like story-telling, visual cards, and developing games, which would encourage students to participate in their classrooms. She was also involved in Sangath’s clinical services, providing counselling for adolescents and young adults. Although the work she was doing was fulfilling, she still felt that she had much more to learn and experience in the field of mental health.
In search of new experiences, in 2018 she shifted to North Goa and went on to join an organisation that worked with children and young adults on the autism spectrum. Alongside working with parents, she was also involved in training young adults with professional skills, providing emotionally supportive sessions, building curriculums for these training programs, as well as conducting social activities for students. This hands-on experience gave her the exposure and understanding to work with individuals on the spectrum.
When the pandemic hit India in 2020, Richelle was in the middle of a very difficult time that impacted her physically as well as mentally. As a result, she faced a couple of setbacks in her career. With the help and support of loved ones, she was able to take a break from work and focus on her mental health.
Together with personal counselling sessions and the unending affection from her close family and friends, she started to recover emotionally. Feeling empowered with a newly discovered motivation, she began her own online private practice under the name ‘Wholistic Connect’ in December 2020.
Starting a private practice and building a clientele is a slow process and sometimes the pace of growth, financial instability, and being a one-person army can feel very demoralising.
As a counsellor 6 years ago, there was still a lot of stigma attached to attending to one’s mental health needs, reaching out to seek support or even to openly discuss it with friends and family. However, now Richelle feels that the tide is changing and mental health in our country is slowly getting the importance it deserves.
Richelle started an Instagram page with the intention of reaching out to a larger audience to offer pro bono counselling sessions and to offer support groups services, especially duing the peak Covid period. Richelle specialises in working with adolescents and adults. Some of the areas she works in include managing stress, anxiety, and depression, understanding experiences of loss and grief, managing inter-personal relationship issues, adjusting to life changes, etc.
In addition to conducting online sessions, she also provides consultation services at Antarman, a Centre for Psychosocial Well-being, situated in Panjim, where she conducts in-person sessions. She has also completed a Diploma in Family and Couples Therapy and participated in a 6 month long training progamme in Attachment Theory.
In the future, she plans to create more space for support groups for adolescents and young adults, and collaborate with other professionals to build a community that promotes mental and emotional well-being. One thing she would like to tell parents is that there is no right way to be a parent, but physical and emotional abuse does more harm than good to children. “Be an example to one’s children in how they should be treated”, she says.
She adds that the last 2 years have been extremely difficult for our youth. “With all the uncertainty, experiencing loss of some kind; whether it’s a loss of a loved one or loss of a job, delays in career progression to feeling helpless from being isolated from society, one must know that one is not alone and can reach out to seek the help one needs to deal with these problems”, she says.
People seeking counselling can reach out to Richelle by:
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @wholistic.connect.counselling
