Bhavya Shah, a compassionate clinical psychologist. She is very passionate about helping other people and mental upliftment and she also strives to solve people’s problems who wish to transform their lives.
Bhavya Shah aims to transform people’s challenges into learning by setting meaningful goals and also working on the inner self of the people who are facing challenges in terms of the personal and professional front.
Let’s delve into the conversation with Bhavya Shah on her journey as a clinical psychologist with Icy Tales.
Q. What’s your favorite part about being a clinical psychologist?
Bhavya Shah: My favorite part of being a clinical psychologist is connecting with my patients. There are a lot of things that my clients and my patients can’t figure out in their lives. Hence helping them in figuring out the things makes me happy.
Q. In your opinion, what are the most important skills for clinical psychologists?
Bhavya Shah: Psychologists in general are not very different from clinical psychologists. Psychologists have to be good listeners. I as a psychologist can not jump to conclusions even when I have realized or understood the problem being on the other side of the sofa.
Keeping the conversation mutual and not jumping to the conclusions. I need to be more on the problem-solving side, and I need to have a better sense of communication. A person might not say something directly but I try to talk in a certain way where communication plays an important role. The profession of clinical psychologist has taught me to be more compassionate and to be a critical thinker.
Q. Being a psychologist do you see any shift in the attitudes of people towards mental health or do people still hold a judgemental attitude towards it?
Bhavya Shah: As a psychologist, I can only make you aware or help you only if you want me to help you. Once the person in front of me or the person has taken a step towards understanding mental health then there is maximum potential that the person understands and appreciates mental health. People nowadays are ready to understand the fact that they have to have awareness related to mental health.
Q) Can people prevent mental health problems?
Bhavya Shah: People can prevent mental health problems. Let us understand this way, if your close one is having a fever or headache, your family member will suggest you take a dolo tablet so you will feel better, this way they can help you. But if you have a high fever and it isn’t getting better then you cannot do anything about it, but to see a specialist.
Similarly, to prevent mental health issues in a certain way an individual can take care of it and can make yourself aware of what’s happening. The more you are aware about what’s happening with you and around you the more it is better.
The moment you feel you are hurt you need to bring in awareness and find out why are you feeling hurt or what just happened or what triggered you. Once you start understanding how aware you are and what is the trigger point, the solution comes easily to you.
Q. Could you please share some tips or steps when someone is facing anxiety or anxiety attacks or stress?
Bhavya Shah: First and foremost is to understand why stress or anxiety is happening. Anxiety is not a quality but a phase that comes and goes. You are not anxious as a person, you are experiencing the emotion called anxiety.
Anxiety has a start time and an end time. When you are facing an anxiety attack there are a couple of things that has to be done.
Box Breathing is one, where you need to breathe in for four counts, exhale your breath for four counts and hold your breath for four counts. Another step you can take is to take a piece of ice and rub it on your wrist, or play some music, and start to move your body, or walking in the garden bare foot. The only reason we do all of these things is that they change our perspective, they ground us.
If you do the box breathing your breathing comes under control and you will see that you feel better and are not feeling anxious anymore.
When you practice rubbing ice on the wrist it will make you feel grounded, and your senses and the nervous system start reacting to the ice. It switches from the anxious part to the relaxed side where you can sit and figure out what is the triggering point.
Q. Could you please share your experiences when you faced challenges and how you overcomed them?
Bhavya Shah: The challenges that I have faced are while treating the children because I have to treat their parents also. Parents think they haven’t done anything wrong, they think that they have done the best, they did the best for their child. Hence explaining them, telling the parents that it is alright, if you have made a mistake or if this is happening.
Q. What Is The Most Common Myth You Have Come Across During Your Experience As A Clinical Psychologist
Bhavya Shah: The first common myth that I have come across is that I am a psychiatrist. Another myth is that psychologists cannot feel depressed and or cannot feel stressed.
Q. What makes you most happy?
Bhavya Shah: Firstly, I am not the happiest person. I fight, I cry, I yell. The reason why I am happy right now is that I am not holding on to emotions. The reason why I feel happy on a day-to-day basis because that might have been a good day today, I might have a bad day yesterday. The only thing that keeps on going is the fact that whatever the emotions I am feeling I let them out and don’t hold on to them.
I used to hold my emotions because I use to think about what people will think and how will they perceive it. Because I am the eldest daughter in my family I was told to be the eldest, responsible daughter and take care of others. I always have the thought process that I always have to be a perfectionist in whatever I do, which led me to suppress my emotions.
The moment I realized & understood and then processed and consulted my therapist who suggested me not to hold my emotions, and let them go, it will help me to feel better. I don’t hold on to emotions and things. There are three things that make me happy. One is I don’t expect anything from anyone, this is very important and difficult.
The second thing is, I always try to work very hard and always try to understand that I am very grateful even in my worst situation. I understand and journal about the things I am grateful for.
The third thing is not holding on to the emotions. I am still a work in progress, I still tend to break down a lot, and I do get crazy. That’s where I am working on.
Bhavya Shah, a compassionate clinical psychologist. She has a growth mindset and believes in helping people with her counseling sessions. We wish her all the very best for her future.
Last Updated on by kalidaspandian
