Garima narwani

About Me

I'm a trained and certified Counselling Psychologist based in the Netherlands. I am South Asian and have lived the life of an expat pretty much all my life. I have lived in UAE, India, South Korea and now have moved to the Netherlands. I strongly relate to the quote by Ijeoma Umebinyuo - "...too foreign for home, too foreign for here. Never enough for both". I understand what it is like to uproot your life and move somewhere longing to belong to a place.

I have experience working with diverse client populations in individual and group settings, who struggle with - anxiety, depression, grief & loss, interpersonal relationship stressors, life transitions, intergenerational traumas, addictions, and unhelpful negative thought cycles.

I use an eclectic and a tailor-made approach using therapies, including but not limited to, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), Transactional Analysis, Gestalt Therapy, Narrative therapy.

I also offer grief support for people who have suffered loss of their loved ones and struggling with life without them. Personally, having lost my mother in 2020, I came face to face with my own grief and what life has looked like coexisting with my grief. I try to bring, into grief sessions, an open understanding of how grief is a lifelong journey and not just an isolated event that we are all so conditioned to believe. I help grievers understand their grief and how best to honor it.

I believe a lot of the answers to our problems lie with how we are shaped- how we view our world, meanings we assign to events, beliefs we hold, and messages we carry from our past experiences. I believe exploring our worldview can help us take an honest stock of what viewpoints are important and helpful, and what have become obsolete and unhelpful. Therapy with such an exploration helps us harness and empower our choice making abilities that can change the course of our journeys.

My Approach: Eclectic & Integrative Psychotherapy

My travels and expatriation have exposed me to intersectional differences that I can no longer unsee. As a woman and a provider of color, upon self-introspection, I realized how much I unconsciously ended up disowning parts of myself, my culture and identity, to not only fit in the society but also to seem as a neutral blank screen in my practice. I recognized I had no niche.

Through my personal reflections, I learnt to acknowledge that I was not being my authentic self in my practice which could render my work, in helping clients become their authentic selves, hypocritical. I then learnt to lean into my full intersectional identity of being a South Asian woman personally and professionally. I, therefore, offer counseling support integrating socio-cultural and intersectional nuances of my clients to help them cope with life changes and difficulties.

I help clients understand how our experiences are influenced by social interactions and our intersectional identities. My practice focuses on making sense of our experiences within the socio-cultural contexts so we can find our own safe spaces that can help foster a sense of belonging and healing. I help clients reclaim disowned parts of their narrative to help reacquaint them with their whole authentic selves.

I believe in the power of representation in mental health spaces. Therapeutic space becomes a safer one when identity and culture is allowed to enter the conversation.

Qualifications and Experience

Training

2013-15: M.Sc Counselling psychology, Christ University, Bengaluru India

2015: Relational skills based on Cognitive Analytic Therapy in association with Indian Association of Cognitive Analytic Therapy (IACAT) endorsed by International Cognitive Analytic Therapy Association (ICATA).

June 2018: Transactional Analysis 101 course endorsed by The International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA).

June 2019: Queer Affirmative Counselling Practice (QACP) course conducted by Mariwala Health Initiative, India.

May 2022: Counseling on Access to Lethal Means certification by Zero Suicide Institute®.

April - June 2023: Grief Educator Certification Course by David Kessler (davidkesslertraining.com)

Practice

2018 to present: Private Practice - India, South Korea and Netherlands. Currently offering online video counselling sessions.

Jan 2017 - Apr 2018: EAP Counselor and Case Manager at Workplace Options, Bangalore, India.

Nov 2014 - Jun 2017: Counseling Psychologist at Tattva Counseling Center - Happiness Matters, Bangalore, India.

Feb 2016 - Dec 2016: Training & Development Coordinator at Centre for Academic and Professional Support, Christ University, Bangalore, India.

Dec 2014 - Jan 2016: Counselling Psychologist for Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation at Garuda Recovery Rehab, Bangalore, India.