“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” – Oscar Wilde.
Susmita, a 27-year-old manager in the IT Department at Tata Steel, is on a journey to heal and discover her way to self-love.
She hails from West Bengal, where she spent her childhood and college years with her parents and brother. Susmita explains that she was close to her mom as she spent most of her time with her while her father had to work long hours. She recalls the memories of her mom making academics fun, and together, they were a happy and supportive family.
Once Susmita completed her B.Tech, she began her career in the corporate world. She worked with various multinational companies before joining Tata Steel. Through the course of her career, Susmita got into a relationship with someone she liked a lot. As the days went by, there was a hiccup in their journey which had an impact on her emotional well-being.
Susmita elaborates that she started to see the issues indirectly affecting her professional career and physical health as well. She recalls feeling emotionally overwhelmed and confused by the consistent quarrels she had with her partner.
“I didn’t understand what was happening and was puzzled about how to deal with it. I tried to sort the issues, but I couldn’t. It ended up giving me a lot of trauma and anxiety issues.”
Through this challenging phase of her life, Susmita wanted to confide in someone and get a new perspective. She explains that she would usually go to her immediate circle and speak to them, but then she felt that her situation needed a professional approach.
Knowing her company had YourDOST as her wellness partner through the workshops and programs she participated in, she finally decided to seek help through the platform. As she began the sessions with the counselors, she felt they were empathetic and listened to her actively.
“Each expert’s approach was different, but all of them had the patience to listen to everything I had to say, primarily. They get into the details of the situation and understand my thoughts on a deeper level before any suggestions.”
Susmita explains that the counselor suggested alternative perspectives to help her about the fundamentals of emotional wellness and how to resolve the issues with her wellness strategically. The therapist also put forward the idea of Susmita and her partner separately trying an emotional healing session. Susmita couldn’t go forward with it as it required her partner’s consent as well.
She explains that the counselor has always been open to adapting to a different approach when one didn’t work. From the following session, they started focusing more on the individual aspects like the relationship issues hampering Susmita’s career and health and began working on them.
The counselor shared a picture of the emotional wheel with Susmita and gave her an understanding of it. They then asked her to tag and label every emotion she was feeling at the moment. This helped her understand her triggers in a particular situation.
Post the labelling of emotions, the counselor also made Susmita write them in brief as a next step. Eventually, these helped her gain clarity about how she could move ahead without being dependent on her partner.
“When I was a kid, I used to journal whenever I had distress. As I grew, I stopped writing that frequently, and by the time I finished college, the habit became rare. The counselor’s suggestion stopped it from becoming extinct, as journaling has been of great help in dealing with my situations.”
As the sessions proceed, Susmita says she has learned to identify her triggers and is able to move on to the next steps instead of being stuck there. She explains that her sessions are ongoing and she intends to see it through until it reaches the conclusion she desires.
She thanks the counselors on the platform for being her pillar of support and helping her come out of dependent behaviour patterns. She appreciates the effort they put into every session, which shows her empathy and compassion.
“In today’s world, no one tries to understand the other person’s perspective. It feels really good when someone understands your situation and validates your emotions. I’m grateful to the counselors from YourDOST for that.”
As she works on moving out of her situation and gaining holistic growth, Susmita rates herself 3.5 out of 5. We believe that in her life, she will succeed in her journey of healing.
Susmita’s Warrior Tips:
1.“We are comfortable sharing personal information about our physiology; it’s the same in therapy about our emotional well-being.”
2.“Place your trust in therapy and your therapist; they can help you.”
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