The pandemic has brought the much-needed discussion on Mental Health to light in recent years. While India, as a country is still on its course to bring more awareness on the topic, Dr. Neha Rai’s debut book The Perfect Knot has stirred a new proposition- the importance of child counselling & self-awareness.
“Child counselling allows young minds to shape up their beliefs. It helps the kids to understand, regulate, and control their feelings, empowering them at a very young age,” says Dr. Neha Rai, Bangalore-based Emotional Intelligence & Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Coach.
“We as a society arrived quite late in cognizing the seriousness of mental health and its impact, but it’s now time that we step ahead of it to keep up with the changing times.
Awareness of Mental Health alone would not be enough in the Metaverse age. An age where we might get even deprived of reality around us. We are very superficially touching on the topic without delving deeper into it. Self-awareness and mental fitness would be the next milepost, and child counselling is the first step towards it. It allows a reflection on one’s strength, building a strong foundation for life to come. Irrespective of one’s circumstances, child counselling should be made mandatory to vest self-awareness in them. It promotes confidence, makes them expressive, and builds self-esteem allowing them to connect with their emotions. This gives them an opportunity to associate with themselves and their surroundings better, making them independent. Not only this, it gives them space to reflect on other’s feelings as well making them empathetic at a young age.”
The Perfect Knot by Dr. Neha Rai is being appreciated for its ingenious approach in weaving different aspects of mental health into a fictional story. It accentuates different societal issues like misconceived understanding of introversion, lack of self-awareness, and struggles of the LGBT community in a very intriguing manner. Readers are endorsing Dr. Rai’s approach & efforts in making society comprehend and embrace LGBT through her book.
“Coming from a run-of-the-mill education system, it would be too much on society to one day wake up and accept the changes around them. It becomes the responsibility of the younger generation to make them aware of it while patiently waiting for them to reach the same understanding. We need to start from scratch. My debut book is a small effort towards it.”
When asked what made her choose the title of her book, she shared, “We all have some knots in our minds. As Rumi says, it takes wisdom to untie these knots. But to untie, we first must accept it. It is what makes us stronger sometimes. A little imperfection that acts like a yin in our yang, making us balanced, whole & perfect.”
Dr. Neha Rai is also a counselling practitioner and can be approached on dr.neharai_author on Instagram. She is currently working as Content Head at Insomniacs, a Mumbai-based marketing agency.
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