At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Healy Vorafor an exclusive interview with us. Healy is a Leader, Psychologist, Graphologist, Mentor, Trainer, Influencer and Change Enabler. Let’s learn more about her incredible journey, her background, and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Healy:
Could you please talk us through your background and your journey?
I have pursued M.A. in Psychology and specialized in Clinical Psychology. Although my educational background allows me to work with individuals who have disorders, I always found my inclination towards working with children.
Therefore in 2017, for my first job, I chose to work as a School Counselor in my city. Gradually I found my preference around working with children and adolescents.
Since my work profile also helped me guide parents in their respective parenting journeys, my area of expertise began to shape up.”
In 2019, I decided to expand my horizon and start working for pressing issues as observed largely among human beings, which led me to launch Well-being First, which I call my entrepreneurial debut.
At the core of Well-being, first lies the intent of making human beings self-reliant in helping themselves.”
This has been our aim since day one because Indians are still finding comfort around seeing therapists.
How did you discover your passion?
I was always intrigued by individual differences right from my childhood. I would try and find out why people think or even behave differently compared to how I would.
As an addition to this thought, I was also very aware of my lacking skill set with a few subjects when in school. So, by the method of mere elimination, I was able to identify that Arts/Humanities would align the most with my aptitude as well as my areas of interest.
Later on, during my high school years, I started researching about the various fields I could possibly take up, and one day, I landed on Psychology. Since that day, I mapped out my plan for further education and I was clear about how and where I would even pursue my post-graduate specialization.
I call myself a third-party learner so I am someone who would be vigilant of other people’s experiences and be conscious about the decisions I made.”
A combination of all these experiences made me realize where my true passion lied.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
Being in this field, one already knows that it isn’t going to be easy to carve your way into the mainstream work that you ideally want to do.
The stigma around mental health is very much present, I was always aware about the challenges I would be facing. So, mental preparedness has always helped me to keep going.”
Furthermore, a Psychologist always works for the larger good – making a difference. Thus, giving up has never been an option for me. Since I have also been brought up to be someone who doesn’t give up easily, I have been able to build my resilience around it.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
My biggest source of inspiration are my parents. My father has always been my idol and I look up to him, especially with regards to the professionalism he carries. I believe my professional self is in striking resemblance with that of my father.
My mother on the other hand, has always driven me towards being independent. Since she had never been able to work during her young days, she always pushed me to make a life and a career of my own when I grew up.
I believe the values that my parents have instilled in me since my childhood have shaped me to be the strong and sensitive woman that I have turned into with time.
I am equally lucky to have received the same kind of support from my husband. He also has been a driving force for me to keep going and do what I love. Seeing him being calm despite circumstances being challenging sometimes, also motivates me to practice it consciously in my daily life.
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
There are a few:
> Being mindful about my experiences and trying to consciously appreciate the good in each day that I live.
> I make sure I take credit for the good work I do.
> I make sure I give my hundred per cent to whatever I take up and focus on my ef-forts.
> I practice self-care actively – I spend 30 mins daily by myself.
> I focus on building a solution-focused mindset.
> I have been trying to build patience in general, which has largely helped me tackle my temper well.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
I think having an open mindset, a willingness to learn, smart work, consistency and patience are the key ways of achieving success.
When I say smart work, I mean being conscious about the kind of efforts we are putting in and being mindful about the quality of those efforts.
I feel hard work is useless unless it is aligned with a purpose. Therefore having a sense of purpose is also of great importance.
What advice would you give to our readers?
Going to therapy or speaking to a mental health professional is normal. Consider it as speaking to someone who is not going to judge you, no matter what you say; and they are going to keep this information safe with themselves. Your misery won’t be someone else’s gossip to enjoy.
Be active listeners. One may not have access to these kinds of services sometimes, so make sure you are there for them when they choose to speak to you. The world would be a kinder place to live in when people are there for each other in times of need.
Additionally, no matter what you do in life or which field you work in, never do it just for money. Ask yourself – does this work excite me, does my work add onto my skills, am I going to learn new things in my journey?
Moreover, expect yourself to feel overwhelmed from time to time. It is therefore mandatory that you engage into self-care. Take out some time for yourself and keep your inner child alive and happy.
Last but not least, what about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
I feel this field has a great advantage of learning from one another. Therapists certainly aren’t Gods who have all things figured out – sometimes suggestions employed by their clients make complete sense and may act as solutions to therapists’ own problems. So, when this give and take happens, it becomes very exciting for therapists as well.
Moreso, in therapy, the client gets to set goals for them to achieve, and in the therapeutic process, different ways to achieve those goals are worked out.
Therefore, one of the major reasons that make working in my field very exciting and satisfying is the happiness on the client’s face when their efforts start to pay off and goals are eventually met. The kind of pride experienced by clients thus is unmatched.
Furthermore, knowing that we act as catalysts in enabling our clients to reach their full potential, the journey in itself is worth it. To know that I am making a difference in this world, one person at a time, is in itself very fulfilling.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
