The Alternative Story

the alternative story

Our Team

Hello! My name is Zoe. Imagine this to be a Sooraj Barjatiya movie and I am the narrator, the hero and the villian. But my most important job here is to introduce you all to my amazing team. Let’s start with well, me!

Perfect black dog looking to the side

Zoe

Chief Borketing Officer

She/ He/ They

Zoe has a Master’s degree in Human Manipulation and is doing her doctoral research on ‘The effect of puppy eyes vs barking – a comparative study."

Zoe is fluent in dog and puppy. She pretends to understand cat as well.

Zoe can be found in the Bengaluru office on most days except when she cannot be bothered to wake up. She loves all people who identify as women and merely tolerates most people who identify as men.

Rashi

Director (Communications & Strategy)

She/Her.

Rashi has a Master’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice Administration along with a Bachelor’s in Psychology.

Rashi lives with depression, anxiety and diabetes. She has been a part of many internal committees against sexual harassment at the workplace. She has worked within the criminal justice system as well as the state healthcare system.

She is fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Konkani.

Paras Sharma

Paras

Director (Programmes and Services)

He/Him.

Paras holds a Master’s Degree in Counselling and is also a Doctoral Scholar in Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

He has over a decade of experience of providing counselling services over multiple media including helplines, online and offline. He loves teaching his Master's students on most days.

He is fluent in English, Hindi, and Punjabi, and understands Gujarati and Marathi.

Amrita

Junior Counselling consultant

She/Her.

Amrita has a MSc. Counselling Psychology from Montfort College, Bangalore. She primarily uses a postmodern approach in therapy, employing narrative and feminist lenses along with being trauma-informed and queer affirmative.

She has previously worked with children in a Juvenile Center and has experience with young and middle-aged adults. She believes in creating a collaborative safe space of warmth and comfort.

When she is not reflecting on Mental Health, she values conversations that spark insight in her and lives in an alternate universe of being at a beach, watching anime, listening to music, and dancing her heart out.

Amrita is fluent in English and Hindi and understands Bengali and Marathi.

She is available for sessions online

radhika joshi counsellor

Radhika

Junior Counselling consultant

She/Her

Radhika has a Masters in Counselling Psychology from Christ University. She works primarily with adults and has experience working with anxiety, depression, trauma, relational issues, and gender & sexuality.

Her approach to therapy is humanistic, borrowing largely from psychoanalytic, gestalt, and narrative theories. Radhika endeavours to create a brave space for her clients to be their authentic selves.

She believes in the importance of intersectionality in her practice and brings her lived experience in affirming queer clients.

In her free time, you will find Radhika petting animals on the street, and singing along to the theme songs of her favourite TV shows.

She is fluent in English and Hindi, and understands Kumaoni.

She is available for sessions online.

Laksha

She/Her.

Laksha holds an MSc in Counseling Psychology from Kristu Jayanti College, Bengaluru, where she gained comprehensive training in her field. Specializing in working with adolescents and adults, she focuses on addressing anxiety, career-related challenges, and matters of gender and sexuality.

Embracing a humanistic approach to therapy, she incorporates a queer-friendly and feminist lens into her practice.

Committed to fostering a non-judgmental environment, Laksha offers her clients an empathetic space to embark on a journey of self-exploration. She strives to ensure effective communication and understanding with her diverse population.

Beyond her professional endeavors, Laksha manages a small business. When she's not engaged in her work, she cherishes quality time with her cats. Laksha finds solace in playing the guitar, and expressing her creativity through various forms of art.

She is fluent in Kannada, Tamil, Hindi and English.

They are available for sessions online.

Sameera

Junior Counselling Consultant

She/Her.

She has a MA in Clinical Psychology and work as a counseling psychologist. Her approach to therapy is eclectic, rooted primarily in existential therapy.

She is extremely passionate about the continuous evolution of mental health and learning newer forms of therapy to assist and improve the quality of life for people struggling with mental illnesses. She aims to be trauma-informed, empathetic, and queer affirmative.

Apart from having a passion for psychology and the wonders of the human mind, you’ll find her either playing with her dog or keeping up with pop culture. She is also a huge binge-watcher and a lover of dad jokes.

She is available for sessions online and on request, in person in JP Nagar, Bengaluru.

Sarah

Junior Counselling consultant

She/Her.

Sarah has an M.Sc. in Counselling Psychology. She currently follows an eclectic approach; rooted in humanistic and postmodern perspectives. Her aim is to be trauma-informed and queer-friendly. She also strives to be respectful of cultural and religious diversity.

Sarah is passionate about working with teens and adults who struggle with anxiety, depression, self-esteem, emotional regulation, grief, life changes and relationship concerns. She believes everyone should have a safe and supportive space to navigate challenges in life. Her style of therapy is informal, compassionate and responsive to each person’s unique needs.

You might catch her making memories with loved ones, satisfying her endless curiosity by exploring new things or enjoying a laid-back day. She holds a special place for desserts, DIY crafts, Studio Ghibli and the Ocean in her heart.

Sarah is fluent in English and can comfortably converse in Malayalam and Hindi.

She is available for sessions online

Anmol

Junior Counselling consultant

She/Her.

Anmol has a MSc Psychology. Her work focuses on helping you navigate your feelings and offer a path forward with her partners, ZZ Hadid and Morgan Treeman (her plants)

Mini

Senior Counselling Consultant

She/Her.

Mini has completed my Masters in English Literature from Kerala University, and Counselling Psychology from TISS, Mumbai. She has been practicing as a therapist for the last 8.5 years. She also works with couples for issues like anxiety, depression, performance anxiety etc.

Trained as a family centered practitioner, she brings a systemic lens to client issues. Although mainly rooted in a client centered paradigm, the therapeutic space is customized to suit the needs and requirements of the client.

Her additional qualifications include Diploma in Buddhist Psychology & level 1 EMDR. She is also currently pursuing her PhD from TISS, Mumbai.

She speaks Malayalam, Hindi and English

She is available for sessions online

Maithili

Junior Counselling Consultant

She/Her.

Maithili holds an MSc. in Psychology (Clinical) from Montfort College, Bangalore. She is inclined towards a client-centered, strengths-based, collaborative, and inclusive approach to supporting clients through challenges. She believes in a holistic approach to well-being and aspires to create accessible, safe spaces for authentic sharing and healing. She is interested in using the arts as a therapeutic tool for processing emotions.

On a personal level, she loves warm sunny days and spending time in nature. She explores all things artsy when given the chance and enjoys chilling with friends, family, and of course fur babies.

She is fluent in English and can understand basic Hindi.

They are available for sessions online and offline in Jp Nagar, Bengaluru.

Keren

Junior Counselling consultant

She/They

Keren has a MSc. Clinical Psychology from Sampurna Montfort College, Bangalore. They identify themself as a Non-Binary Pansexual and connects more with people who identify themselves as queer and are questioning.

She likes to use an integrative therapeutic approach. They are fluent in English and Malayalam and can understand both Kannada and Hindi.

She is also currently researching how incarceration affects their family relationships. In her free time, she likes to bake and sell baked goods.

She is available for sessions online and in person in JP Nagar, Bengaluru.

Aishaanyaa

Junior Counselling Consultant

She/Her.

Aishaanyaa holds a postgraduate degree in Social Work with a specialisation in Mental Health. She is trained in Trauma-Informed Counselling from The Alternative Story and has been counselling individuals, families and communities for the past 4+ years.

She is inclined towards using an eclectic approach that incorporates somatic work, REBT/DBT/CBT frameworks, SFBT and an critical feminist approach. People’s personal histories and stories are more important for her than diagnoses in providing care.

In her down-time she can be found playing with street dogs, DIYing things from scratch, reading about new things to do, watching a sitcom or making really random lists!

She speaks Hindi and English.

She is available for sessions online

Saandra

Junior Counselling consultant

She/Her.

Saandra has a Masters in Counselling Psychology from Sampurna Montfort College, Bangalore. Using an eclectic approach, Saandra combines a person-centred approach with the feminist lens, drawing from psychodynamic therapy, existential therapy, and various cognitive-behavioural approaches in her practice. She is trauma informed, kink aware, and queer affirmative. She works with individuals of all ages, couples, as well as families.

Outside of therapy, Saandra researches kink, chronic pain, disability, and also film. She loves teaching, and has a million hobbies (because: neurodivergence) that range from reading full-length novels overnight to making a 7-course meal entirely from scratch. She also spends a lot of time obsessing over sci-fi, comic books, and physics. Rest assured, she always has a fun fact ready for you!

She firmly believes in the innate ability of a person to help themselves, learn and unlearn, mend unhealthy patterns, and build new behaviours and mindsets that allow them to thrive. Her goal is to empower her clients to recognise their resilience, strength, and purpose. To choose kindness every step of the way.

Saandra is fluent in English, Malayalam, and Hindi.

She is available for sessions online and in-person in JP Nagar.

Shloka

Junior Counselling Consultant

She/Her.

Shloka has done her M.Sc in Clinical Psychology from Manipal University, Jaipur. .

Shloka's therapeutic philosophy is grounded in her belief that when subjectivity is understood and embraced, compassion, support & acceptance is provided, one then possesses the strength to build resilience to navigate through life's challenges and harbour self-awareness, self-discovery and self-growth. .

Shloka works collaboratively with her clients, aiming to provide a safe and confidential space where they can explore and/or make better sense of their thoughts, emotions, and experiences. She employs a tailor-made approach to fit the needs-goals of each person she works with. She carries an eclectic approach to her counselling, borrowing from multiple modalities, mainly – DBT, Gestalt, Psychoanalysis, Parts Work, CBT, EFT, QAT, Grief and Trauma-Informed Therapy. Her therapeutic process involves a lens of Intersectionality, Trauma-Informed, Emotion-Focused and Attachment Theories rooted in the foundations of Processwork. .

The goal is to assist clients in realising what they’d want and ultimately help them arrive at it. Outside work hours, Shloka can be found chilling with-talking to street dogs, crows and practically any living creature that visibly passes by her. She can not only talk about food for hours but can also cook & eat for hours! (yes, that slowly!) She enjoys watching and listening to diverse entertainment with no bounds about the language. She’s a fan of culture, food and travel. Reads and writes alike. .

She speaks English, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, and Spanish.

She is available for sessions online and on request, in person in Chembur, Mumbai.

Gayathri

Junior Counselling consultant

She/Her.

Gayathri holds an MSc. in Counselling Psychology from Christ University, Delhi.

She has focused on working with adolescents and adults who are navigating various mental health issues. She has experience assisting clients with adjustment difficulties, occupational stressors, academic concerns, self exploration, painful thoughts and feelings, and anxiety.

Her empathetic and person-centred approach forms the core of her therapy sessions. By creating a safe and accepting space, she aims to help people explore their authentic selves without judgment.

In her therapeutic practice, Gayathri borrows from various modalities, but lends majorly from the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) perspective. She also aspires to incorporate the narrative and existential approach in her sessions. With a firm belief in positive psychology, Gayathri believes in a strength-based perspective as opposed to harm-reduction approach.

When she is not scrolling through social media for funny videos of animals, she is often trying to catch up on the manga One Piece or learn unimportant facts from Google.

She is fluent in English, Hindi, and Tamil and can understand Marathi.

Yoshita

Junior Counselling Consultant

She/Her.

Yoshita holds an MSc. in Counselling Psychology from Montfort College, Bangalore.

She believes and seeks to create a therapeutic journey that empowers a person and brings about a positive and optimistic outlook towards self. Every individual is valued and so are their experiences. She is inclined towards incorporating person-centred approach, CBT/REBT framework as well as post-modern approaches focusing on Solution Focused Brief Therapy.

She hopes to create a space and journey where a person sees the strength within themselves.

Being a pet lover, she enjoys the company of pets. She loves listening to music and grooving, gardening and a little bit of painting.

She is fluent in English, Kodava (Coorgi) and Hindi and can understand Kannada.

They are available for sessions online and offline in Jp Nagar, Bengaluru.

Smriti

Junior Counselling Consultant

She/Her.

Smriti has a MSc. Counselling Psychology from Sampurna Montfort College, Bangalore. She is inclined towards a postmodern narrative approach in therapy, using a trauma-informed, queer-friendly and feminist lens.

She has experience working with young and middle-aged adults on a variety of interpersonal and intrapersonal issues. Smriti enjoys spending time with her family, going on long walks and writing prose-poetry.

She is fluent in English and is conversant in Tamil, Hindi and Kannada.

She is available for sessions online and in person in JP Nagar, Bengaluru.

Sonia

Junior Counselling Consultant

She/Her.

Sonia has a Masters in Psychology, with a Clinical specialisation from Montfort College, Bangalore.

She is passionate and motivated to make mental health more ethical, accessible and reliable. She has a humanistic approach to therapy and borrows from narrative and gestalt theories. She understands the importance of being empathetic and intersectional and practises evidence based therapies eclectically with a queer friendly and feminist lens.

Apart from being passionate towards Psychology, she aims to blend expressive arts into her therapeutic process. She navigates life with curiosity and believes every bad joke is a hidden gem. A collector of hobbies, she loves embroidery and singing with her ukulele in her free time.

Sonia is fluent in English, Hindi and Marathi.

She is available for sessions online and in person in JP Nagar, Bengaluru.

Fellows and Academic Trainees

Rickden

Fellow

He/Him.

Rickden has a Master's in Clinical Psychology. He likes looking at mental health using an IFS informed lens.

He seeks to help people in dealing with various aspects of mental health learn about their parts. He is also trying to make mental health more accessible and reducing the stigma around the same in various communities.

On off days, he can be found trying out anime, board games, origami or whatever else becomes their hyperfixation that week.

He is available for sessions online and in person in JP Nagar, Bengaluru.