Meet Meenal Chaudhari—Therapist at Best Therapists

"Know Thyself" is a dictum that Meenal lives by and she is privileged to accompany others as they embark on their journeys to know themselves. She is a highly creative person and has spent a lot of time reinventing herself as an actor, writer, visual artist, HR personnel, group leader and so on. But psychology and psychotherapy have been a mainstay throughout. She knew she wanted to be a psychotherapist very early in life, without even fully understanding the term. The more she studied; the more she was certain that it was her path. She has explored various schools and modalities in her long journey - starting with Transactional Analysis, Gestalt psychology, Rogerian client centered therapy, Somatic psychotherapy, Transpersonal psychotherapy, Jungian dream analysis, CBT, Process-oriented psychotherapy, Dance-movement psychotherapy, Spiritual counseling. She regards the Self as comprising five layers. The physical is the most dense, gross and visible. Subtler than that is the energy layer, seen by some as a silvery outline of the physical body. The energy layer permeates the physical and spills out. Then comes the mental-emotional layer and some call it the astral body. This permeates the first two layers and surrounds it and extends outwards around two to two and half feet in most cases. Then there is the intuitive layer where knowledge of the true Self resides. Again, this is subtler than the earlier layers and permeates as well as extends out. Finally, there is the bliss layer that is at the core as well as the most expansive.

I believe pretty much anyone and everyone can benefit from therapy. Therapy for me is about giving unconditional positive regard to help you solve your own problems or issues. Therapy offers you the personal space to understand and accept yourself better. Therapy is about getting to know yourself on a more intimate level. Discovering facets of yourself by exploring the feelings and thoughts underlying habits, unconscious patterns and repetitive emotions. It is about becoming more true to yourself and bringing that authentic self out into the world. Your current problems and issues are a doorway for you to enter into your deeper self, to love and accept that self and feel free. I believe you have the wisdom to deal with your issues, to solve your problems, though it may not seem that way now. I hold space for you without judgment and with unconditional positive regard, such that the light of awareness shines forth and you can choose to be the way you want to be. The choice is yours. You may use it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself, to grow, develop and change. You are welcome to come in, sit down and you will have taken the first step.

Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology in Holistic Studies I John F. Kennedy University, 2012; Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology I Bombay University, 1987