Child Counselling in South Delhi

Child counselling in South Delhi is the therapy itself: the weekly hour in which a child works on what is actually troubling them. The short answer is either of our two south Delhi centres, Malviya Nagar or Vasant Kunj, and which one is a question of your journey rather than of the service. This page covers what happens in that room, what you will and will not be told about it, and how long a course usually runs.

Which eMbrace centre South Delhi families use

Both our Delhi centres are in south Delhi, which makes this the one part of the city where you have a real choice rather than a nearest option.

eMbrace at Rainbow, Malviya Nagar, at FC-29, Plot No. 5, Geetanjali, sits beside Malviya Nagar Metro Station Gate No. 1 on the Yellow Line. It is the closer centre from Saket, Hauz Khas, Green Park, Greater Kailash and Defence Colony, and because it runs inside Rainbow Children's Hospital, therapy across occupational therapy, speech therapy and physiotherapy is in the same building.

eMbrace Vasant Kunj, at C-7, Sector C, Pocket 5, Grand Vasant Kunj, is the closer centre from Vasant Vihar, Munirka, R.K. Puram and Safdarjung Enclave, and carries the larger clinical team.

If you are unsure which to pick, the free intake call sorts it out in a couple of minutes, and we would rather do that than have you drive to the wrong side of Aurobindo Marg.

Counselling is a weekly commitment rather than a single appointment, which changes how much the journey matters. A route that is fine once is a different proposition every week for three months, and travel is the commonest reason a family stops coming before the work is finished. Say so on the intake call and we will build the scheduling around your week, including running some sessions online.

For parking, the nearest drop-off point and the quickest route at your particular time of day, ask on the intake call. Traffic and parking around every one of these centres change enough through the day that current directions from someone who works there beat anything we could fix on a web page.

Counselling, or assessment first?

Counselling is therapy: a child works on anxiety, anger, confidence, friendships, grief or a change at home. Assessment is diagnostic testing for something like ADHD, autism or a learning difficulty. Most children need the first, but some need the second before the first will work, because counselling a child for low confidence when the cause is an unidentified reading difficulty treats the symptom and leaves the cause.

• Counselling suits a child whose difficulty is emotional or relational
• Assessment comes first where the difficulty is with learning, attention or communication
• Both at once is common, and the two clinicians talk to each other

The full picture of how the therapy itself works is on our child counselling page.

What a counselling session actually looks like

It depends almost entirely on age. Under about eight it is play-based and looks like playing, because that is how young children process what they cannot yet say. From eight to twelve it mixes talking, drawing and structured activities. With teenagers it looks much more like adult therapy, with the young person setting a good deal of the agenda. Sessions run weekly at the same time, because the predictability is part of what makes it work.

On confidentiality, which is what parents ask about most: what your child says in the room is broadly theirs, and that privacy is what makes them willing to say anything at all. You get themes, progress and what to do at home, not a transcript. The exception, which we explain to your child at the start, is anything suggesting they are at risk.

What children work on in counselling here

Across the south Delhi catchment counselling is dominated by school-related themes, which follows from the density of schools between Vasant Kunj and Greater Kailash: exam pressure, subject avoidance, and friendship groups reorganising themselves in the senior years.

Underneath that sits a quieter and more common theme, which is children who are performing perfectly well and are unhappy. That work is rarely about school at all, and it is the reason we do not treat good marks as evidence that a child is fine.

Who you would see

Dr Supriya Malik, Founder and CEO, and Head of the Child Development Centre at Rainbow

PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Birmingham, where she was also a postdoctoral researcher, and a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society in the UK. She designed the assessment and therapy pathways every eMbrace centre runs.

Across our Delhi centres, the clinicians who take this work are:

Dhriti Dharana, Clinical Lead

MSc in Clinical Health Psychology and Well-being from Middlesex University, UK. Behavioural therapy with neurodivergent children and parent training, from a neurodiversity-affirming position. Works in fluent English and native Hindi.

Shruti Ghosh, Clinical Psychologist

M.Phil in Clinical Psychology with distinction from Amity University, Noida, and UGC-NET qualified. CBT, DBT, ACT and Parent Management Training across neurodevelopmental, mood and obsessive-compulsive presentations. Works in Hindi, English and Bengali.

Taranpreet Kaur, Clinical Psychologist

M.Phil in Clinical Psychology with distinction, plus a Post Graduate Diploma in School Counselling from Symbiosis. ACT and MBCT for anxiety, depression, OCD and trauma, and comprehensive psychological assessment. Works in English, Hindi and Punjabi.

Mannat Kaur Arora, Psychologist

Professional Diploma in Clinical Psychology from Amity University Haryana and an MA in Psychology from the University of Delhi. Assessment across MISIC, WISC-IV, Conners 3, CBCL, ISAA, CARS and the NIMHANS SLD battery. Works in English and Hindi.

Cheesha Kanwar, Psychologist

Completing an MSc in Clinical Psychology at Christ (Deemed to be University), with a BA (Hons) in Applied Psychology from the University of Delhi. Behaviour therapy and assessment support using WISC-V, NEPSY-II, Conners-3 and BRIEF-2. Works in English and Hindi.

Arshita Matta, Psychologist

Integrated BA and MA in Clinical Psychology from Amity University, Noida. Case history taking, mental state examination, psychoeducation and counselling with children and adolescents. Works in English and Hindi.

Which of them you see is decided on the intake call rather than by whoever has the next free slot, and you are told who it will be before you book. Fuller biographies are on our about page.

Schools and services we already work with

Some of what we do around South Delhi happens inside institutions rather than at a centre, which is often how a family first hears of us.

Our Malviya Nagar centre runs inside Rainbow Children's Hospital, New Delhi, which is why occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy, behaviour therapy and special education sit in the same building as assessment.

We work with The British School in Chanakyapuri on psychoeducational, cognitive and risk assessments, therapy for children and adolescents, and workshops for teachers, parents and pupils.

At the American Embassy School in Chanakyapuri we carry out psychoeducational, cognitive, comprehensive and brief assessments, including risk assessments, and provide therapy for children and adolescents.

Where a child or adult needs psychiatric input, we work with Sukoon across Delhi NCR for psychiatric assessment, consultation and medication management, so you are not left to find a psychiatrist yourself.

Fees, how long a course runs, and how it ends

Fees are quoted upfront on your intake call, before anything is booked, and depend on which clinician your child works with.

Most courses run eight to sixteen weekly sessions, formally reviewed at around session six. Grief, trauma and family change need longer. If a course is not working the answer is to change it, not to book more of it. Endings are planned over the last two or three sessions, because a child who has trusted an adult with difficult material should not simply stop seeing them one week.

Frequently asked questions