Aaroha
Aaroha aims at providing diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive psychological services to meet individual as well as organizational needs while exploiting the advantages of internet connectivity to overcome the barriers of distance and time. Aaroha’s philosophy is to reach out to children, adolescents and adults to provide quality psychological services and also to create mental health awareness among the community.
Mission Statement
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To provide comprehensive and integrated consultation, diagnosis and therapy through the web as well as clinic-based contact.
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To provide developmental testing, psychological assessment and individualized therapeutic plans to children with developmental problems and scholastic difficulty.
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To provide guidance for adolescents in their quest for identity.
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To train parents and teachers to identify problems, mediate and work towards bringing up healthy and happy children.
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To reach out to individuals with psychological needs, especially those who are unable to access mental health professionals.
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To be a trusted partner for organizations wishing to tap the true potential of their employees
Who needs Aaroha?
Children: Conducting psychological evaluation and creating an interventional roadmap for children with speech delay, developmental delay, behaviour problems, academic under-achievement, learning difficulties, autism, ADHD.
Adolescents: Helping them understand their fears and worries; equipping them with problem-solving skills, coping skills and time management skills for a confident future; guiding them to make an appropriate choice of career for their aptitudes
Parents: Sensitizing parents to the various behavioural developmental stages of the child and guiding them towards making parenting a memorable journey. Helping parents understand the needs of a child with special needs and working towards a better management plan.
Schools: Sensitization of teachers towards mental health problems of children and construction of individual education plans for children with special needs.
Individuals: Helping people cope with difficulty in work, social interaction and married life; helping them combat feelings of worthlessness; coaching them in anger management
Corporate: Enrichment of employees with training in time management, stress management, inter-personal skills and soft-skills.
Dr Neerja Thergaonkar is a consultant child & adolescent psychologist, Rehabilitation Psychologist (India) and Practitioner Clinical Psychologist (UK).
She obtained her post-graduation degree in clinical psychology from SNDT University Mumbai in 1998 followed by PhD in Psychology from the University of Pune in 2007, Completed her training in Family and Infant Neurodevelopmental Evaluation (FINE) from London UK in 2018 and Newborn Behavioral Observation (NBO) Brazelton UK; is under training for certification for Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) Brazelton the UK and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) from EMDR Association Asia.
Her work experience includes working with the Indian Navy as well as in Private Practice. Her work experience ranges from establishing Sahara counselling centre, INHS Dhanvantri, Port Blair (2007-2008) to being the first psychologist being appointed at Sakhi counselling centre, NWWA Kendra, Chanakyapuri, Delhi (2012-2016) while working with the Indian Navy and working in various private hospitals like Holovision Diagnostics, Port Blair; Lazarus Hospital, Visakhapatnam; Adiva Hospital, New Delhi; Giggles OMNI RK Hospital, Visakhapatnam. She is currently based in Mumbai and can be reached through the website.
She is presently working on establishing early intervention program with premature babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, training the staff and mothers of preterm babies on home-based early intervention and monthly neurodevelopment assessment to monitor optimal development of the child and reduce incidences of developmental delay. Though her work primarily consists of doing neurodevelopment assessments, working with children with developmental delay, autism, ADHD, learning disability, cerebral palsy, she also works with adults with a history of trauma.
Dr Neerja has a keen interest in developmental disorders of children like speech delay, developmental delay, behaviour problems, academic under-achievement, learning difficulties, autism, ADHD. She is a certified Arts Based Therapist, is a certified coach for Career Decision making, COGMED coach, is a tester for Developmental Assessment Scale for Indian Infants (DASII) by Dept of Pediatrics and TDH Morris, CDC, KEM Hospital, Pune as well as CPM/CVS and DST (J) for Learning Disability as well as Beck Youth Inventory by Pearson Academy India. She has also been an examiner for developing the Indian norms for the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence- second edition by Pearson Clinical and Talent Assessment, India. She has published technical articles on test anxiety in children. Dr Neerja is trained in Arts Based Therapy, Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy and EMDR Therapy, well-versed with handling psychological problems in adults. She regularly handles problems such as anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, domestic violence and marital discord.
She is a registered practising psychologist with the Rehabilitation Council of India (CRR No. A36795), Registered Practitioner Clinical Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (PYL039396 HCPC, UK) and Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society (485927). She is a Professional member of the NIDCAP Federation International (NFI), member of the scientific sub-committee of NFI and is a member of the NIDCAP Edmonton group. She holds memberships of the World Association of Infant Mental Health, British Psychological Society, National Association of Psychologist (NAOP), American Psychological Association, Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists, Indian Association of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Bombay Psychological Association and Association of Counsellors of India.
Organizational mental health requirements hold a special place for Dr Neerja. She has conducted several workshops for organizations such as schools, private firms and governmental organizations on a variety of issues such as behavioural problems in children, poor academic performance parenting, handling conflicts, marriage, soft-skills, stress-management and alcoholism.