SEEKING UNPROFESSIONAL ADVICE FOR MENTAL HEALTH DAMAGING, SAY EXPERTS
Mental health issues can’t be solved just by talking. It was the lesson fashion influencer Santoshi Shetty learned on Monday, after she was called out for an (now deleted) Instagram post, urging people to discuss mental issues with her for a “nominal fee” of ₹1,500.
The fashion influencer, with over seven lakh followers on the platform, later posted an apology for “making a video which was open for interpretation and not clarifying it was never meant as a substitute for mental health therapy sessions”.
Many professionals feel there are “umpteen cases” of people pretending to be qualified to talk to those with mental health issues. Clinical psychologist Pulkit Sharma says “people think” mental health issues can be solved by talking. “It’s not that simple. When a person is going through some issues, it really can’t be solved by talking,” he says. As Priyanka Varma, a psychologist, says, “When you look at people on social media, like influencers, who say they too have gone through mental health issues, someone suffering from mental health issues is likely to go to them. But they are ill-equipped to give any advice. You don’t give advice to someone suffering from mental health issues.”
“It’s not just the fact that you get a degree. You have to go through therapy sessions, constantly. So it’s just making a mockery of the profession, and the whole science,” says clinical psychologist Kamna Chibber.