Exclusive Interview With Shehnaaz Elahi – Leading Professional In Holistic Counselling
Updated: Aug 1, 2022
Shehnaaz Elahi is a leading professional in Holistic Counselling. After her Master Studies in Psychology, she delved deeper into Alternative Medicine, Spirituality and Wellness to understand the deeper connection between Body, Mind, Emotions and Spirit. Her perspective on mental health care can be seen as revolutionary different than the mainstream popular western psychiatry. During her life, she developed her own vision and treatment plans to help people with different mental health disorders to recover and/or reduce psychiatric medication. The mind is capable of healing itself with the right holistic and natural treatments. She is an author of several autobiographical informational books and wrote many informational blog articles. Her mission is to help people alleviate their mental and emotional burdens with holistic and natural treatments.
Shehnaaz Elahi, Leading Professional In Holistic Counselling
Can you tell a bit about yourself?
My name is Shehnaaz, I’m almost mid-thirties, I studied Psychology in the Netherlands at the University. After that, I broadened my perspective by studying different courses in Wellness, Health, Spirituality and Alternative Medicine. I’m working at the moment as a holistic counsellor and bodyworker/aesthetician.
“Combining inner and outer with each other gives amazing results!”
What is your field of expertise?
My goal is to help people recover from emotional and mental difficulties by offering alternative treatments and medicine. This is different from a clinical counsellor, but also from a psychologist and psychiatrist in the way people are viewed and treated. In psychiatry, there is the overexposure to pharmaceuticals with negative (long term) side effects, withdrawal symptoms and sometimes being hooked for life if you might believe the psychiatrist. In clinical counselling there is usually room for talk therapy and the counsellor is listening, asking (sometimes extremely generic) questions and there is no real room for feedback or advice.
“As a Holistic Counsellor, I definitely support Alternative Therapy over Pharmaceuticals!”
As a holistic counsellor, I take the profession of counselling to the next broader level, and offer help by listening, by advising directly about the understanding of certain habits, the use of different psychological mindsets, and offering alternative therapies and medicine. I also focus on communication through other means than talking, for example, creative communication through drawing or using music. These things might seem basal for some, but not for everyone. A lot of people are actually stuck in their minds and only talk therapy I feel is not sufficient to get out of your head into your body.
“The use of Creativity is an underestimated tool in regular Counselling!”
How did you come to do what you are doing now?
As a teenager, I already had a strong passion for spirituality, psychology, philosophy, occultism, creativity and alternative medicine. Because most of my passions were not recognized through mainstream schooling, most of my passions stayed a hobby till later in life, when I felt more confident to actually also market my other skills next to psychology. I combine different fields of expertise together in a coherent way and can come up with different methods of treatments that are actually useful, beneficial and working long term by tackling the root cause of a problem. These different methods are mostly based on alternative medicine, spiritual insights, transpersonal psychology, but also Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
As I had my own trials in life I know what I’m talking about and I deeply understand the causes and problems of psychiatric disorders and psychiatric disbalances. In some ways, I see myself actually as an alternative psychologist, but because the law doesn’t cover this, I can help people as a holistic counsellor.
“I know what works because I use the same methods for myself and people I care about!”
What kind of issues do you treat?
I treat mostly sensitivities and disbalances seen as mild psychological disorders. These disorders can go together with problems in relationships, addictions, sexuality, victimization, sexual abuse, career problems, life envisioning or any other related issue. Next to that I also encourage people to lead a healthier lifestyle, even if it’s just in small steps and at their own pace.
Thank you for explaining your profession clearly. How can people reach you if they want to contact you?
At the moment I’m located in Antwerp, Belgium. I’m reachable through online counselling for people outside Antwerp. For people within Antwerp, I offer flexible counselling. This means it can be online, at my office, in nature or if convenient at your location. I’m very flexible because I understand that everyone has different needs and feelings, especially with something as sensitive as counselling. You can book an appointment through my website, www.iluminavida.ca
“See you at Ilumina Vida!”
