FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions
1. How to book an appointment?

Press Book Appointment Button given in your consultant’s profile page. Choose the service you want and then it will show the available slots. Choose the slot you want and make payment. You will receive email confirmation from bookconsult.in. If not found in inbox, please check spam and promotions. If you still didn’t receive, please contact us by whatsapp text with the details. We will check the status and inform you.

2. Will the Payments be secure?

Payment part is fully taken care by Razorpay Payment Gateway and Stripe Payment Gateway. These are trustworthy gateways. Your payment data is processed in their websites. In case of any issues in the payment, you can contact their 24/7 customer care also.

If you are worried about giving your card details in gateways, please use NetBanking via Razorpay Payment Gateway, you will not give any bank related details in the website of the Gateway. You will just choose the bank under NetBanking and go to your bank website only. Please check whether your bank website is secure with “https” in the URL, check for the spelling of your bank in the address bar and see whether it looks the same way it was before and make the payment.

Moreover ours is a secure website with “https”. You can click on the lock symbol of the address bar and check the full details of our SSL Certificate which proves that the data you give in this site is encrypted and secure.

For reference, you may take screenshots of the payment.

3. How to cancel/reschedule the session?

Sorry, it is not possible for clients to cancel or reschedule the session. Please read our Cancellation & Refund Policy before you make the payment. No refund will be given if you do not attend the session.

4. Payment is taken but appointment was not booked. What to be done?

Do not worry! Just share details of your payment such as which payment gateway whether Stripe or Razorpay, amount deducted and time of the payment, we will get back with the status.

6. Will counselling help me?

If there is no diagnosis of any severe psychological disorder, counselling will surely help you. If you have been diagnosed to have disorders such as Schizophrenia/Bi-Polar Disorder/Personality Disorder by a clinical psychologist, you will have to meet a Psychotherapist or Psychiatrist or Clinical Psychologist for further treatment.

7. As a family member or parent, will I be updated about what happened in the session?

Counselor will first meet the client individually and spend more time. Family members/parent will be met later for a brief period of time. A general update can be given after the session with the consent of the client if requested by the family member or parent. Our counsellor will try his best to empower your family member/child to communicate the things happened in the session to you directly.

8. How Counselling is different from talking to friends/well-wishers?

Of course, well-wishers are very important people in our lives. Though talking to them may resolve some issues, there are many limitations. In the busy life of the present, friends and family have their own problems and may not be listening very carefully and unintentionally end up giving advices that may actually prove more harmful than helpful. They may not be able to look at you objectively. They can be biased unconsciously because they have preconceived notions about you. There is a possibility that they can influence you with their personal values and judgments. When issues are complex, they may become anxious and transfer their anxiety to you, whereas a professional assesses you based on scientific knowledge and thus the bias is very minimum and objectivity is very high. A professional will be able to help even if the issue is complex because he is well trained to understand people and possess the skills and qualities to help!
Counsellors help in learning new/different ways of thinking, feeling and behaving to resolve conflicts/problems/losses in everyday life.

9. What are the Ethical Principles of counseling?

Counseling is always voluntary. People should not be forced to go for counseling. Counsellors have respect for Privacy and Autonomy. Counselor will not give their personal opinions in right-wrong paradigm. He may guide the clients on the scientific facts. He will not influence the client by personal values and judgments. He maintains strict Confidentiality. He does not reveal the identities and things discussed in counseling to any other. The Counsellor has developmental and cultural sensitivity and act to avoid harming his clients. The relationship between Counselor and Client will be a professional relationship alone. He does not condone or engage in discrimination based on age, gender, culture, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, caste and religion. When he feels that he is not able to help the clients and lack in competence, he will refer the clients to competent professionals. Please see the  Our Ethics  Page for more details.

10. Who will benefit the most?

The individuals who accept that their own efforts have not helped and seek counseling voluntarily benefit the most! Please remember that counseling is NOT advice giving. Counseling help is not a “quick-fix” solution. It is an interpersonal process between the client and a trained mental health professional. Commitment on the part of the client and their families along with counseling professional bring greater results.

11. What is the difference between Counsellor and Psychiatrist?

Both professionals often deal with similar mental health problems; however the focus of treatment tends to be different. Psychiatrists are medical doctors with M.D. in Psychiatry or Diploma in Psychological Medicine (DPM) and are recognized to prescribe medicines, specializing in the treatment of mental disorders.

A professional counselor is one who who has the ability to define problems and identify the barriers that prevent them from thinking clearly. The counselor throws light on those barriers and works with the individual’s mental health by working on the thoughts, emotions and behaviours to develop proactive and objective solutions to problems. Psychiatrists and professional counselors may team up together in treatment process for better results for various psychological issues such as addictions, depression and anxiety that require medications.

12. Will the counselor meet children with special needs and people having psychological disorder?

No. Our Counselors would meet only people having day-to-day issues/emotional issues. Special Educators deal with children with special needs and Clinical Psychologists help people having psychological disorders.

13. Why don’t you provide Chat Counselling and Phone/Audio Counselling?

Our counsellors want to understand the client’s emotions through the facial expressions, gestures and tone. So that he can help the client more effectively. In case of chat counselling, Phone/Audio Only counselling, these cues will be missing and the counselling will not be effective.