New Delhi, Dec. 31 -- I spent the early years of my career at a university campus working as a student counsellor. Those years gave me a chance to experience belonging and warmth, and develop my skills of active listening sprinkled with capacity and opportunities for fun. The campus offered me the gift of community.

I moved on to start my independent practice in 2014, a journey that has been fulfilling and one I'm still on. It has been a lesson in receiving generosity, learning to trust what life has to offer every day, autonomy, and seeing clients find their own way. At the same time, it has come with a quiet loneliness-an inevitable part of a therapist's life, shaped by independent work and the responsibility of safeguarding clients' s...