UMMEED Counselling & Consulting Services
SALONY PRIYA-: A GREAT SOUL WORKING FOR THE SOCIETAL CAUSE THROUGH UMMEED
Hilary Clinton, appreciating the enormous hidden talent of women race, said, “Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.”
Nobody can undermine the potential of women as they exude it in the form of some phenomenal contribution in art, literature, music, science, or business. Yeah, Business! Propelling with a mammoth magnitude of energies and creativity in the entrepreneurial realm, female entrepreneurs have engraved their names in golden words because of their gigantic and splendid works.
One such stupor of empathy and incredible talent is Salony Priya whose contribution towards society is unmatched. Ummeed is Salony’s creation that works for the cause of society profoundly.
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCURSION
Salony Priya, the magnate, is a renowned counseling psychologist working in the area of Education Management, Human Development & Training, student & teacher empowerment, parental guidance & comprehensive counseling for nearly 21 years, and her interventions have reached out to several educational institutions, corporate and social organizations.
She is the founder and director of Ummeed Counselling & Consulting services-a multispecialty positive psychology institution-based in Calcutta where she empowers, enables and energizes populace with therapies, workshops training, and individualized sessions. Salony Priya is also a Trustee of UMEED FOUNDATION– an organization that works for underprivileged children in the field of Mental Health.
Coming from a simple and rooted joint family, Salony is quite attached to her values, which made her aware of people and their impact on our personalities and our life. Empathy, strong faith, and a non-judgmental approach for understanding people and relationships were nurtured in her by her granny.
She was a rank holder in Science till class twelfth. The entrepreneur’s journey took a major turn when she opted for B.A., not B.Sc. or Engineering. She states, “One of the choices that set the path for me to be an entrepreneur today, as it was a risk I took, which is needed to assert myself against the norms.
Thus, psychology became a subject of interest than a belief than a means to serve and provide possibilities to communities, families and individuals and today it’s my passion, not just profession. This drives me and gives me the best experiences to experience, making a difference to organizations and educational institutions with the use of Positive Psychology.”
After 12 years of practicing psychology, providing counseling, training, empowerment, and capacity building initiatives as a master trainer, she launched one of the first positive psychology centers in Eastern India, unwilling to create hospital or psychiatric setups, UMMEED came into existence as a platform for Enabling, Empowering & Energizing people to feel young at heart.
As she accomplished 21 years of professional work, the Ummeed team has moved into its tenth year. The greatest achievement as an entrepreneur is seeing a better understanding of psychological & mental health in people. The number of people who have been inspired to believe in themselves, those who had the courage to challenge and those who walked beside me with conviction, are the embodiment of her success.
Today in its tenth year, Ummeed successfully touches the lives of thousands across 18 states of India and five countries. Hundreds of educators are certified by Ummeed to enable children & adolescents. Special educators, counselors and psychologists follow ‘the Ummeed way’ to spread awareness of Mental Health and Hope.
Their mool mantra is Hope can heal and create!
Salony with a tone of motivation, states, “As a woman, I feel I am diligent to follow my dreams, but I prioritized my parents and my children. All had their place as they were my source of energy. I had some support from my family, rest I built as I was never ready to give up. I moved on bringing joy from home to my work and carried joy from my work to home. To all women who work for passion, share your work with your loved ones, make them participate and your journey becomes smooth and full of surprises, not struggles.”
UMMEED– A RAY OF HOPE
Due to increasing complexities and chaos in lives, we, human beings, have lost touch with our real selves and got blurred with the commotion around. Living with constant stress and strain has disturbed our mental health, which in turn has adversely affected our relationship with self and others. On the same notion, Ummeed-the brainchild of Salony Priya came into existence.
Ummeed was incepted, with a philanthropic approach, to take care of the emotional, social and physical wellbeing of the society at large. It offers psychological services for those experiencing academic, personal, relationships, and work-related difficulties and also to those who believe that they can achieve much more by understanding themselves and their environment better.
Ummeed strongly believes in connecting and collaborating with students and professionals from the domain of psychology and related fields to create more acceptance for counseling as a strength-based preventive medium for individuals from various walks of life. For this reason, Ummeed provides internship programs.
In contemporary times, taking care of mental health becomes far more important than the physical one. Maybe because of today’s complex lifestyle, it requires our conscious attention. Mental health affects how we think, feel and act. Mental health is important at every stage of life from childhood to adulthood including adolescence. It impacts the educational outcome, work performance, interpersonal relationship, physical health and overall quality of life. It affects our decision-making ability and choice making.
Although there are effective measures and treatments, yet there is an extreme shortage of mental health workers like psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychiatric social workers. As reported in 2014, it was as less as ‘one in 100,000 people’. Thus, there is a huge gap between demand (people who have mental health issues) and supply (number of mental health care providers).
Ummeed has been instrumental in bridging this gap in its own capacity for the last 10 years. Ummeed has covered over 1500 institutions across 18 states in India, and the interventions have also reached that created a mark beyond India.
FUTURE PROSPECTS OF UMMEED
Ummed has a number of plans to work in the near future. Here they are:
- The building of more professionals in the field of mental health as there is an acute shortage of experienced and trained professionals.
- Ummeed is launching an advanced Counselling course on Adolescent Behavior management
- Publishing case studies – success stories to inspire.
- Parenting manual and a parenting app
- Ummeed online counseling for NRI s in Singapore, Middle east, Nepal, Bhutan
