The murky, unregulated world of psychological counselling in India

In January last year, Pia was navigating the difficult breakup. As she did, she came across advertisements on social media for a man who claimed to be an expert in helping clients get over relationships. In various profiles online, he also described himself as a marriage counselor.

Pia, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym for this story, was already seeing a therapist but decided to reach out to the online counsellor too. “I really wanted to come out of my breakup,” she said. “The reels were very attractive, and the content was relatable. I thought, not everything needs to be completely formal.”

Pia signed up for an initial consultation with the counsellor, paying Rs 2,500 for a one-hour session. She felt that the advice he gave was generic, the kind she would expect to receive from a friend with little emotional insight.

“He told me to just forget my ex, move on and find somebody new,” she said. The session did not in any way help her process her pain. She found one suggestion from him particularly strange – that she find a foreigner to date at her new workplace.

Despite her scepticism, Pia recounted, she found the counsellor’s demeanour persuasive. And so, when he told…

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