HYDERABAD: Stories can entertain. They can engage and entice. But can they also heal? “Yes, positively,” says Revathi Mohan who calls herself a ‘story therapist’. An MBA who also pursued Counselling Psychology, she says that she chose to counsel as she loves to make people smile and make them feel content in her presence. Although she runs her clinic Purple Counselling Care in Tiruchengode in Tamil Nadu, she has clients from across the globe via online and in-person.

“I was to be in Hyderabad this week for a workshop for an automobile firm but I could not due to the lockdown. However, I have people calling me from across the country for what I call ‘story therapy and have connected with my associates in Hyderabad online,’ she says. “My friends call me humor therapist as I make sure to make everyone think, smile, and laugh during my sessions. A sense of humor plays an important role in helping troubled people uncomplicate things. I suggest my clients to watch standup, workout, travel, and meet new people and that makes the difference,’ she adds. Revathi says that it was filmmaker AL Vijay who inspired her with his words. The director, in an interview, mentioned how he felt that crying is a sign of what one values of the most.

What’s the story: She believes that movies are relatable as we often see ourselves in those characters. “I apply the same logic and frame my stories. I create a plot and ask questions to my clients about the characters and ask them to attribute characteristics. I then deduce a few key things about them and suggest therapy. For example, when I narrated a story about an uncle to a teenager at school, the student attributed evil characteristics to him. When I later met her personally, she confessed that her uncle sexually harassed her”.

She researches and writes her own stories to address different groups and demographics. It’s not just people but sometimes even fan, cupboard or a car turn into protagonists in her stories. Revathi is now keen to submit story therapy as a research proposal to University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Her favourite story, to elicit the maximum response, is the dog who visits the grocery store and does a lot of work only to go back home and get beaten up by his master. “I am story therapist who uses stories as a medium to get the desired behaviour from people.

I volunteer at government schools, campuses, hospitals and coffeeshops to address different audience, finishing school girls, parents, children etc.In my perception stories are like atoms and molecules. How we convey to make people understand matters,’ says the storyteller. Revathi has also written a book titled The Smile Syrup, a book on parenting where she writes that communication plays a major role to look the life incidents in different perspective and thus shapes the personality of a children. Her second book is a poetry collection titled Tickle the soul – Dating with words it makes anyone to fall in love with oneself. — Manju Latha Kalanidhi kalanidhi @newindianexpress.com @mkalanidhi