Talking to someone qualified in Pune — without the awkwardness
What the pressure looks like here
The thing about Pune is that most of its young population came from somewhere else. The colleges pull students in from across Maharashtra, the north-east, Bihar, the Gulf and a good deal of Africa, and every June tens of thousands of eighteen-year-olds land in a rented room in a city they don’t know.
First year follows a pattern you could set a clock by. A few intense weeks, then a dip around the second month when the novelty wears off and it becomes obvious that nobody here really knows you. Almost everyone goes through it. Almost nobody mentions it, because each of them has concluded that everyone else settled in fine.
The second pattern is more of a Pune speciality. A student on a course their family chose and is paying for from another city, who worked out during the first semester that it’s wrong for them, and now has to weigh their own life against that money.
Not sure it’s worth a session?
Try a free self-check first. Two minutes, no sign-up, nothing saved.
It’s a reflection tool, not a diagnosis. Your answers never leave your browser.
What counselling in Pune can help with
These are the things people in Pune bring to a first session most often. You don’t need a diagnosis to book one, and you don’t need a crisis. "Something feels off and I can’t explain it" is a perfectly good place to start.
The second-month dip nobody admits to because everyone assumes they’re alone in it.
Realising a course doesn’t fit when someone else is paying for it from another city.
Arriving from another state or country and reading the room in an unfamiliar language.
A breakup a thousand kilometres from anyone who has known you longer than a year.
What is already available in Pune, and what’s missing
There’s good private psychiatry in Pune and a long civil-society tradition around mental health. People have been talking about this publicly here for longer than in most of the country. Sassoon covers the public need.
But a first-year student a long way from home rarely needs clinical care. What they need is one person who isn’t a parent, isn’t a roommate and isn’t attached to the college, who they can give the unedited version to. Small thing. Surprisingly hard to find when you’re eighteen in a new city.
Sessions run online, nothing goes to a college or to your family, and the first is ₹249.
Confidential means confidential
Price isn’t what stops most people in Pune from booking. It’s the worry that someone will find out. So, plainly:
- Nothing goes to your parents, school, college or employer. No report, no summary, not even confirmation that you turned up.
- A first name is enough to book. You don’t owe us your full name, and you don’t have to explain yourself in advance.
- The self-checks store nothing. Your answers sit in your browser and vanish when you close the tab.
- Sessions are online. No waiting room, nobody to bump into.
Who you’ll be talking to
Sachin Bajaj has an M.Sc in Clinical Psychology from Gurugram University and a PGDGC from Jamia Millia Islamia, and has worked with more than 500 students and families across India. You get the same counsellor every session. No app shuffling you between strangers who each need the story from the top.
What this is, and what it isn’t
It’s counselling support, not treatment: confidential conversations about what you’re carrying and what might help. We don’t diagnose conditions and we don’t prescribe medication, and this isn’t an emergency service. If what you describe needs a psychiatrist, your counsellor will tell you so in the first session and help you find one. You won’t be sold a package instead.
What a session costs in Pune
₹499 for 45 minutes, and your first one is ₹249 with the code FIRST50. Private counselling in India usually runs ₹1,500 to ₹3,000 a session. You’re not signing up for a course of treatment here. You’re booking one conversation, and you can stop after it.
Book a first session — ₹249
Pick a slot from the live calendar and the video-call invite arrives straight away. Video, voice or chat, whichever suits you.
Counselling in other cities
Everything runs online, so what changes between these pages is the local picture, not the counsellor.
Delhi · Gurugram · Noida · Mumbai · Bangalore · Hyderabad · Jaipur · Chandigarh · Lucknow · Rohtak
Frequently asked questions
I only moved here two months ago and feel awful. Is that normal?
Extremely. The dip around the second month is close to universal and it isn’t a sign that you’ve chosen wrongly or can’t cope. It’s worth talking about precisely because everyone experiences it privately and concludes they’re the only one.
My family is paying for a course I don’t want to continue. Where do I even start?
Usually by separating two questions that get tangled: whether the course is right for you, and how to have the conversation at home. Both are workable, but they need different thinking, and trying to solve them together is what makes it feel impossible.
Will my college know?
No. This is entirely outside your institution — nothing goes to a college counselling cell, a warden or your attendance record, and a first name is enough to book.
I am an international student in Pune. Can I book?
Yes. Sessions are online and run in English or Hindi. Being far from home in a country that isn’t yours adds a genuine layer to all of this, and it is a reasonable thing to bring to a session rather than something to push through.