Online counselling team offers help for anxiety, depression, coronavirus woes and more, targeting Hongkongers going through tough times
- Breathe HK provides easy and private connectivity between counsellor and client, with rates lower than average in-person sessions in the city
- The most common challenge during Covid-19 has not been pay cuts or unemployment worry, but the parenting of teenagers during times of stress, the team says
Hong Kong’s collective consciousness has taken a beating, clobbered by the anti-government protests in 2019 followed by a merciless pandemic that triggered a cataclysmic drop in tourism, the closure of innumerable businesses, escalating unemployment, political instability and social anxiety. Each new day brings a headline that takes your breath away.
Breathe HK would like you to exhale. Providing online counselling support to patients wherever they may be, at any time they choose, this counselling service tries to destigmatise mental health issues in an easily accessible and affordable manner, with alacrity, integrity and in privacy.
“We are the first line of support, trying to help each individual on the ground level,” says Reema Khanna, one of seven counsellors in the Hong Kong-based company. “We are a team of counsellors, rather than clinical psychologists or psychiatrists, because we are aiming to operate on a wellness model, rather than an illness model. Quality mental health doesn’t come from an absence of mental illness – instead, we look at each individual’s life in an overall, holistic manner.”
Khanna says a counsellor looks at a range of factors, not just the individual symptoms a client experiences. Those factors may include family background, whether they are in a relationship, their daily habits and their lifestyle to determine the best course of support.
The seven diverse counsellors are fresh graduates from the University of Hong Kong, all accredited by the Hong Kong Professional Counselling Association (HKPCA) in different disciplines to address their clients’ specific needs.
The team is led by directors Reema Khanna and Jimmy Wan, with counsellors Gaelle Foulon Daffner, Emerald Shek, Canis Lin, Vina Zhang and Kristin Ng. On top of English, Cantonese and Mandarin services, they also provide help in French and Hindi, with time slots available at all hours that suit both sides.