The First Spirituality-Based Counselling Department in India
The SSSIHMS, Whitefield, is the first medical institution to have a full-fledged spirituality based patient counselling department, which is an integral part of the hospital treatment process. The body-mind-spirit connection in medical care is well recognised by modern medicine and also endorsed by WHO. SAI Counselling addresses the emotional needs of patients through body relaxation and mind-conditioning, and fosters the inherent spirituality in them through praying to the "God of their Choice" thereby complementing the primary medical role of the doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians and other medical staff in treating the patients’ illness. Aspiring counsellors after passing through a careful screening and selection process undergo a rigorous training program based on the teachings of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and the person centred approach methodology of Carl Rogers.
"Counselling the Sai Way" — Spirituality Awareness Integration in Counselling
"Counselling the SAI Way" — Spirituality Awareness Integration in Counselling" — addresses the spiritual dimension of patients using as a therapeutic framework the well-established Person Centred Approach of Carl Rogers and the emerging Spirituality in Human Existential Well Being counselling methodology of Mia Leijssen.
Interwoven closely into this framework is Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s humane secular philosophy based on the primacy of the five cardinal and innate human values — Sathya, Dharma, Shanti, Prema, Ahimsa — and advocating prayer to the God of your Choice, which constitute the bedrock of SAI Counselling founded on the supremacy of Love and the omnipresence of God.
There is only one caste, the caste of humanity. There is only one religion, the religion of love. There is only one language, the language of the heart. There is only one God, He is omnipresent.
Inner Transformation as the Path to Healing
SAI Counselling is complementary to normal hospital medical care and focussed on inner transformation, common to both Sai and Rogerian philosophies, in the patients to help achieve healing. SAI Counselling provides emotional support and spiritual care not only to inpatients suffering from serious cardiac and neurological illnesses necessitating major surgical interventions, but also to a considerable number of outpatients referred by the neurologists for stress management in stress related illnesses.
Patients admitted are counselled before surgery, post-surgery and before discharge, whereas for outpatients it is of a much shorter duration. A psycho-spiritual patient profile is maintained for every patient. A noteworthy feature is that counselling is provided for the patient as well as for the care-giver.
Extensive clinical experience — over forty thousand patients counselled since inception in 2001 — indicates significant benefits for patients.
The Department’s Published Work
Presentation at Mayo Clinic, 2010
Presentation on SAI Counselling at Mayo Clinic by Mr. Umesh Rao, Advisor Counseling Department, and Mrs. Gita Umesh.
Open PDF →Duke University Research Conference
A video clip on SAI Counselling from a presentation that Dr. Krucoff, cardiologist from Duke University, had made at a research conference in Duke University in 2010.
Watch →AntharDhwani
The newsletter of the Counselling Department — fifteen volumes since January 2019.
All issues →Counselling at the Bedside and in the Wards
