Manoharan Karthigasu
Background Information
Manoharan Karthigasu is a qualified Counsellor, who has been working in the field of education and wellbeing for nearly 30 years. His work has taken him to various countries like the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia. Education, lifelong learning and the general wellbeing of people takes up most of his time besides his loving wife and two young adult children.
He has provided therapy services, consultation, presentations, workshops, trainings, program development services and engaged in teaching and research activities for continual professional development.
Professional Philosophy
Mano strongly believes in maintaining genuine respect and unconditional positive regard for his clients. He uses a non-judgmental and empathic style to assist those with whom he works to better understand (i) why a teenager, adult, couple or family is experiencing emotional distress and/or behavioural difficulties, (ii) how this may be clouding one’s ability to reach his or her full potential, and to develop (iii) new coping skills, techniques and acceptance to enable optimal functioning.
It is his belief that interpersonal relationships, environment, family, culture, individual personalities and character traits impact a person’s emotional, behavioural, and psychological wellbeing. Consequently, he conducts a very thorough evaluation of the various aspects of a person’s life in order to accurately identify what it is that is causing the discomfort and how to help the client alleviate it. From his perspective, individuals, couples, and families often find themselves caught in cyclical behavioural patterns that prevent them from functioning as well as they would like to at work, home, school and/or social settings. Because each individual, couple, and family is unique and their respective needs special, Mano uses a very interactive and consultative style to determine an individually-tailored plan for progress at a pace comfortable for the individual, couple or family.
He is strongly committed to providing his clients with the best possible service. He ensures a confidential, supportive and safe environment for his clients to address and work through their concerns. He subscribes to the highest ethical and professional standards set forth by the Singapore Association of Counselling (SAC) and the Australian Counselling Association (ACA).
Mano is also trained and a strong proponent of a leading “3rd wave” approach in the behavioural therapy tradition, Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), which emphasises helping a client modify irrational or unhelpful thoughts. The underlying philosophy of ACT is that trying to change or even fix ourselves often exacerbates our symptoms–and thus acceptance is key. ACT brings together the best of many worlds: it integrates mindfulness into a coherent system of therapy (long before mindfulness was all the rage), and at the same time extensive research on ACT with a variety of populations has helped it to achieve the status of an evidence-based approach, recognised as such by the American Psychological Association and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Government.
As mentioned in the book, The Liberated Mind by the founder of ACT, Dr Steven Hayes, we have to create modern minds for the modern world, and that we’ve been feeding processes that are actually doing the opposite. Through therapy, anyone can learn about the processes that lead us in a positive direction.
