Dr. Swati Ghosh: Transforming Lives Through Counselling and Coaching
“I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”, a quote of Etienne de Grellet that inspires the journey of Dr. Swati Ghosh, who is a counseling psychologist and Coach, also the founder of From Stones to Gems with the experience of 34 years.
Introduction:
Dr. Swati Ghosh, grew up in the northeastern part of India, with the dream of walking a different path. Even as a nine-year-old, the question, “Why am I here,” bothered her. Dr. Swati found her role model in the principal of her school, who stood apart by her thoughts, concepts and dedication. She was a role model for many. As a child, she dreamt of starting a boarding school, where teachers along with the students would be in residence. As she grew up that was replaced by teaching, training, and shaping young minds which she did for a major part of her life. Along with that she also acted as a coach, albeit unknowingly, for many young girls and ensured that they had the confidence to stand in their lives on their own. Her mission at that point was to ensure that they moved in life with a dream of achieving and contributing.
After completing her post-graduation in English Language & Literature, she started her career as an English Teacher first at the Secondary level and then at the Higher Secondary level. These eight years at the beginning of her career taught her a lot and encouraged experimentation to get focused results, especially, at the second school she was the sole teacher, teaching English to the Arts and Commerce section students at the Higher Secondary level.
She spent the next six years as a Researcher in the ELT (English Language Teaching) field at Central Institute of English & Foreign Languages, Hyderabad now EFLU). During this time, she also worked as a Spoken English tutor for foreign nationals and a Voice & Accent trainer for recruits in the BPOs. The BPO scenario was just opening up and Hyderabad was a happening place. This created a turning point in Swati’s career.
She spent her next nine years working and growing with a global banking giant. This not only allowed her to function as a leader and view and experience various leadership styles, but also allowed her to facilitate leadership training. She learned and grew as a coach, mentor, facilitator, and leader. Rapid growth in her career always resulted in more and more challenges, in the form of creating customized content, recruiting, managing and upskilling teams at various centers across geographies, liaising with various businesses and the Human Resources teams; creating and allocating budgets, participating in CSR activities etc. Hence learning and contributing were endless.
In the next three years, she decided to devote herself to self-development and working independently as a Communication expert along with working on diverse projects with the employees of various well known businesses and companies.
After working away from home for 26 years, duty & responsibility in the form of aging parents started bothering Swati. Hence, she relocated to Kolkata in 2014 as the Head of Training for a US-based Company there. She set up the non-existent Learning & Development function in the company and ensured that all kinds of businesses were adequately supported by her team with all documents and procedures in place. After working for a little less than two years, she decided to call it a day, as this was hardly allowing her time with her aging and ailing parents.
Self-growth never took a back seat and she continued getting trained in NLP, Psychology, etc. as she gradually started finding more clarity regarding purpose and passion in life. In 2016, she started a Training firm called Nirvana for You along with an ex-colleague and started delivering basic leadership training for young and aspirant leaders in various organisations. This organization worked in Kolkata and various parts of India till the pandemic.
Since 2021, she has been working as a Counselling Psychologist and Coach for women in the age group of 34 to 50, who feel frustrated, unappreciated, and have lost their spark. Moving swiftly through her diverse career spanning 34 years, she has constantly reinvented herself and started afresh multiple times. This has not only enhanced her self-confidence but also diversified her experience.
Her learning from such an enriched experience:
- It is never too late to start
- No learning goes waste
- It is important to find your purpose and passion and follow them
- Many around you are seeking a helping hand, a little guidance, a little direction.
- You grow by helping others grow.
Challenges and Achievements:
When Swati was teaching at the Higher Secondary level. It was immensely challenging for various reasons:
- In that suburbian government school, only a handful would manage to clear the Higher Secondary Board Exam as almost all failed in English.
- The students were demotivated and sincerely believed that they were not good enough.
- Students seldom came back to school after lunch recess as they went for private tuitions.
Her relentless efforts resulted in ensuring that
- They came back to school post-recess,
- They started trusting her as a partner in their journey rather than an uninterested, teacher preaching from the pulpits.
- They started putting in sincere efforts as they could see her extra efforts.
Her performance started becoming visible in the school’s performance at the Boards and one day the school even got permission to start the ‘Science’ stream. Once the challenges ceased to exist, she looked for more knowledge and expertise in the field and that was a major turning point.
Swati believes that her significant achievements include:
- Quickly transitioning from a language expert to a technical (banking) expert.
- Being selected to be trained as a global expert for South Asia for various banking modules.
- Motivating others through her rapid growth.
- Managing large and diverse teams across geographies with results
- Reinventing herself constantly and consistently
- Guiding and showing the way to almost 5000 young minds throughout her career
- Constantly learning something new to add value and keep up with the times.
She was also Nominated as one of the 4 best coaches of India by the Jury for the India Coaching Award, 2021
Awarded Honorary Doctorate 15th May 2024, in the field of Education, Training & Psychological Counselling by the Honorary Doctorate Award Council, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India and the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Govt. of India.
Awarded Bharat Gaurav Ratna Shri Sammaan Award on 15th July 2024 for outstanding achievement & remarkable role in Education, Training & Coaching by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India.
Personal Insights:
Swati believes that one can maintain balance between personal and professional life through Meticulous Planning, Optimum management of time, and Not compromising on mental and physical health. For this, her core values that guide her that are Independence, Resilience, Creating impact, and Significance.
Impact and Vision:
Talking about her leadership style, she said “Although I used to use a more authoritative leadership at the very beginning of my career, it gradually evolved and matured into a style which is a combination of a democratic and coaching leadership styles”.
Dr. Swati is passionate about enabling other women, she resonates with the challenges that women face and how they feel stagnated worthless, and unappreciated at times, just because others don't understand their value.
Her current mission titled “From Stones to Gems: Moving from Feeling Unworthy to Doing Something Worthwhile, currently she is on a mission to endow frustrated, stressed, demotivated, embittered women who feel, unworthy and unappreciated and to reclaim their self-worth and self-esteem.
Dr. Swati goal is to enable 50,00 women to open up their lives to limitless possibilities and thus re-establish themselves.
Conclusion:
Lastly, Dr. Swati advises young women to believe
- It is your life: you are living it, you’ll live it. Be sure of what you want to do with it.
- Never mind about what people say; just follow your heart and follow your dream however impractical it may seem. People would always have something to say.
- Never compromise on your self- worth. If you don’t respect yourself, nobody else will.
