Hi! My name is Sameeksha Agrawal (Twinkle). I have been working at St Andrews International School Bangkok as a High School Counsellor since 2017. I am originally from India, but have lived in Bangkok for most of my life. I studied at an international school here, and then went to pursue my undergraduate in psychology at a joint programme between Chulalongkorn University and the University of Queensland, Australia. I took a gap year between my Bachelors and postgraduate, and interned as a counsellor at St Andrews under Ms Amy Bonehill, and as a teacher at a special needs school in Bangkok. I later went to the United States for a year, to get my Master’s degree in Mental Health Counselling from the University of Pennsylvania. I completed my studies in the summer of 2017, and returned to Asia to work and reach out to people on this side of the globe.
A little bit about me as an individual… I love dancing, traveling, learning different languages and about different cultures, photography, and baking/cooking. I am fluent in English and Hindi, and can converse in Spanish and Thai as well. Growing up as a third-culture kid and having studied in an international school in Bangkok, I have experienced several similar issues that the students here at St. Andrews face, enabling me to empathize with them on a different level. My counselling follows an eclectic approach -- a combination of several different techniques, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy, and Psychodynamic approaches. I also have an interest in applying different creative and expressive therapies, such as Dance and Movement Therapy, Animal Therapy, and Baking Therapy. I have worked with young children, adolescents, and adults facing various mental health issues, including anger, anxiety, depression, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, drug and sexual abuse, trauma, grief, and personality disorders. I have also worked with individuals with different cognitive/developmental disorders, such as Autism, Down syndrome, Obsessive Defiant Disorder, etc. I am particularly interested in working with populations of trauma and abuse, and have participated in several trainings in that field. When I first worked at St. Andrews as an intern, I absolutely loved it here. I not only got to learn a lot in that one year, but the team here was very welcoming and supportive. Having had such a great experience here, I decided to come back and am really growing a lot and gaining valuable experience and training. It’s a joy to be a part of such a great community. If you have any concerns, please feel free to reach out to me, either through email or stop by my office.