The start of a personal profile is usually the name, and here is the story of ‘My Name’.
I am the youngest child of my parents, the 6th in order of birth, born in a hospital named ‘Padmasri’. There’s a sizable age gap of 7 years between me & my 5th sibling. My parents were busy at work and even forgot to formally name me. After one month, suddenly, my father remembered the name of the hospital and named me ‘Padmasri’. My mother was not okay with stealing the exact name of the hospital, so did some tinkering & added ‘Devi’ to it. That’s how the unique name ‘Padmasree Devi’ came in place and my journey of ‘Go with the flow’ started.
When I was in 12th standard, my father retired, and my siblings settled in various places away from us. My mother’s health deteriorated, which tagged me to domestic chores. The situation stopped me going to college. My friends are my strength, who suggested distance education and computer literacy. Simultaneously, I took up a part time job to pay my fees.
So, my career, ‘Go with the flow’ started as a data entry operator, along with doing my UG in English Literature. Later, sustained in versatile roles as Programmer, Accountant, Program coordinator, Relationship manager etc., I managed to do MBA in Finance; happened to get work experience in Banking & Education Industries too.
My achievements include ‘Elite Member’ award while working for Standard Chartered Bank, and languages known are Telugu, Tamil, English & Hindi. My areas of interest are Storytelling and teaching Math.
I enjoyed being a workaholic but missed striking the right work life balance after marriage. Happened to resign my job when my 2nd daughter was born, on compulsion. I remember pouring my frustration on my elder daughter then. I knew something was going wrong and wanted to fix it. So, I attended a workshop on parenting which gave me the right input & clarity. This gave me the insight to help parents who undergo similar trauma as me, and I did MA in Psychology. Also did a few certification courses in CBT, SFBT, Psychotherapy etc. and became a proud member of CCF in 2018.
Today, holding 7 years of experience in counselling psychology, I am glad to be a people’s person. Got the opportunity to work for Mind Fresh Training and UR Life, a unit of Apollo Hospitals, as industrial psychologist on a part-time profile from 2019. Also, I am into freelance consultation.
As on date, I prefer to take up counselling as my full-time job, so, looking for prospects. Waiting for the right opportunity to again ‘Go with the flow’.
Padma Sreedevi. P
May 2023
