On Dr Puja’s couch

I was debating whether or not to start this article by introducing myself as a psychologist, trainer and coach but that does not represent me fully … it just describes what I do professionally. I want to start with something personal. Two significant episodes of my life have come dancing in front of me which I would like to share.

During adolescence I suffered with two illnesses that affected my day-to-day life – tonsillitis, which resulted in me having to take antibiotics every month, and gastric issues that often caused me to suffer from headaches, stomachaches and giddiness.

I was always busy finding faults about my lifestyle; what I ate, how much I exercised, slept and I even started complaining about how the weather was affecting me. I ended up eating less.

The other episode concerned a friend who kept falling ill for various reasons, which in those days appeared quite strange. She would say to me: “My father scolded me so I had a fever for two days. My mother wouldn’t let me go out with my friends and I had a stomach ache.” I thought she was making lame excuses but the more I got to know her the more I could trust her symptoms were real.

Her emotional issues were having a very real, physical impact on her health. During puberty I found she was missing school every month. It was so painful for her that she could not get up out of bed and needed painkillers.

I wondered how personal issues could manifest into physical illnesses and how food could also play its part in the discomforts suffered.

I only found the answers when I started studying psychology. I discovered the wonderful way in which our mind and body are connected and how our thoughts and emotions can affect our bodies and daily lives.

My friend and I were both busy searching for external causes for our ailments and illnesses when actually they were all within.

Once I discovered the beauty within each of us, I started helping people around me to discover their truth.

One of my clients recently came to me seeking help for migraines and her complaints were that her husband was not supportive, her son did not listen to her and nothing was moving in the right direction in her life.

Once we started our sessions, she found out that she had these migraines because of a perception she had of things around her. Her thinking pattern manifested itself in the form of a severe headache because she used to suppress her negative emotions by tightening her forehead muscles.

She took charge of her life and in just a few sessions she not only got over her migraines, but discovered a new love of herself.

It’s a wonderful experience when people discover themselves and become aware of their true potential and it gives me immense pleasure to work and help them relearn what they’ve long forgotten.

Dr Puja Taneja Malhotra,
Ph.D. Psychology,
Psychological Consultant, Trainer & Coach.

*People suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may also be at increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to a new study of Vietnam War veterans.

After following nearly 300 pairs of male twins, all Vietnam vets, for more than a decade, researchers found that almost a quarter of the men diagnosed with PTSD also had heart disease, compared to less than a tenth of the men without the combat-related stress disorder.

*A 10-year-old American girl who sparked a national debate about child access to organ donation took her first independent breath this week on a second set of donor lungs after her first transplant failed. Sarah Murnaghan, who had cystic fibrosis and needed a lung transplant, had been kept off an adult organ transplant list due to an age restriction. She became eligible for an adult pair of lungs only after a judge’s order.