Career counselling at Lilac Minds is the structured, evidence-based version of a conversation most Indian families try to have around the dinner table and rarely finish well. It is the work of figuring out which paths actually fit a particular person — their aptitudes, personality, interests, values, and the realities of the markets they are trying to enter — rather than which path sounds most reassuring to relatives. Psychologist and career counsellor Prarthana Thaker works with students choosing streams after Class 10, students confronting the post-Class 12 decision about NEET, JEE, CUET, or non-traditional routes, undergraduates trying to make sense of placements and higher studies, and mid-career professionals weighing a serious change.
The process begins with psychometric assessment — a properly standardised battery measuring cognitive aptitudes, personality traits, interest profiles, and work values. These are not the free online quizzes that surface as the top Google result. They are clinically validated instruments interpreted in the context of a structured conversation, because a score on its own tells you very little about the human being in front of you. The aptitude testing identifies the cognitive shapes a person actually has, the personality work explains why some roles will feel sustaining and others depleting, and the interest profile sorts genuine curiosity from the careers a family has casually championed for years.
The Indian context is central to the work. Parental pressure is not a side issue — it is often the loudest voice in the room. Sessions create space to take parents seriously without surrendering the decision to them, and frequently include a parent-facing conversation once the core profile is clear. For students, that often means converting "engineering or medicine" into a wider, more honest map. For mid-career adults, it means examining whether a change is the right answer to a real problem, or whether the underlying problem is stress, mismatch, or burnout that needs addressing first. Sessions are available in Jamnagar and online.