Founder and Chief Therapist

Founder and Chief Therapist

Shyamala DVS Rao 

Shyamala Rao is the founder and Chief therapist of Mithrah Holistic Services, an Australian business focusing on community and holistic mental health services across Australia, India and other parts of the world. She is a highly experienced and extensively qualified mental health professional with more than two decades of experience in the community service sector.

She has a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and two master’s degrees, an MSc in Psychology and an MSW in Medical and Psychiatric Social Work. She also has a Post Graduate Diploma in Psychological Counselling and a Graduate Diploma in Counselling for Health and Social Care. Her extensive qualifications and expertise in Psychology, Counselling and Social work put her uniquely qualified and distinguished as a holistic mental health practitioner in the mental health industry to offer integrative professional services which is a very rare combination to come across.

She provides counselling and case management services in English, Tamil, and Telugu.

She speaks up for social justice, equity, diversity and social inclusion and is keen on facilitating, advocating, and promoting the welfare activities of People of Colour, CARM, and CALD communities. If anyone is looking for someone to organise a community workshop, a community mental health advocate, a guest speaker, or a motivational speaker, you can contact her at shyam@mithrah.com. Please be advised that she charges $250 per hour and donates her time and services to various charities and NGOs in Australia and India. 

She also undertakes pro bono services if it makes a difference to the financially disadvantaged clients and NGO organizations. 

Face-to-face Clinics
She sees clients at the below location:

Mithrah Holistic Services,
Office no 162, Spaces  Level 49, 8 Parramatta Square
Parramatta, NSW- 2150,  Australia 
( Close to Westfield and Parramatta train station. Up to 4 hours of parking may be available when you download the Parramatta Westfield App. )


2. Mithrah Holistic Services 
256 Bungarribee road
Blacktown, NSW-2148
(Street side and kerb side parking may be available in adjacent locations and nearby streets.)

She provides telehealth via Zoom, mobile, telephone and emails. She also provides outreach services where she meets her client in an agreed place which may be the choice of the client or some mutually agreed safe location.

What she does not specialise and why

She does not provide primary psychological services for drug and substance issues and transgender issues as they are not her area of expertise. However, if the person still needs to see her as a holistic therapist to work around other challenging issues such as relationship issues, family issues, interpersonal issues, anger management, behavioural issues, and PTSD, she is more than honoured to provide holistic psychological and community mental health services to them. 

Please note that she practices a religion that does not support meat eating, consumption of alcohol or other addictive substances, sex before marriage and marriage between same-sex people and abortion. However, she never judges anyone based on her religious beliefs. She believes everyonse deserves to embrace their identity as long as tehy do not harm anyone or humanity. She respects every choice and appreciates diversity. She has made this a point to declare here to avoid any future conflicts. Please note that a therapist is an individual with her own identity. Her personal values and political values may not be in line with the expectations of all the clients. However, she does not let her personal values and views come between her clients and her service when she undertakes any community service. She respects diversity and beleives people can own their individuality when they develop companssion and meapthy for one another. This is the speciality of a therapist practising community psychology as the therapist understands the multifarious dynamics that bind different members of a community together under one common group. 

She writes articles and posts on her social media platforms on various issues related to mental health and social justice. She serves humanity through her extensive expertise in mental health, social work and community work.  

You can follow her advocacy on mental health and social inclusion on her LinkedIn professional page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shyamala-rao-a1160556/

Professional Qualifications

She has successfully completed a:

  • Diploma of Counselling at TAFE NSW Australia
  • Graduate Diploma in Counselling for Health and Social Care at the University of New England, Australia
  • Bachelor of Science (Psychology) at Alagappa University, India (successfully assessed by APS *)
  • Post Graduate Diploma in Psychological Counselling(PGDPC) at Madurai Kamaraj University, India (successfully Assessed by APS*)
  • Master of Science (Psychology), Madurai Kamaraj University, India (successfully Assessed by APS *)
  • Master of Social Work (Specialisation: Medical and Psychiatry) at Alagappa University, India (need to be assessed in Australia)

*These degrees are – BSc, PGDPC, and MSc – assessed as comparable to 5 years of study in Psychology completed in Australia by the Australian Psychological Society)

Professional Membership

Australia

  • Associate member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) 
  • Full membership with Australian Community Workers Association (ACWA)

Disclaimer: Please note that while she is a member of APS, She is not an AHPRA-registered professional or clinical psychologist as of 29/10/2023.  While she can legally provide psychological and counselling services as a qualified mental health professional in Australia,  she may not be able to provide some services and public/private rebates AHPRA registered psychologists can provide you with. Visit https://www.ahpra.gov.au/ and https://www.psychologyboard.gov.au/ for more information.  Regardless of the registration, her service will not be compromised and she follows similar professional and ethical obligations. 

You can contact her at shyam@mithrah.com if you have any queries or concerns. Please allow her 3 business days to get back to you. Thanks.

India

  • Life member of the National Association of Psychological Science India ( NAPSIndia)
  • Life member of Indian School Psychology Association (membership no: LM/2022/11130)
  • Life member of the National Association of Professional Social Workers of India (NAPSWI) till 2033

Important: The content published on this page was last updated on 21/10/23 and please contact her at shyam@mithrah.com for more latest updates and information.