Professional Memberships
- SAC-Registered Counsellor (C0328)
Educational Qualifications
- Master of Social Science in Professional Counselling, Swinburne University of Technology Australia
- Graduate Diploma of Social Science in Professional Counselling, ECTA
- Graduate Diploma in Social Work, SIM University
- Bachelor of Social Work, SIM University
Qualifications (Relationship and Marital Counselling)
- Certificates of Completion for Gottman Method Couples Therapy Level 1: Bridging the Couple Chasm & Level 2: Assessment, Intervention, and Co-Morbidities
- Certificate in Advanced Training in Family Therapy Interventions
- Certificate in Intermediate Trauma Therapy
- Certificate in Grief Therapy
- Certificate in Basic Intensive Training in Choice Theory, Reality Theory, and Lead – Management
- Certificate in Using Early Childhood Memories in Therapy: Theory and Practice
- Certificate in An Introduction to Schema Therapy and How to Apply it in Counselling
- Certificate in Clinical Trauma Specialist – Individual
Joseph Rajagopal
Professional Counsellor
Language Spoken: English
Specialties (specifically for relationship counselling):
- Communication problems and attachment issues
- Relationship break-ups, conflictual and strained relationships
- Family-of-origin issues
- Abuse, infidelity, separation, divorce, grief, trauma
- Parenting issues
Joseph is a Professional Counsellor with Singapore Counselling Centre (SCC). He has 15 years of experience in counselling and psychotherapy. He is a Registered Counsellor and Registered Clinical Supervisor with Singapore Association for Counselling and provides clinical supervision for counsellors to develop their counselling skills and knowledge.
He has extensive experience working with youth, adults, couples and families. He has done a lot of work in helping them to overcome their mental, emotional, behavioral and relationship problems and live healthier and happier lives.
He provides counselling services to clients (youth counselling, individual counselling, couple counselling, marriage counselling, family therapy) for a wide variety of issues related to trauma (traumatic experiences), rape/molestation, grief related to relationships break-up/divorce/loss/death, stress, anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety, phobias, self-esteem, depression, self-harming behavior, suicide ideation, suicidal behavior, alcohol/drug/gambling/porn/sex addiction, anger-management, child abuse, family/domestic violence, marital conflicts, interpersonal relationship, extra-marital affairs/infidelity, parenting, child management, teenage problems, delinquency, bullying, school refusal, academic under-achievement, effeminacy, gender/sexual orientation, and workplace/career issues.
Joseph is a highly trained professional. He received advanced training (specialization) in Family therapy and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy from Swinburne University of Technology (Australia). He has received training in trauma work from Arizona Trauma Institute (USA) and is a certified Clinical Trauma Specialist. He also employs concepts from different schools of thought in the counselling arena and uses therapeutic techniques from Family Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, Person-Centered Therapy, Transactional Analysis, Gestalt Therapy, Redecision Therapy, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, Narrative Therapy and Reality Therapy in his counselling efforts. He also provides psycho-education for his clients to help them learn about the nature of their problems and how to manage them.
He has several success stories of clients who have made significant progress in their lives through his relentless counselling efforts. He strongly believes that every client has the potential to change and improve in their areas of difficulty with adequate support and appropriate treatment.
His motto is:
“I am not what has happened to me. I am what I choose to become”
Carl Jung – Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.
Understand Joseph’s Approach
We understand that choosing a counsellor is a personal decision, so we asked Joseph to answer a few questions to help you get to know him better and feel more comfortable before your first session.
What is your experience in working with couples?
I have worked with couples who are married and those who are in a relationship and have helped them to understand their struggles and underlying issues such as the gaps, grievances, unresolves issues, misalignment of values and beliefs and their unmet needs and to take the necessary steps to resolve these issues to strengthen and rebuild their relationships.
What is your approach to couples counselling?
I would make an assessment of their situation from the information I have gathered from their individual sharing about their difficulties and struggles in their relationship which would include their family background and growing up experiences and their past relationship experiences and provide them with an understanding of what are the gaps and problem areas that I see in their relationship and how they could be helped.
What can I expect during a session?
You would learn how to resolve your issues or overcome your struggles and difficulties from the information provided to you in your session which would be done in phases by providing you with guidance and psychoeducation for you to develop the skills and knowledge. You would learn how to process your thoughts and feelings and look at the behaviours that could be contributing to your problems and how you could learn to change these thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
You would have the opportunity to do brief assessments on anxiety, depression, PTSD, anger, OCD, self-esteem and negative beliefs amongst others to determine your mental and emotional states. You would be given the option to receive additional help from a consultant psychiatrist by being referred to him to be administered with medication for you to develop emotional stability to cope and manage your mental, emotional, physiological conditions and behavioural responses.
You would carry out cognitive exercises to learn how to overcome your negative thoughts, beliefs and behaviours. You would learn about communication skills, conflict resolution skills, love languages amongst others ways to strengthen your relationship.
You would also have the opportunity to work on your past trauma if you have had traumatic experiences by carrying out trauma processing and trauma work to overcome your traumas and heal from your traumatic experiences.
I want to go for couple sessions but my partner is resistant. How can I approach this?
It would be helpful for you to attend an individual session first to share about the difficulties you are facing in the relationship and learn what could be preventing them from attending a couple session and how you could encourage them by providing them with information that would be helpful for them to consider coming for the session with you.
You could also encourage them to look at the testimonials page on our SCC website where my success stories are posted to encourage other clients in our society who could be struggling with their problem so that they would seek help from us.
The clients have shared in their testimonials about the experience they have had in their counselling journey with me and how they have benefitted from their sessions which have helped them to save and strengthen their relationships and marriages.
What should we expect during the first session?
You will learn about the gaps, problem areas and contributing factors to the difficulties in your relationship. You would learn about the approach that would be taken to help you and the phases you would go though in your counselling process to overcome your problems and strengthen your relationship.
You would also learn about the immediate steps you could take to stabilize or protect yourself and your relationship or marriage.
How do you handle confidentiality in couples counselling?
Confidentiality is of utmost importance in our therapeutic relationship which is based on trust as I have an ethical responsibility as a professional counsellor to uphold these ethical principles and abide by the counselling ethics stipulated in my profession by the Singapore Association for Counselling.
I would ensure that confidentiality is maintained at the highest level for you to feel safe and secure while you’re attending your sessions and even after your sessions. Information would only be shared with your spouse with your consensus if you are also attending individual sessions concurrently.
Apart from that information would be shared with legal authorities such as the police and court if information is needed by them to carry out investigations or if you are at risk of harming yourself or others and posing a danger to yourself and others as I am obligated professionally to provide the required information to these agencies.
Do you specialize in certain types of couple’s issues (e.g., infidelity, sexual issues, communication problems)?
I have received specialized training in couple counselling and family therapy and other approaches to help couples with relationship and marital issues such as communication problems, attachment issues, relationship break-up, conflictual and strained relationships, family-of-origin issues, abuse, infidelity, separation, divorce, grief, trauma and parenting issues.
Book an Appointment with Joseph Rajagopal – Relationship Counsellor
