Aletterbeforeyoubegin.
Understand. Integrate. Become.
A note from the founders
To whoever is reading this,
I'm glad you're here.
I didn't have a word for what I was feeling. It was after 12th. I was preparing for an entrance exam and something heavy had settled over me. It was anxiety and depression but I couldn't have told you that. I only knew I wasn't okay and I didn't know why.
That changed with one open session with a psychologist. One conversation gave my feelings a name. It also showed me that a whole field existed for exactly this. I remember thinking: this is what I want to do with my life.
So I began my course. But knowing the name of something doesn't lift it. The heaviness grew until I couldn't carry it alone. I was in a crisis and I needed someone. A friend stepped in and told me about a therapist. Part of me didn't want to go. A quieter part said yes. Without that friend and that small yes Aeora would not exist.
That yes carried me into my second year of master's, where I found myself on the other side of the call. I was volunteering on a crisis helpline. People rang at 3 a.m. There were so many of them and so few of us.
Around the same time I was seeing clients for free as a trainee therapist under supervision. That is where I noticed something I couldn't unsee. My classmates were struggling to find clients. My friends were struggling to afford a therapist. They kept asking me: "Do you know any pro bono therapist?" Two groups of people who needed each other and had no way to meet.
I couldn't stop thinking about it. Then I met someone who believed in the idea as much as I did and together we made it real. We called it Aeora.
Here trainee therapists learn with a supervisor beside them and you can begin without worrying about cost. Independent therapists who have spent years building their expertise are paid for it. There is room for both.
Maybe you're reading this late at night feeling nervous. I know that feeling. I was nervous too and a small part of me said yes anyway. I'm so glad it did.
I can't promise how your story will go. I can tell you that for me things got better. That's hard to believe right now so for tonight one small step is enough.
I wish I'd had a place like this: somewhere safe to share everything. Sometimes all you need is to be heard.
With warmth,
“My name means analysis of life. Everything I do is just that, in a different room.”
Meemansha Gaur
Founder, Aeora
Counseling psychologist · PhD researcher · TEDx speaker
Our Mission
Make mental health support easier to reach, with care that stays supervised and safe.
What We Believe
Easier to reach
Support should depend less on what you earn or where you live.
Heard first
Sometimes all you need is to be heard.
Held by more than one person
Every trainee therapist works with a supervisor who guides their work.
At your pace
Begin wherever you are. There's no right pace.
The story of the name
We made the name ourselves, from two words: aura, the glow a person carries within, and aurora, the first light of morning. Together they became Aeora. To us it means a light from within.
That light is why there's a butterfly on everything we make. A butterfly doesn't arrive all at once. It begins small, goes quiet for a while, and then slowly becomes. That's how we think of this work: Understand. Integrate. Become. It's how my own story felt too.
Becoming needs a calm place, so we tried to build one in colour as well. Dusty blue, like a quiet morning sky before the day asks anything of you. Cream, like a lamp left on for someone. And one thread of gold, for the light from within.