Chat-based helplines gain popularity with Women Internet users

And SHEROES app users have one at their fingertips!

“You really helped me you like a sister I never had…I feel heard. First time I share my feelings online in a chat to someone and am getting positive feedback.”

Support is what most humans look for in times of crisis, and this message by a SHEROES helpline user, reflects how technology is enabling it. Everyday women use the chat-based SHEROES helpline to be heard, deal with their emotions, to vent out, and to feel safe and unjudged for their thoughts, which may not match with socially acceptable behaviors.

Accessing the Ask SHEROES helpline is a simple 3-step process…

Step 1: Download the SHEROES app and create a SHEROES profile

Step 2: Click on the side navigation Screenshot

Step 3: Click on “Ask SHEROES”, Type and send your message!

SHEROES counsellors get notified and respond in a few minutes, and you can start your conversation!

PS: If you don’t wish to type, you can use the Voice-to-text option.

1000s of women use the Ask SHEROES helpline everyday to get access to one-on-one counselling session with a trained counsellor, and it is 100% free to use. All you need is a smartphone and an internet connection, and once you start a conversation it can continue over a span of days, weeks, month, etc.

Since the issues women face are so deeply intertwined, at Ask SHEROES we don’t put conversations into compartments. The only goal is to provide a best-in-class support system to women who either don’t know whom to reach out to for help, or they trust SHEROES enough to pour their hearts.

Building time and trust takes time and effort, and this is clearly visible from the shift in the type of conversations over the past few years. Some of the topics of recent conversations will help you get a taste of the depth in services of the helpline…

Women and orgasms, friends with benefits, shoemaking and co-working as entrepreneurship opportunities, sex during and after pregnancy, domestic violence, postpartum low feelings for not being a super mom, heterosexual cross-dressing, figuring out sexual orientation, professionals from aviation industry confessing loneliness due to nature of work, pressure to get tie the know at “marriageable age”, online dating, making friends in ones 50s etc, are some examples.

Don’t miss reading: How counselling helped SHEROES user and creative professional Sabhyata find her groove

Here’s a brief case study of a young woman who experienced many hardships one after another:

A young girl, an intermediate student having so many aspirations gets approached by a boy who proposed to her without an understanding that she has the right to say no. She did, and he committed suicide. Due to this act she is guilt ridden into her late 20s. His family used this guilt to gain power over her in different ways — from getting her to do houshold chores to his brother indulging in sexual abuse.

She began using the Ask SHEROES helpline, and in subsequent sessions discussed about her family — her father and two older brothers were not doing much in their careers, forcing her to manage all the financial needs alone. Her mom was diagnosed with cancer during the course of counselling, and she wanted to leave job as there is no one to look after her.

But considering the practical issues, she did not and decided to face every battle with #TakeCharge spirit. Yes, she has her low moments but now uses them to focus on what she can do, and also heal herself. She says, “I am feeling very happy to work on your advice and find changes in me. I want to reshape my life.”

“Thank you so much, for being a friend I can confide in, a sister to listen to me and a counsellor. This is a great idea to help a lot of women whose intelligence and strength is confined to the development of the family.”

Recognition of the fact that mental health is equally important and emphasising the same is the need of the hour. It has nothing to do with demographics, social/ financial status or education. Women from all walks of life — metro cities, towns, villages, working, non-working, any economic status, teenage, middle aged and senior women — nothing divides them when it comes to the need of getting received gracefully for who they are as individuals.

“Me nahi janti ap sab kon ho. Par apne dil ki bat aapke samane rakh ke ek takat si milati hi. feel hota he humare dreams jarur pure honge” (I don’t know who you are but by sharing what’s in my heart, I feel stronger. I feel my dreams will be fulfilled)

We get to hear from women across the world — India, Houston, Karachi, Soba (kpk), Peru, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, South Africa, Philippines to the interiors of India like Bhariach UP, Burdwan, Kolar, Sirhind Fathegarh, Berhampore Vapi, Manendragarh, Hardoi.

Yes, we sense the steady growth of a global sisterhood!

Don’t miss: This 22-yr old engineer used SHEROES helpline to face childhood issues

Since counselling looks beyond immediate support, our aim is to make people self-sufficient and not dependent on their therapist. Updates about the well-being of our users keeps us going. Here’s one of the messages that touched my heart…

“I used this helpline for long time and thus when I’m getting better with my life I wanted to inform you, you deserve the positivity and not only negativity from your users. You don’t know what have you done for me but if I can pass on slight sense of it — you transformed me as a person. Salute, stay blessed.”

As this user mentions, counselors are extremely vulnerable to negativity. Being human, over a period of time we tend to absorb it and need to be mindful about this. Every professional has a different ritual or approach towards this, but when it comes to counselling line as a whole there has to have a system in place. We counselors at AskSHEROES, experiment with regular breaks, fixed working hours, exposure to other types of assignments and a clear understanding of — counselors can’t work at the cost of their well-being. All of us got each other’s back!

I read somewhere that of all beasts — be it on land or water — women are the wildest! This influenced me so much and gets reinforced everyday when I speak to a woman in her 50s with a physical disability who wants to be independent and start a business, to someone struggling to understand her sexual orientation and identity and wants to talk about it, not live in fear.

This is the #takecharge spirit we see unfolding in women’s lives everyday!

SHEROES, the women-only social platform is a safe, constructive, high-empathy space where women engage and chase dreams. It has over 70 communities, a dedicated chat-based helpline, champions, resources and opportunities. It is accessible via Sheroes.com and the SHEROES app