People message me, we talk warmly for ten minutes, and then there is a pause. Eventually the real question arrives: “But what will we actually do?”
It is a fair question and most coaches answer it badly, with words like journey and transformation that tell you nothing. So here is the plain version of what a seven-day programme with me involves, what it is not, and who should not book one.
The format, plainly
My coaching runs as a five-day or seven-day programme, followed by one month of follow-up. The sessions are held in person — I sit with you in the room. This is deliberate. A great deal of the work depends on things that do not travel well down a phone line: how you hold yourself when a subject comes up, what happens to your face, the pause before you answer.
There are two other shapes, depending on what you need:
- The parenting programme — four sessions with three follow-ups, built around your specific child and your specific house, not parenting in general.
- Longer mentoring — twenty sessions across two to three months, for people rebuilding something substantial: a career restart, a business, a long-standing pattern that has not shifted with shorter work.
The follow-up month is not an add-on. Most people can change for six days. The question is whether it survives contact with an ordinary Tuesday three weeks later, and that is what the follow-up exists for.
Roughly what the seven days look like
Every programme is shaped around the person, so treat this as the general arc rather than a fixed timetable.
Days 1–2: getting to the actual problem
Almost nobody arrives with the real problem. They arrive with the presentable one. “I want to manage my time better” turns out to be “I am frightened of what happens if I stop being useful to everyone.” “My son does not listen” turns out to be “my husband and I contradict each other in front of him.”
These two days are mostly me asking questions and you talking more than you expected to. Many people find this part unexpectedly tiring. That is usually a good sign.
Days 3–4: the patterns underneath
Here we look at the beliefs driving the behaviour, and where they came from. Not to blame anyone’s parents, but because a rule you absorbed at nine years old is still quietly running your decisions at thirty-nine, and you cannot change a rule you cannot see.
This is also where we work on emotional regulation — the practical skill of noticing the moment before you react, which is where most of the actual power sits.
Days 5–6: building the new response
Understanding changes nothing on its own. So we rehearse. Out loud, in the room. The exact sentence you will say to your daughter. The exact way you will raise the money conversation with your husband. What you will do when your mother-in-law says the thing she always says.
People find this awkward for about four minutes and then it becomes the part they remember. Rehearsed words come out under pressure; planned intentions do not.
Day 7: what happens on Monday
The last day is unglamorous and it is the most important one. We write down what you will actually do, when, and what you will do when it fails — because it will fail at some point in the first fortnight, and people who have not planned for that quietly conclude the whole thing did not work.
Nobody leaves my room a different person. They leave with two or three things they can do differently, and the nerve to keep doing them when nothing changes at first.
Rabeeba Vellangara
The follow-up month
After the programme ends we stay in contact for a month. This is where the honest reporting happens — what you tried, what worked, what you avoided doing and why. Week three is usually the hard one, when the initial energy has gone and the change has not yet become habit. Having someone expecting an answer from you that week matters more than any technique.
What this is not
- It is not therapy. I am a certified coach with a psychology background, not a psychiatrist. Coaching works forward from where you are. If what you need is clinical treatment — for depression, trauma or anything requiring medical care — I will say so and point you toward the right help, and I would rather do that on day one than take your money.
- It is not a motivational session. You will not be told you can do anything. You will be asked reasonably direct questions and expected to answer them.
- It is not a lecture. If I am doing most of the talking, I am doing it wrong.
- It is not a report to your family. What is said in the room stays in the room.
What to bring
Nothing except a notebook and honest answers. You do not need to have worked out what your problem is; that is part of the work. You do not need to prepare, and please do not rehearse a tidy version of your situation — the tidy version wastes both our time.
What you do need is the willingness to do something between sessions. The people who see real change are not the cleverest or the most damaged. They are the ones who actually try the uncomfortable conversation.
Who should not book this
I would rather say this openly than have someone leave disappointed.
- Anyone who has been sent by their family and does not want to be there. Coaching cannot be done to a person.
- Anyone hoping I will change somebody else. I can only work with the person in front of me — though I will say that when one person in a family changes how they respond, the whole house shifts more than you would expect.
- Anyone in genuine crisis right now. That needs immediate professional or medical support first.
If it sounds like what you need
The first conversation costs you nothing but ten minutes. We talk about what is going on, I tell you honestly whether a five-day, a seven-day or a longer programme fits — or whether you need something other than coaching altogether.
Message or call me on WhatsApp at +91 88483 10988, or get in touch here. Start with one sentence about what has brought you. That is genuinely enough.