Meet Arjun Gupta, who is an ex-MBBS student turned psychologist and entrepreneur. He is a suicide survivor and has been writing about mental health and psychology since 2017. He has written 2 books on Mental health and currently writing a weekly newsletter on ‘Psychology with Arjun’ which is being read in 34 countries across the globe.
Arjun Gupta is currently building ‘Mind Tuition’, a B2B startup for educational institutions to ensure their students are at the optimal level of psychological wellness and to ensure high-quality performance in high-pressure situations such as competitive exams, entrance exams and board exams.
Formal Education and career -
Arjun Gupta is a counselling psychologist. He pursued his master’s in Psychology from Ambedkar University and did his bachelor's at Delhi University. Prior to that, he has enrolled for an MBBS program, but had to drop out because of a mental breakdown. He has always wanted to be a doctor. It was his plan to become a surgeon, having drawn inspiration from his sister. He finally managed to join the program but within two months of joining that program, he was spiraled into a very severe clinical depression and did not know what was happening and why. He specifically, was not willing to accept that something was going wrong with him at that time. He has gone through a treatment for clinical depression with experienced doctors from Bangalore , Delhi, Jaipur, and his hometown.
After a few years, he realized that sharing what he was going through, might ease off some pain and depression. He has written a Facebook post about how he needed some help, being honest about what he was going through. A lot of people on social media and people around him have understood his phase and started giving some mental support. "At that very moment, people thankfully were very supportive, and I just realized how tough it is, to be in such phase for anyone. Since then, I've just been working on Mental Health Awareness. I dropped out of MBBS to become a psychologist and start Mind Tuition, a startup focusing on increasing mental health awareness among students.”, said Arjun Gupta.
Core objective of Mind Tuition -
Mind Tuition is for students who are preparing for competitive exams. “These students are going through a lot of stress, a lot of pressure because of the demands that they have to fulfil at that age.”, said Arjun to Famehall. The startup takes a two-pronged approach to prepare the students to perform at their best ‘psychologically’ when they’re preparing for competitive exams. Mind Tuition also provide counselling services where they talk to students one-on-one and try to understand what their pain points are, so that they could help them navigate through them and ensure that it does not ultimately impact their performance on the judgement day. Mind Tuition aims to combine sports psychology, cognitive sciences, and education for students of India.
Overcoming failures and objections -
Arjun Gupta thought of giving up multiple times as he lacked the knowledge and skills to run a company. He has put together a team but not knowing how to interact with his employees was another setback. Learning comes with experience and Arjun succeeded to overcome this obstacle. Soon after this, he was hit with another storm, his grandmother passed away. This made him more vulnerable and wanted to give up what he started. A few days later, Arjun interacted with a student who was not confident of clearing an exam because of her anxiety issues. This made him re-think about quitting and he realized that something like Mind Tuition was the need of the hour. “What was running in my mind was, even if things aren’t working out, and even if I am doubting myself, I shall figure it out and pass through this phase. Because one day, it would be worth it.”, said Arjun Gupta to Famehall.
Road ahead for the startup -
The founder of ‘Mind Tuition’ believes that, as of now psychology is limited to a clinical setting. It is being considered important for players in sports and for employees in corporate companies. But Arjun Gupta thinks that it is the students that need awareness about mental health issues. There are a number of suicides happening just because students fail in examinations. ‘Mind Tuition’ is an organization that is focusing on students’ mental health particularly and it will continue to do so. It aims to partner with traditional coaching institutes to ensure that students are keeping up their mental health and handling mental pressure along with preparing for various examinations.