Partner with PHC on school wellness
Student wellbeing, teacher support and parent awareness, delivered in your school by the clinical psychologists of the Psychological Help Centre, Karachi. Founded 2009.
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What this is
Most schools in Karachi already know which of their students are struggling. What they do not have is a clinical service to hand them to — so the work falls to a class teacher, a coordinator or a head of section who is doing it out of decency rather than training, and who has forty other children that morning.
A PHC school partnership puts qualified clinical psychologists inside that gap. It has three parts, and a school can take one, two or all three.
Schools and organisations PHC has worked with include Veritas Learning Circle, Generations school and Haque Academy.
What it is not. It is not a workshop bought once and ticked off. It is not a replacement for your own pastoral or counselling staff — where a school has them, we work with them rather than over them. And it is not a diagnostic service delivered at speed: a psychological assessment produces a written clinical report, and that takes the time it takes. PHC is an assessment-first practice and a school partnership does not change that.
What a partnership covers
These are PHC's own three pillars, as they appear on the practice's school-wellness material.
Student wellbeing
Counselling, wellbeing sessions and psychological assessments for students. Where a child is falling behind rather than misbehaving, a learning and achievement assessment is often the thing that ends years of guessing — it is the same assessment schools request when they ask a parent for a report before arranging support or accommodations.
Teacher support
Stress management, resources and mental health support for teaching staff. PHC runs a structured stress and anger management service for individuals and for employees, and work-related stress is one of the presentations the practice sees most. A school that has never offered its staff anything is usually the school with the highest turnover in the section that needs it most.
Parent awareness
Sessions for parents on emotional, behavioural and developmental concerns, with guidance for supporting children at home. In practice this is the pillar that changes the other two: a child seen for six sessions returns to the same house every evening, and a parent who understands what is happening is worth more than any amount of work done at school.
How a partnership works
- A conversation. You tell us what the school already has, what it is missing, and what has prompted the question. We tell you plainly which of the three parts is worth starting with — and if the honest answer is none of them, we say that.
- A written scope. What is delivered, to whom, how often, and by whom. Nothing begins on a verbal understanding.
- Delivery in your school, at our clinic, or both. Sessions for students, staff training and parent evenings can run on your site. Assessments are usually done at the clinic, where the testing conditions are controlled.
- Review. What is working and what is not, at intervals the school sets, in writing.
What has to be agreed before we start
A board will ask these three before it approves anything, and they are the right questions.
- Who consents. A student is not a client of the school. Consent for assessment or counselling comes from a parent or guardian, and it is obtained before the work, not alongside it.
- What the school sees. A psychological report belongs to the person assessed and their guardian. What is shared with a school, and in what form, is agreed in writing in advance and is normally a summary written for the school's purpose rather than the clinical report itself.
- What happens if a safeguarding concern arises. The escalation route is agreed before anybody is seen, not invented on the day it is needed.
PHC sets these out in writing for each school. They are not boilerplate, and they are not something to settle by email after the first session.
Who delivers it
PHC was founded in 2009 by Prof. Dr Tahira Yousaf, PhD — an HEC-approved supervisor who has supervised at MPhil and PhD level for over twenty years. Every psychologist at the practice holds a minimum postgraduate qualification in clinical psychology and completed over 800 supervised clinical hours before joining.
Which clinicians work with your school depends on what you take: child and school presentations are matched to clinicians whose own areas of practice cover them, and we will tell you who before anyone is booked.
Questions schools ask first
Do you come to us, or do the students come to you?
Both, and the split is usually practical rather than clinical. Sessions with students, staff training and parent evenings generally run at the school. Formal assessments are usually done at the clinic, because a testing environment has to be quiet, private and consistent, and most school rooms are none of those on a Tuesday morning.
We already have a school counsellor. Does this replace them?
No, and we would be cautious about any provider who said it did. A school counsellor is the person who knows the children; what most of them lack is a clinical service to refer into and someone qualified to supervise the harder cases. That is the gap this fills.
Can you assess a child the school is worried about without involving the parents?
No. Consent for a psychological assessment comes from a parent or guardian, and a report belongs to the child and their family rather than to the school. Where a school is worried and a family is reluctant, that is a conversation we can help you have — but it is not one that can be skipped.
How quickly can you start?
That depends on what you need and on the time of year, and we will give you a real answer rather than a reassuring one. Write to us with roughly how many students or staff are involved and we will tell you what is actually possible.
Where and how we work
PHC runs two clinics in Karachi — PECHS and DHA — and works online across Pakistan. Staff training and parent sessions can be delivered on your campus, at a clinic, or online where a school is outside Karachi.
Starting a conversation
Write to us at support@phchelps.com, or call or WhatsApp 0333 3736938, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 8pm PKT. A real person answers.
Tell us four things and we can answer properly
- Who you are and which school you are writing from
- What you are looking for, in your own words
- Roughly how many students or staff it would involve
- Whether you would rather meet at your campus, at our clinic, or online
Schools, companies and universities
If you are contacting us on behalf of an organisation rather than for yourself, email is the right route — and please say the organisation, your role and what you are asking for.
We work with schools on student wellbeing, teacher support and parent awareness. Please do not use the booking page for this: it asks for a patient, an age and a presenting issue, and none of those apply to you. If what you need is an appointment for one child rather than a partnership, booking an appointment is the faster route.