Chetan Balva, the Founder BeThyself, can be described in one word as a ´student´ or ´seeker´, who is in the life long process to Be-Thyself and to Know-Thyself, which are two sides of a same coin.

He came in contact with spirituality during his early college years and started reading Osho due to which a striving began to cultivate in him to know ever more and more about the laws operating in the external world and in his inner world.

This striving led him at the doors of psychoanalysis at Antarnad Foundation, Ahmedabad, where he did his 3 year graduate programme in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and eventually there he practiced psychotherapy.
At Antarnad, it was his good fortune to meet many stalwarts in the field of mental health, and for it, he remains forever grateful to Antarnad.

As part of his training to becoming a Therapist and to know in depth about himself, his weaknesses, his blind spots, he has been in individual therapy with Dr Darshan Shah, The Purple Center, for more than 7 years, which shows his dedication to keep ever growing as a person.

Side by side his spiritual journey led him to Swami Brahmvedanji. He kept visiting Swami Brahmvedantji over a period of more than ten years at his ashram in a small town named Madhavpur, in Gujarat. Swami Brahmvedantji had a deep and profound impact on him and he acquired a deep understanding of the Gurdjieff System.This interest in the Gurdjieff system led him to an esoteric school dedicated to the practice of living in the present, called the ‘ The Fellowship of Friends‘, of which he is a active member. Based in Northern California, with centers located worldwide, the school provides a place for aspiring souls to live and work together in an atmosphere of beauty and effort, under the guidance of a conscious teacher Robert Burton.

The Ahmedabad center of this school has more than 60 active members which meet every Thursday and Sunday. Chetan has traveled to centers in Istanbul, Greece and Russia to meet friends and enrich his spiritual journey.
He also manages the Facebook group ‘Osho Gurdjieff Group’ since last ten years and which has more than 10000 members.
Since last many years, he is in the construction business along with his partners and completed sites like Swastik Divine, Swastik Elegance, Swastik Heights and Swastik Eminence.
For Chetan, psychotherapy is not just a job or a profession, it’s a calling, it´s his being. Meet him and see the centrality of the idea of ´External Consideration´ in his being, imbibed over the years by his experiences with Swami Brahmvedantji.

At this stage in his life, for him, Religion literally means ‘Bound in Return’, again inculcated in him, through watching the life of Swami Brahmvedantji over the years. And to this effect, he intends to pay back with his being. Practicing psychotherapy for him is not a head to head conversation, it’s a heart to heart communication.

The word “patient”comes from Latin: one who suffers. People come to us because they suffer. They wonder whether we can have compassion. Another word from Latin: to suffer with. Can we suffer with one who suffers? Can we help this patient face the truths he or she avoided, so that by bearing the truth together, we make it more bearable?
As a healer, he is instrumental in the use of the ISTDP techniques of psychotherapy to treat mental and emotional disorders of patients taking them on a journey of experiencing the reality of their inner lives and discover the harmony with the outside world.

ISTDP is a unique form of psychodynamic therapy that facilitates the rapid resolution of a broad spectrum of emotional disorders. It is an evidence-based psychotherapy that is strongly supported by current clinical research studies. ISTDP interventions are specifically designed to resolve anxiety, depression, somatization and personality disorders, as well as, to alleviate a variety of self-defeating behaviors, many of which derive from unstable or troubled early life.

Chetan has a beautiful family, wife Kirron Bhatti, who works as a Mindfulness Trainer, Sister Jolly Balva, who is a CFA(Chartered Financial Analyst) and works at BSE(Bombay Stock Exchange) in Mumbai, Father G. D Balva, retired Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, and mother Anjana Balva, a house wife.
Chetan Balva’s spiritual journey and years of learning and experience will be a remarkable add-on to BeThyself Therapy Centre in achieving their collective mission at global, local and individual level.