OVER the last few months, Ms Flo Jon, 52, has been worried sick that she might lose her job in a printing company.

'How am I going to pay my mortgage? Will I lose my home? What will happen if I get sick? I sometimes get so worried I can't sleep,' says the customer service officer who lives in a three-room Housing Board flat in Jurong.

The single woman earns $2,500 a month, $800 of which goes towards servicing her mortgage.

When the anxiety gets too overwhelming, she seeks out counsellor Nisha Rani Sharma who runs the Centre for Psychotherapy in Jalan Sultan.

'She goes through my issues, helps me explore avenues, and makes me think about my options,' says Ms Jon, who has seen Madam Nisha three times in the last six months.

She does not pay a cent for this emotional circuit-breaker.

Madam Nisha (below) usually charges $80 per session but since starting her practice five years ago, she has waived payment for many clients, especially those from low-income families. Each week, she offers pro-bono sessions to at least eight people.

She says she first started seeing people worried about jobs and money problems last September.

Since then, she has seen more than a dozen such people - about four every month.

'Many people do not know what's in store. Talking about it with someone objective, like a psychologist or counsellor, can empower them, make them think about choices, and give them confidence,' she says.

This year, the people who come to her reflect how the economy has taken a turn for the worse. 'More have lost their jobs, and more are scared that they will lose their jobs. Many of them come to me crying. Some have taken to drink,' she says.

A man she is helping sank into a deep funk because he resigned from a stable job last year and paid a large sum to pursue his studies. 'Now he's fearful that he may not get a job. His wife and children are blaming him for leaving his job,' she says.

She advises couples to discuss their problems. 'Be together. Talk about your concerns. If you cannot deal with how painful it is, try talking to others such as a counsellor,' she says.

'The tendency for couples to blame each other in such a situation is very high, and the stress is more than you can imagine. So seek help.'

Aside from counselling them, she has just started offering retrenched workers free English language classes at her office on the second Saturday of each month.

Madam Nisha, who is married to a textile businessman and has three sons aged between 24 and 28, says that more than 30 per cent of her time is now taken up with pro-bono work. 'I have enough. God has been kind to me. I'm just happy to help,' she says.

One of five children of a textile merchant and a housewife, she credits her late father for her philanthropic streak. She recalls how her father would take all his children on weekly trips to old folk's homes and orphanages to distribute groceries and provisions.

Madam Nisha had done her A-levels when she married at 22. When her sons entered their teens, she became a volunteer at Dover Park Hospice. She found the work immensely satisfying.

But something niggled at her.

'My patients told me that I was making them feel comfortable but somehow, I knew there was something I was not doing.'

It led her to return to school, to study counselling and she went on to obtain a Master's in Psychology from the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. She began counselling more than seven years ago, working primarily with drug and alcohol addicts as well as convicts.

Besides the intervention programmes and life-skills workshops she conducts in prisons, drug rehabilitation centres and homes for delinquents, she works on cases referred by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.

Her decision, she says, was inspired by one of the hospice patients. 'He was a little boy dying of cancer. His folks were addicts and before he died, he asked me to tell his parents not to take drugs,' she recalls.

She set up a free support group for parents of drug addicts a few years ago. It meets on the first Saturday of each month.

'A lot of these parents have hurt to deal with. As I have done workshops with them, because they know me, I know it's easier for me to help them move on.

'So I tell them to come back and look for me if they need to. I won't charge,' she says.

Part-time cleaner and mother of five Haida Kling, 38, recalls how Madam Nisha began helping one of her sons last year, after he landed in a boy's home. A few months later, she approached the counsellor with problems of her own. Her husband could not find work as a forklift driver and she was struggling to make ends meet.

'She sat down with me, listened to all my problems. She helped me make flyers offering house-cleaning services. I asked her how much I should pay her but she refused to accept any payment.

'The MCYS referred my son to her but although his sessions with her are finished, she still counsels him for free. In fact, I'm taking my husband to see her soon.'

Madam Haida adds: 'She's really kind, and open-minded and supportive. I feel so much better each time I see her. It's better than striking the lottery.'

kimhoh@sph.com.sg

Madam Nisha Rani Sharma can be contacted at The Centre For Psychotherapy, 200 Jalan Sultan, #02-21C, Textile Centre, Singapore 199019; Tel: 62952321