Why this practice exists.
I lived the in-between before I ever treated it. I grew up navigating cultural differences firsthand — honoring where my family came from while becoming someone they hadn't quite planned for, translating between two worlds and carrying expectations in both. Years later, sitting across from students and families in crisis, I found myself wanting to help people carrying similar — yet entirely unique and individual — experiences. That's why this practice exists.
Along the way I kept meeting the same person in different bodies: the teen who was "fine on paper" and struggling in private, the young woman running on empty behind a perfect transcript, the parents who loved fiercely but couldn't find the door in. Bright Room Therapy is the door I wished I could have pointed them all to.
The work is warm, culturally attuned, and grief-informed — CBT, DBT, ACT, and motivational interviewing, delivered strength-based and trauma-informed. Therapy that meets your real life, not a version of it.
Training for the hard seasons.
- Licensed Professional Counselor — New Jersey, License #37PC01070400
- M.Ed., Mental Health Counseling — Teachers College, Columbia University
- M.A., School Counseling — Teachers College, Columbia University
- B.A., Psychology — Rutgers University
- Certified Youth Mental Health Specialist
- Certified Shame-Informed Treatment Specialist
- Certified Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist
- Modalities — CBT, DBT, ACT, motivational interviewing; strength-based, trauma- and grief-informed
Where the work was learned — by doing it.
Ten years, every side of the table: the school office, the treatment program, the crisis call, and the family conversation after it. Therapy here is backed by systems experience most private practices never get.
The decade began in the deep end: four years in an opioid-treatment program, counseling people carrying mental-health and substance-use struggles at once — and helping rebuild its co-occurring program from roughly twenty patients to more than four hundred.
Columbia sharpened the craft. Phoenix House taught adolescent care from the inside — assessments, treatment planning, the decisions that shape a young person's path. College counseling taught the first-generation road to and through school.
Then six years as a School Counselor and 504 Coordinator in the West Windsor–Plainsboro schools: the same students followed from sixth grade through eighth — individual counseling, classroom lessons, crisis response, and groups for nearly everything growing up throws at kids: anxiety, grief, friendship and communication skills, conflict resolution and peer mediation, starting middle school, getting ready for high school. Add 504s, IEPs, and CST meetings translated into plain language for parents — hundreds of students, hundreds of families, every side of the table. Now all in one room.
School counselors, pediatricians, OBs — the door is open.
Who I see
Adolescents and teens; women in their 20s and 30s; first-gen and South Asian adults; new and expecting moms. Anxiety, school stress and avoidance, grief and loss, identity, and perinatal concerns. Telehealth across New Jersey; insurance via Headway, private pay with superbills.
How to refer
Email chandni@brightroomtherapy.com or call 732-334-8416 with the family's or patient's contact (with their consent) — or simply share this site. Every new client starts with a free, no-commitment 15-minute call.
What to expect
Outreach is answered within one business day. If it's not the right fit, families leave with a concrete referral. With a signed release, I coordinate with schools (504/IEP/CST) and prescribers.
Ready when you are.
732-334-8416 · chandni@brightroomtherapy.com · Telehealth across New Jersey