Starting from numbers and management to a mental health professional, Dilmi Weerasinghe, Founder of Serenity Well-being, is a determined woman with a daring spirit and unquenchable thirst for knowledge who followed her passion.
Stemming from a financial background, Dilmi did her Advanced Levels in the Commerce stream. Passing with flying colours, she brought in 3 Distinctions and a B pass which was the second best in Commerce stream at the Kurunegala Maliyadeva Girls College in the year 1996. Dilmi was also involved in the extracurricular activities in the school as the head of the Commerce section debate team and also pursued her hobby of creative writing. “My schooltime dream was to become a journalist like my father,” Dilmi reminisces. After the completion of her schooling years,she was selected to do the Bachelor of Science Accountancy (Special) Degree at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. “I never wanted to study management. During my uni days, I hardly participated in lectures but attended all artistic programs organized by the Arts Faculty,” said Dilmi. Even though her passion lay elsewhere, she pursued an education in the financial and marketing fields to further her career. Dilmi proceeded to do Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting from the CIMA in 2003 after passing out from the university. She went on to do Professional Diploma in Marketing from CIM in 2006.
Dilmi started her career at Hayleys Photo Print Ltd as a Management Trainee before gradually moving on to MAS Intimates Pvt Ltd as a Merchandiser. “I joined MAS Slimline in 2003. I always wanted to work for MAS. It was like my 2nd University where I learned a lot of life lessons,” said Dilmi. The initial stage that progressed the change to the psychology field began in 2009, “At that time, I was married & had two children. I wanted to study something as a tool for managing my work stress. I selected Psychology & Counselling.” By the year 2011, she took a daring decision to pursue her second career as a mental health professional. With a shift in her career from a marketer and management professional to a licensed psychological counsellor, Dilmi began her journey of transforming people’s lives for the better. She is also a Psychotherapist and Professional Transformational Coach with a penchant to look beyond.
Entering a new stage of her life as a mental health practitioner, Dilmi took the initiative to further her educational qualifications in psychology. She has a plethora of Post Graduate Diplomas in various aspects of psychology including psychotherapy and psychosocial support amongst them. This passion for helping people guided her to start up a well-being organization of her own. “My greatest passion for helping people drove me to establish Serenity Well-being in 2014, an organization that works to elevate the well-being of humanity by empowering and educating on best well-being practices,” Dilmi stated.
As the Founder of the organization, she had a vision of providing the utmost care and support to everyone who comes to them. Serenity Wellbeing has its core values entwined with the desire to provide an integrated approach to care for people’s mental health. “At Serenity, we practice a holistic approach to human well-being. As the body is interconnected, holistic well-being includes body, mind, social, and spirit. Once the needs human of all these elements have been met and are in harmony with each other, a person is in good health and has sound well-being,” added Dilmi
‘Confidentiality’ in making sure that the client’s information is valued and secured is a core value that builds the foundation of trust between the organization and the client. Another crucial value is ‘Compassion’ to “treat each and every client as a unique and important individual and demonstrate empathy towards others’ sufferings or misfortunes.” Furthermore, two more values – ‘Care’ and ‘Collaboration’ adds to the principle values that shaped Serenity Wellbeing into what it is today. “We bestow the utmost value on people’s lives, and respect universal human rights, individuality, and cultural differences,” Dilmi stated.
Serenity Wellbeing offers a variety of services to cater to the mental health needs of the client, “Psychological well-being services consist of One-on-one counselling, Psychotherapy, Group counselling, Family therapy and Couples therapy.” They also offer consultation services extending from Physical and fitness consultation, Financial well-being consultation, Legal well-being consultation, Digital Well-being consultation, One-on-one transformational coaching and Personal transformational programs under its belt. They offer Employee Well-being Relationship Programs (EWRP) to Corporate Clients. “Our integrative support and care services are conducted by academically qualified and licensed professionals who have excelled in their relevant fields. We aim to offer a holistic and personalized approach to caring for individuals,” said Dilmi. In an era where both the awareness of mental health and issues of mental health growing at a record high, Serenity Wellbeing provides mental health and Psychosocial-support services to needful people. We have a Mental Well-being Clinic for General Public, Volunteer Community Support Programs and EWRP for Corporate Sector.
Dilmi parted some words of wisdom to the upcoming entrepreneurs and leaders, “I believe that our destiny is designed by the purpose of our life. In life, there are turning points & we need to have self-awareness of them.” She encourages listening to one’s inner voices and striving to solve personal conflicts through understanding one another. All leaders are shaped into the way they are now through a series of trials and challenges overcome with the support of mentors, “As a leader, you need to cultivate youngsters. Always consider them your children. Grow together. Groom them. Pay Gratitude. Facilitate them to identify their future potential.” Furthermore, Dilmi states. “A CEO is not a suit to wear. It is a social responsibility to empower youngsters. A great CEO will respect employees’ dreams and help them to achieve those dreams with courage, commitment & consistency.”