Vilasini Balakrishnan, MS, LCPC, LMHC (retired)

Vilasini Balakrishnan serves as the Programme Director for the Certificate in Hindu Spiritual
Care at Chinmaya International Foundation (Kerala). With faculty from Chinmaya University
and CIF, she helped design the original 10credit Certificate for Hindu Chaplains, launched in
January 2022, and guided its expansion into the current 24credit programme in 2024.
     
Her association with Chinmaya Mission began in 1975. She completed the two year residential
Vedanta Course at Sandeepany Sadhanalaya, Mumbai, and has served on the national Board of
Directors of Chinmaya Mission West (CMW) since 1990. She was appointed by CMW to be the
Ecclesiastical Endorser for Hindu Chaplains to the US military.

In 1997, Vilasini earned her MS in Pastoral Counseling from Loyola University and
subsequently practiced as a licensed professional counselor in Maryland and LMHC in Florida.
For decades, she has offered spiritual care within Chinmaya Mission while also maintaining
psychotherapy practice. In 2022 she helped publish a book entitled Vignettes of Resilience: 
Hindu Spiritual Care.

​Vilasini served as Swami Chinmayananda's secretary and videographer from 1978-1984, and
was moved by his vision that CIF be a place where east meets west and science meets
spirituality. Swamiji's teachings inspire and guide her in developing the Hindu chaplaincy
training program at CIF.​