Evidence-informed. Individualised. Human.
There isn’t one way to do counselling.
Every person is different.
We each bring our own experiences, relationships, culture, beliefs, personality and ways of coping into the counselling room.
So I don’t believe therapy should be a one-size-fits-all process.
My approach is evidence-informed and integrative, drawing from established counselling and psychotherapy approaches while adapting the work to the individual person, their needs and their goals.
Sometimes we need to understand where a pattern came from.
Sometimes we need to focus on what is happening right now.
Sometimes we need practical strategies.
Sometimes we need to work through grief or relationship conflict.
Sometimes we need to understand how culture and past experiences have shaped the way we think, feel and behave.
And sometimes we simply need a safe place to slow down and make sense of what is happening.
I begin by getting to know you.
Not just the problem that has brought you to counselling.
Get to know you
Not just the problem that brought you here, but who you are.
Explore together
What is happening, what may be contributing, and what you’d like to feel instead.
Find what helps
Draw on the approaches most likely to support your goals.
Depending on what we discover, I may draw on different therapeutic approaches, including:
The techniques we use are not chosen simply because they belong to a particular model.
Sometimes the past is still present.
We can develop ways of thinking, feeling and behaving through our experiences.
Some of these patterns may have once helped us cope, connect or feel safe — but may no longer be serving us in the same way.
CBT can be particularly useful when we are exploring the relationship between thoughts, feelings and behaviours, including beliefs and patterns that may have been learned over time.
Together, we can look at these patterns with curiosity rather than judgement and explore whether there are different ways of thinking and responding.
Sometimes we don’t need to go further back.
We need to work with what is happening now. Not every difficulty needs to be traced to childhood or explored through the past.
Sometimes there is something happening in your life right now that needs attention.
In these situations, our work may focus on the present — your current relationships, circumstances, choices, emotions, communication and the practical steps that may help you move forward.
Our experiences teach us more than we sometimes realise.
Culture, family, language and the environments we grow up in can influence what we believe about ourselves, relationships, emotions and the way we are expected to behave.
Sometimes something feels like “this is just who I am” when, in fact, it may be something we have learned.
Understanding these influences can help us separate what we have learned from who we are, and decide what we want to carry forward.
My own research into language and meaning across languages strengthened my belief that understanding a person means looking beyond the words they use.
Children don’t always have the words.
When I work with children, the approach is adapted to their age, developmental stage, personality and needs. Counselling may involve:
I believe behaviour is communication.
Before asking how to stop a behaviour, I believe it helps to understand what the child may be communicating through it.
I also believe children learn through relationships and experiences — including what they see the adults around them do.
My work with children therefore involves not only helping the child understand themselves, but also supporting parents to understand what may be happening beneath the behaviour.
Understanding what happens between two people.
Relationship counselling isn’t about deciding who is right. It is about understanding the patterns that develop between people.
We may explore:
- Communication
- Conflict
- Emotional needs
- Expectations
- Boundaries
- Relationship patterns
- Past experiences
- How each person understands and responds to the other
Sometimes two people love each other very much but have learned very different ways of communicating, coping and connecting.
Understanding those differences can be the beginning of doing things differently.
There is no single way to grieve.
Grief can affect how we think, feel, behave and relate to the world around us.
Counselling can provide a space to acknowledge what has changed, process difficult emotions and find ways to move forward while making room for the significance of what has been lost.
Sometimes you know what you want — you just don’t know how to get there.
Coaching-informed strategies can be useful when the focus is on goals, confidence, motivation, decision-making, personal growth or turning insight into action.
Counselling and coaching-informed work can sometimes overlap, depending on what you need.
You are not a diagnosis, a problem or a set of symptoms.
You are a person with a story.
I don’t see counselling as something I do to you. It is something we work through together.
My role is to listen, understand, ask questions, offer perspectives and introduce strategies that may help.
Your role is not to have the right answers.
Warmth and evidence don’t have to be separate.
Good counselling requires both human connection and professional knowledge.
My practice is informed by contemporary counselling theory, research, professional training and clinical experience, while also taking into account your individual circumstances, culture, preferences and goals.
This is why I describe my practice as evidence-informed rather than believing that one therapeutic model is right for everyone.
“Before we try to change what a child is doing, let’s try to understand what the child is experiencing — and what they might be learning from us.”— Rana Fathali
“There is always a story behind what we see.”— Rana Fathali
“Understanding someone isn’t always about understanding their words. Sometimes it’s about understanding the world those words come from.”— Rana Fathali
From where you are, to where you want to be.
Therapy isn’t only about understanding what’s wrong. It’s also about understanding what you want to feel instead.
Maybe you want to feel:
Change doesn’t usually happen all at once.
It begins with understanding.
And then, one step at a time, doing something different.
Real change starts within.