The Awareness Centre

A welcoming safe space to talk about any issues. Therapy has helped me to identify my thoughts, emotions and behaviours, and to improve aspects of my life. It has helped me through a crisis and is also helping me to reflect on my past.

I was going through a troubling time after the epidemic and the lockdowns, which I had found very hard. I started seeing Karlene hoping to deal with the troubles that were at the “surface” level of my day to day thinking.

Karlene was calm, kind, non-judgemental but most of all an extremely skilled therapist. It turns out that the troubles that were at the “top level” of my brain were that – only the surface. I hadn’t been able to see this for myself, but Karlene very carefully and gently helped me to unpick this. There were layers to my issues, going back decades, which we began to peel back. I came to an understanding of certain events that had taken place in the past that were colouring my experience of the present.

Having this understanding is hugely helpful – I now have the ability to watch my own thought processes and understand when they are going down certain avenues coloured by past experiences, and to redirect where necessary.

I cannot recommend Karlene enough. Sometimes it is simply not possible to see beyond our own day to day thinking patterns, to begin to understand why we experience life or certain situations the way we do, without the help of a skilled “other”. For me, Karlene was exactly what I needed at that point in time, and I cannot thank her enough.

I have started therapy following a difficult moment in life, where both work and personal relationships were not going well. I was struggling. Valeria has been very supportive, she is a sensitive and competent professional. I completely trust her abilities to sustain my recovery and support me to achieve my goals.

Working with Sunah Ahktar has been an incredible, transformative experience. From the very first session, I felt heard, supported, and understood in a way that I had never experienced before. She created a safe, non-judgmental space where I could open up about my challenges, and her empathetic and insightful approach helped me navigate through them with greater clarity and confidence.

Not only did Sunah Ahktar provide me with practical tools and strategies to manage my mental health, but she also empowered me to develop a deeper understanding of myself. The progress I’ve made during our sessions has been life-changing.

I am deeply grateful for her kindness, professionalism, and dedication to my well-being, and I highly recommend Sunah Ahktar to anyone seeking compassionate and effective therapy.

I have found a real safe space to work through some extremely difficult and painful things which Ella has facilitated for me. She has always been professional and although the process is extremely hard sometimes I trust that I’m in safe hands which is hugely due to how Ella has navigated our sessions. I look forward to the rest of the process.

Riana was very easy to talk to and put me at ease from the initial consultation. We worked on areas of my self concept and limiting beliefs and how this was rooted back to childhood. Riana helped me understand my triggers and how to identify them, analyse and change my way of thinking. Within 6 sessions i felt so much more confident in being able to address my issues and i know this is ongoing work in progress. Riana is honest, caring and very professional in her approach and genuinely wants the best for her clients. I would not hesitate to recommend her to anyone considering counselling. I know that if ever i needed to return to therapy, she would be the ideal counsellor for me.

My experience with Shirley at The Awareness Centre was a very positive one. Shirley was an amazing therapist, she helped me confront lots of things within myself at a slow and manageable pace. Every therapy session felt as though it was completely in my control as Shirley seemed to follow a client lead approach. I was very impressed with the therapy I received and it has definitely helped me an awful lot. I would recommend Shirley as a therapist to everyone.

Esmie has been a godsend to us, at a most challenging time for my teenage son. She took time to listen and understand what was needed. I felt heard by her. In a relatively short time of working with him she has managed to gain his trust and allow him to open up, in a way that other therapists haven’t been able to do after a year of therapy. She has supported me through this process generously taking the time to feedback when appropriate so that I can best support my son through his difficulties. Because of her he will finally get the right help he needs which means he will be able to move forward and thrive managing the situation appropriately. Esmie has been so accommodating to fit around the difficulties we had with fitting in sessions due to shared custody arrangement. She has made easy work of navigating this process with our fraught & challenging back ground. Her professional but compassionate approach to this work has meant I feel safe in the knowledge my son is in safe hands.

Marina is a wonderful and caring therapist. She always listens attentively, and has given me so many valuable and encouraging insights to help me let go, develop and feel empowered. She has helped me to connect more with my feelings and express them, as well as make sense of my experiences and how they relate to the present.