Rabaya Ahad

Rabaya Ahad (Rima) is a trainee integrative counsellor and a registered student member of the BACP, currently working within The NHS counselling service in Lambeth while completing her training in Integrative Counselling at The Awareness Centre. She works within an ethical framework and is committed to ongoing professional development and reflective practice, ensuring that the support she offers is safe, responsive, and grounded in the needs of each individual she supports.

Rima works collaboratively with clients to help them explore their emotional world, understand patterns of behaviour, and develop healthier ways of relating to themselves and others. Drawing on a range of therapeutic approaches, she blends different perspectives and theories to meet each client as an individual. Rima offers a warm, grounded and reflective space where clients can talk openly about their experiences, whether they are navigating anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, relationship difficulties, identity concerns, family issues, or the impact of past experiences. She believes that therapy is a collaborative process and works at a pace that feels safe and manageable for each client. She values curiosity, openness and the therapeutic relationship as central to meaningful change, creating a safe, inclusive and culturally sensitive environment where clients can develop greater emotional awareness, resilience and self-compassion while gently exploring patterns that may be keeping them stuck.

Rima has experience supporting clients through a wide range of emotional and psychological challenges, including relationship difficulties, family conflict, communication issues and challenges within personal and social relationships. She recognises the significant impact that culture, identity, family expectations and social experiences can have on emotional wellbeing, and has experience supporting clients in exploring cultural issues and navigating the complexities that can arise from living between different cultural values, beliefs and expectations. Her work is tailored to the unique needs, strengths and circumstances of each individual. Alongside her counselling training, she brings experience of working with difference and diversity and is attentive to how culture, identity, power and lived experience shape the therapeutic space. She welcomes clients who are seeking a space to understand themselves more deeply and move towards a more connected and fulfilling way of living.