About Boutaina
Boutaina Rahal helps people feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, stress, loss, or big life changes. She is a psychotherapist with BACP accreditation and twenty years of clinical experience in the United Kingdom and abroad. She speaks English and Arabic and draws on a range of therapeutic ideas to support practical change.
Boutaina focuses on common problems like depression, low self-esteem, trauma and abuse, and relationship or intimacy-related issues. She also helps with parenting strain, career worries, anger, and the effects of caregiving.
How Boutaina works
Her practice includes support for people concerned about identity, cultural tensions, and LGBT matters. Her approach is integrative rather than one-size-fits-all. She uses Client-Centred ways of working to create a respectful, listening space where people can make sense of their story.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, known as CBT, is used to spot unhelpful thinking and build new coping skills. Emotionally-Focused Therapy helps when emotional patterns are at the heart of relationship or attachment problems. Existential and Jungian ideas are also brought in for people wanting deeper exploration of meaning, values, or recurring life themes.
Boutaina has experience across trauma, PTSD and depression and has worked with national and international clients. She also holds a British Sign Language certification and is learning French and Spanish. Sessions are offered in English and Arabic to fit different language needs.
Boutaina lists 10 ways of working on the entry:
What Boutaina works with
The areas below are the ones Boutaina selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | BACP |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 20 |
| Languages | English, Arabic |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | United Kingdom |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches suited to online care
Client-Centred Therapy focuses on listening and understanding. The counsellor follows the person’s lead, reflecting feelings and helping them find their own solutions. This approach is useful for people wanting to feel heard and to build confidence in their decision making.Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, looks at the links between thoughts, feelings and actions. It breaks problems down into practical steps and teaches coping skills that can be practised between sessions. CBT is often used for anxiety, depression and stress-related difficulties.
Emotionally-Focused Therapy helps people recognise and change patterns of emotional response, especially where attachment or relationship issues are central. It supports clearer communication and a deeper understanding of emotional needs.
The right approach is often discovered together. The therapist will talk through goals, preferences and day-to-day challenges to decide what to try first. Adjustments are made over time so the work stays relevant to the person’s progress.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation when that helps. Phone sessions can be a quicker check-in or useful when bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging work well for shorter updates, reflections between sessions, or when someone prefers writing. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, childcare and travel while keeping the focus on meaningful therapeutic work with registered or accredited professionals.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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