About Nirekha
Nirekha De Silva offers calm, practical support for people feeling overwhelmed or stuck. She helps with stress, anxiety, addictions, grief, low mood and self‑esteem. Nirekha also supports people facing life changes, career uncertainty and parenting strain.
She speaks English and Sinhala and practises from Australia. Nirekha is an ACA counsellor with 20 years of experience in talking with people about tough issues. She listens without judgement and adapts her style to each person.
How Nirekha works
Sessions focus on clear goals and small steps that fit everyday life. Her approach draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice unhelpful patterns and try new responses. She also uses client‑centred listening and skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy to manage strong emotions.
Therapy is practical and task‑focused when needed, or more reflective when people want to explore meaning and values. People can expect a tailored plan that mixes short‑term coping skills with longer work on beliefs, relationships and goals. Nirekha helps clients build tools to manage anxiety, reduce drinking or other addictive behaviours, and improve communication and self‑worth.
She aims to make therapy usable alongside study, work and family demands. Taking that first step can feel hard. Nirekha offers steady support and straightforward guidance to help clients move toward clearer choices and more manageable days.
Nirekha lists 13 ways of working on the entry:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
What Nirekha works with
The areas below are the ones Nirekha selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | ACA |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 20 |
| Languages | English, Sinhala |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Australia |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
Therapeutic approaches you can access online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and focus on actions that match their values. It supports work on anxiety, low mood and life changes by encouraging small, value‑based steps. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviour and teaches practical techniques to reduce anxiety and depressive patterns. Client‑Centred Therapy emphasises listening and empathy to help people feel understood and build their own solutions.Finding the right approach is part of therapy. The counsellor will talk with each person about goals and preferences, then choose or combine methods that fit. That collaborative process helps tailor sessions to immediate problems or longer‑term growth.
Online sessions can be done by video call, phone, live chat or text‑based messaging. Video calls allow face‑to‑face conversations when visual cues help. Phone sessions can be quicker check‑ins or easier when bandwidth is limited. Live chat and messaging suit brief updates, paced reflection or people who prefer writing. These options make it easier to fit counselling around work, study and family commitments.
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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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