About Sharmaine
Sharmaine O'Keefe helps people facing stress, anxiety, parenting strains, low self-esteem and life transitions. She supports those dealing with relationship and family issues, trauma and abuse, grief, eating and body image concerns, career difficulties and depression. Sharmaine works in English and practises from the United Kingdom.
She is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). Sharmaine uses clear, practical methods in sessions. She often draws on cognitive behavioural ideas to spot unhelpful thoughts and habits.
How Sharmaine works
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy techniques help clients focus on values and small, purposeful steps. Mindfulness exercises are introduced to steady emotions and reduce reactivity. Her practice also includes solution-focused conversations to set achievable goals.
Client-Centred Therapy underpins the way she listens, offering empathy and respect so people feel heard. Sessions are geared to the person in front of her, not to a single rigid approach. Sharmaine trained to master’s level and has four years of counselling experience.
She has worked in independent practice, senior schools and charities. Earlier roles as a lawyer, teacher and lecturer add practical perspective to her work with adults. She has lived and worked in several countries and brings awareness of cultural differences to sessions.
The aim is to help people find relief, make steady changes and rebuild confidence through small, manageable steps.
Sharmaine lists 5 ways of working on the entry:
What Sharmaine works with
The areas below are the ones Sharmaine selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
Also listed
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Fertility issues
- Grief
- Jealousy
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Relationship issues
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | BACP |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 4 |
| Languages | English |
| 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
Practical approaches for online therapy
Sharmaine often uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in her online work. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy focuses on helping people notice thoughts and feelings without getting stuck, then choose actions that match their values; it can help with anxiety, low mood and life changes. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy looks at the links between thoughts, feelings and actions and teaches straightforward strategies to shift patterns that cause distress.Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Sharmaine will discuss different ways of working and decide with the client what fits best for their goals and preferences. This collaborative process means the plan can change as needs evolve.
Online sessions can be arranged as video calls, phone sessions, live chat or text-based messaging to suit different days and rhythms. Video calls work well for in-depth conversations, phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is limited, live chat can suit short check-ins, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, family and travel 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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