About Sunah
Sunah Akhtar is a counsellor who helps people facing stress, anxiety, relationship strains and life changes. She works with individuals on low self-esteem, grief, trauma and addiction concerns. Sunah speaks English, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu and practises in the United Kingdom.
Sunah trained and practises using approaches that include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and client-centred work. She brings nine years of clinical experience to sessions and aims to make talking about difficult things straightforward and manageable.
How Sunah works
In sessions Sunah focuses on listening first and then building practical steps onwards. She supports people to notice unhelpful patterns, learn coping strategies and set realistic goals. Sessions are collaborative so each plan is shaped around what the person wants to change.
Her background includes multi-year placements providing emotional support and counselling to people with complex needs. That experience informed her attention to attachment issues, relationship difficulty and challenges tied to abandonment, adoption and blended families. Sunah also works with concerns such as bipolar mood issues, ADHD, chronic illness and caregiver stress.
She uses tools from dialectical behaviour therapy and attachment-based approaches when these fit someone’s situation. Above all, she aims to help people build more stability in day-to-day life. Practical arrangements for sessions vary by location and client preference.
Sunah accepts international clients and offers a range of online formats to make counselling accessible to more people.
Sunah lists 16 ways of working on the entry:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
What Sunah works with
The areas below are the ones Sunah selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- 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)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Traumatic brain injury
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | BACP |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 9 |
| Languages | English, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu |
| 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 and how they work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, and then commit to actions that match their values. It can support someone wrestling with anxiety, chronic stress or life transitions by focusing on what matters most. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy looks at the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviours and gives practical exercises to change unhelpful patterns; it is often used for anxiety, depression and low self‑esteem.Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk through goals, try out techniques and adapt the plan if something is not working. Together they will choose methods that match the person’s needs, preferences and everyday life constraints rather than sticking rigidly to one model.
Online formats available include video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging. Video calls are useful for face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or for shorter check-ins. Live chat and messaging suit people who prefer shorter, written exchanges or need flexible timing. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, family and travel while keeping the focus on practical progress.
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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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