About Amanda
Dr. Amanda Van Der Westhuizen is a HCPC-registered counsellor with 17 years of professional experience. She works in the United Kingdom and South Africa and meets people where they are.
Her approach is respectful and compassionate and she aims to move at a pace that feels comfortable for each person. She enjoys helping people with complex difficulties and co-occurring conditions. That includes neurodiversity alongside mood or anxiety struggles.
She also supports people facing trauma, depression and anxiety, and those wanting to strengthen identity and self-esteem.
Background and approach
Sessions focus on clear, practical conversation and collaborative goal-setting. Amanda tailors the discussion and treatment plan to the individual rather than using the same approach for everyone. She pays attention to identity, diversity and life context when shaping care.
Her work covers a wide range of concerns such as relationships, grief, addictions, career challenges and coping with life changes. She also addresses attachment-related difficulties, abandonment, codependency, dissociation and issues that follow domestic violence. Clients can expect to be listened to with sensitivity and treated with respect.
Amanda describes therapy as a shared journey where she walks alongside people as they take steps toward the life they want. Her style is steady and supportive, with an emphasis on practical next steps.
Online approaches for trauma and anxiety
Client-Centred Therapy focuses on listening and understanding the person's experience. The therapist reflects concerns, values the person's own goals and helps you decide what matters most in therapy. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) uses structured procedures alongside discussion to address distress linked to traumatic memories and difficult experiences. It can help reduce strong emotional reactions linked to those memories. Trauma-Focused Therapy concentrates on processing traumatic events and learning ways to manage symptoms that follow trauma, such as flashbacks, avoidance or strong emotional responses.Choosing the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will discuss options and help decide which methods fit the person's needs, goals and preferences. This is a collaborative process and plans can change as therapy progresses.
Online sessions are offered via video calls, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video calls are useful for face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can fit a break at work or require less bandwidth, and text-based formats allow shorter check-ins or ongoing written support. These options make it easier to fit therapy around daily life and different schedules while working with registered or accredited professionals.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Domestic violence
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 17 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English, Afrikaans
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