About Mehtap
Mehtap "May" Cigdem is a PACFA counsellor with ten years’ practical experience working with people under stress and those feeling overwhelmed. She helps people facing anxiety, grief, trauma, relationship strain and parenting challenges. May keeps sessions simple and focused so people can talk through what matters most to them.
Her approach is conversational and tailored. Sessions begin by hearing the story and spotting what gets in the way. From there she helps clients try new ways of coping and build clearer routines and boundaries.
Background and approach
She uses tools that suit each person rather than one fixed method. May draws on therapies that focus on thoughts, emotions and attachments. She uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to notice and test unhelpful thinking, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help people choose values-based actions.
Attachment-based ideas guide work on patterns that recur in relationships. People working with her often practise simple skills between sessions. These may include short behavioural experiments, emotion regulation exercises from Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, or values-driven steps from ACT.
The aim is to make changes manageable and practical. Sessions are offered in English in Australia. May adapts her style for someone who needs a direct practical plan, or for those who prefer a gentler, reflective pace.
She helps clients build resilience and clearer ways of relating to themselves and others.
How therapeutic approaches work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on clarifying what matters to you and taking small steps toward those values. It helps with anxiety and grief by shifting attention from fighting thoughts to building meaningful action. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) looks at how thoughts, behaviours and feelings interact. It is useful for anxiety and stress because it helps people test unhelpful beliefs and try different behaviours.Choosing the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will discuss options and adapt methods to the client's goals and preferences. That decision is collaborative and may change as progress is made.
Online sessions can be delivered by video, phone, live chat or text-based messaging. Video is useful for face-to-face conversation and learning practical skills together. Phone sessions can be shorter check-ins or suit lower bandwidth. Text or chat messages work well for brief updates, exercises and when regular written contact helps practice between sessions. These formats make therapy more flexible and easier to fit around work, caregiving and daily life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Parenting issues
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 10 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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