About Sharmaine
Sharmaine O'Keefe is a BACP counsellor who helps people manage anxiety, stress and life changes. She also supports those facing depression, grief, relationship and family difficulties, eating and body image concerns, and parenting pressures. Her style is warm and straightforward, aiming to help people feel heard and understood from the first session.
Sharmaine uses an integrative approach that lets her match methods to each person. She often draws on cognitive behavioural techniques and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to tackle anxious thoughts and unhelpful patterns.
Background and approach
Mindfulness practices and solution-focused work are used to build practical skills and small, achievable steps. She has four years of counselling experience in independent practice, schools and charity settings. Before qualifying as a counsellor she worked as a lawyer, teacher and lecturer, which she says helps her communicate clearly and stay organised in sessions.
Sharmaine has lived and worked in several countries and is comfortable working with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Sessions focus on what matters most to the client. Conversations aim to identify manageable goals, learn coping strategies, and practise new ways of responding to stress and anxiety.
Sharmaine prioritises a calm, non-judgemental space where clients can speak openly. People usually start by describing the issue that feels most urgent. Later sessions may introduce practical exercises from CBT or ACT, mindfulness practice, or short solution-focused tasks.
The overall aim is to reduce distress and help people regain a clearer sense of direction.
How Sharmaine blends approaches online
Sharmaine often uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which looks at the links between thoughts, feelings and behaviours and teaches practical exercises to reduce anxious thinking and unhelpful habits. This approach is useful for panic attacks, phobias, social anxiety and workplace stress.She also draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, and then choose actions based on personal values. ACT can help with ongoing anxiety, low mood and life transitions.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Sharmaine will discuss goals, preferences and what feels most helpful, then adapt techniques collaboratively. That might mean using CBT tools for some weeks and shifting to mindfulness or solution-focused tasks as progress is made.
Online sessions can fit around busy lives. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues, phone sessions need less bandwidth, live chat suits short check-ins, and text-based messaging can support ongoing reflection between appointments. These options make it easier to access therapy from different locations and to choose the format that fits daily routines and energy levels.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- 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
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 4 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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