Dr. Amanda Van Der Westhuizen, HCPC

Dr. Amanda Van Der Westhuizen is a counsellor with 17 years of professional experience in the UK. She works with people from many backgrounds and pays attention to each person's unique story. She focuses on practical, everyday issues such as thoughts and daily habits alongside longer-standing concerns like trauma and relationship problems.

She has supported people with anxiety, depression, grief and addictive behaviours, and also helps those facing identity and self-esteem struggles. She is experienced with complex and overlapping challenges, including neurodiversity and co-occurring mental health conditions. Her work includes attention to issues such as attachment, abandonment, chronic illness and compassion fatigue.

Her style is respectful and paced to the client. She adapts conversations and treatment plans to match what feels manageable for each person. Sessions aim to help people make small, steady changes in how they think and act day to day.

Dr. Van Der Westhuizen uses approaches that include client-centred work, trauma-focused methods and EMDR. She explains options and helps clients choose what feels right for them rather than imposing a single path.

She speaks English and Afrikaans and sees people in the United Kingdom. For those wanting to begin, she guides them through clear first steps and supports practical planning toward more satisfying routines and relationships.

Working online with trauma-informed and client-centred care

Dr. Van Der Westhuizen uses client-centred methods that focus on the person rather than a rigid technique; this means conversations follow the client’s pace and priorities and aim to shift daily habits and thinking. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is one of the approaches she lists; EMDR involves structured sessions that target distressing memories and can help reduce the emotional charge linked to past events. Trauma-focused therapy concentrates directly on the effects of traumatic experiences and on building coping strategies for triggers and everyday functioning.

Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The counsellor will discuss different methods, listen to your goals and preferences, and together decide what to try first. Plans can change as work proceeds, with an emphasis on what feels manageable and useful for you.

The biography does not specify which online or in-person session formats are offered, so please confirm current options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, reduce travel time and allow shorter check-ins when needed. It also makes it possible to continue sessions if you move or travel internationally. Registered or accredited professionals can adapt their techniques to remote settings to help with trauma, anxiety, mood and everyday habit changes.