Boutaina Rahal, BACP

Boutaina Rahal offers compassionate, practical support for adults facing stress, anxiety, trauma, low self-esteem and life changes. She speaks English and Arabic and has 20 years of experience working across national and international settings. Boutaina presents a calm, respectful approach that aims to help people find their own strengths and move forward.

She is a BACP counsellor, which means she is registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Her background includes work with survivors of abuse and people coping with depression, relationship difficulties and cultural or identity questions. She also has experience supporting people dealing with grief, parenting strain, career concerns and compassion fatigue.

Her approach draws on a mix of methods rather than a single model. Cognitive behavioural techniques are used to spot unhelpful patterns and try out small changes. Emotionally-focused ideas help people better understand and name strong feelings that affect relationships and intimacy.

Boutaina also brings client-centred and existential influences, aiming to follow each person’s priorities and sense-making. She sees therapy as a joint process where the client’s experience guides the work. Her style includes straightforward conversation, practical steps and space to reflect.

She has additional interests in attachment, abandonment issues, body image and neurodiversity concerns such as ADHD. If you want to start, she asks that you use the service Start Therapy button and complete the short matching questionnaire to schedule a first session.

How her approaches translate to online therapy

Client-Centred Therapy focuses on listening and following what matters most to the person. It helps when someone needs a respectful space to make sense of their situation and decide what matters next. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) looks at thoughts and behaviours and uses simple exercises to test different ways of coping; it is useful for anxiety, low mood and stress. Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) concentrates on understanding emotions that affect relationships and intimacy and can help people name and communicate strong feelings.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Boutaina treats this as a collaborative process and will discuss which methods to try based on a person’s goals, preferences and how they respond in early sessions. Together they can adjust the focus as the work unfolds.

Please confirm current session formats before booking as the biography does not specify them. Online therapy can make it easier to fit sessions around work, childcare or travel and can reduce time spent commuting. It can also allow shorter check-ins when needed or sessions that do not require being on camera, depending on what the therapist offers. Registered or accredited professionals often use these options to help therapy fit into everyday life.