Vidhi Thakkar, PACFA registered Clinical Counsellor

I work with adults navigating life transitions, unspoken grief, cultural expectations, and
coping patterns that have stopped working. A good deal of my practice is with people who are
functioning well by every external measure and struggling considerably underneath it.

Why this work

I was born in India, trained as a dentist there, moved to South Africa, and then to Australia
— where I retrained entirely and became a counsellor. Three countries, two professions.
I know from the inside what it costs to rebuild a life and a sense of self in a place that has no
memory of who you used to be, and how strange it is to be congratulated on a move that also
quietly took something from you.

I don’t share that as a personal note. I share it because it changes what you have to explain
to me before we can get anywhere.

How I work

Trauma and long-standing habits live in the body long after the moment has passed. I draw on
EMDR-informed practice, ACT, motivational interviewing, DBT-informed skills, internal family
systems and sandtray work, within a trauma-informed, culturally responsive frame — so what
feels stuck can begin to shift without you having to retell everything.

Sessions feel like a conversation, not an assessment. You set the pace. Nothing is
pathologised. You should leave with more clarity than you arrived with.

Working across languages

I offer sessions in English, Hindi and Gujarati.

This isn’t only about translation. It’s about not having to explain why a particular family
expectation carries the weight it does, or why a decision that looks straightforward from the
outside isn’t. Some things only arrive properly in the language you first felt them in.

Alongside private practice

I work as a specialist drug and alcohol counsellor with NSW Health in the Western Sydney Local
Health District, and previously as a recovery case worker with Mission Australia supporting adults
with severe and persistent mental illness. That’s current clinical work, not history — it
means I can sit with substance use, risk and complexity without flinching.

In May 2025 I was a guest speaker for the UniSC Certificate of Achievement in Mental Health,
delivering Culture, Counselling and Drug Use: How Culture Shapes Drug Use and Recovery to
mental health professionals across Papua New Guinea.