Atifa Begum, BACP

Atifa Begum is a BACP counsellor with three years of hands-on experience. She has worked with students, young people and adults in different settings. She builds warm, practical relationships and aims to make therapy straightforward and easy to follow.

Atifa focuses on stress, anxiety, low mood and self-esteem. She also helps people dealing with grief, family-related pressures and difficulties around identity and culture. Additional areas she supports include attachment concerns, body image, communication problems, guilt and shame, loneliness, social anxiety and finding life purpose.

Her style is person-centred and solution-focused. That means sessions start with the person’s priorities and look for realistic steps forward. She brings together techniques from different approaches to suit each person’s needs rather than using one fixed method.

In a typical session Atifa listens actively and reflects what she hears. She works collaboratively to spot patterns, try small changes and build on what’s already working. Many people come away with clearer choices and fewer day-to-day blocks.

If questions about culture or identity feel important, she makes those central to the work. Her aim is to create a non-judgemental space where people feel heard and can explore practical next steps.

How her approaches translate to online work

Atifa uses person-centred and solution-focused ways of working, and combines techniques as needed. Person-centred work focuses on listening carefully and reflecting back what matters to the client, which helps people clarify their feelings and priorities. Solution-focused elements look for small, achievable steps and practical changes that can be tried between sessions.

She adapts the mix of approaches to each person through conversation and joint planning. Finding the right way of working is collaborative - the therapist and client check what helps, adjust methods, and set goals together so the approach fits the client’s needs and preferences.

Session formats are not specified in the biography, so please confirm current options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life, for example by avoiding travel, fitting sessions into a lunch break or choosing shorter check-ins when that suits. It also allows people to meet with a therapist who has relevant cultural or identity experience even if they live some distance apart.