Sharmaline Attygalle

I am available on

Mondays 15:00 - 20:00

Fridays 09:00 - 14:00

I am an Eating Disorders Therapist with an in-depth experience in working with children and adults living with eating disorders and disordered eating.  I work with you as a whole individual exploring nutritional rehabilitation, the cognitive mindset and the emotional regulation.

I am an Accredited Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and abide by their ethical framework and code of conduct.  

I have been running my own private practice called Your Haven Counselling for many years and I have specialised and gained extensive training and expertise in eating disorders over these years.

I am also an Eating Disorders Therapist at Orri, a specialist eating disorder centre in Central London.

Please do have a look at my website www.yourhaven-counselling.co.uk

As an Integrative Counsellor I am able to use an approach best suited for you and the work needed. The types of therapeutic approaches I use are Humanistic (Person-Centred, Gestalt, Existentialism), Cognitive Behavioural, Psychodynamic, Transactional Analysis and Solution-Focused therapy.

My education started in medicine followed by psychology and led me to being a therapist with a specialism in ED.  Being a medical doctor with an MBBS and having a BSc degree in psychology has given me a wealth of insight and knowledge which I value in my work as an ED therapist.

The work is rooted as a talking therapy set in a safe and confidential therapeutic space. The therapeutic relationship between the client and therapist is crucial.  It is based on being open, non-judgemental and showing empathic understanding. 

We will work collaboratively. I will facilitate your exploration and processing. The evolving therapeutic process aims to gradually provide you with a better insight and understanding and in so doing empower you to feel ready to change, set yourself free and move forwards. 

I offer therapy sessions:

-for Adults, Young People and Children 12 years and over

-in person sessions

 -online using video-linked zoom sessions

-open-ended or with a planned ending 

-a therapeutic hour of 50 minutes

-sessions on a weekly 

-an initial assessment to verify your goals and ensure we are willing to continue with therapy

-an explicit contract setting out and guiding the principles and boundaries of the therapeutic work

-regular reviews

-confidentiality

-safeguarding 

Eating disorders therapy starts with completing a questionnaire and a food diary to assess your relationship with food.

We will consider your predisposing factors, identify the your precipitating point and explore your perpetuating factors that maintain the ED. This involves exploring the many drivers such as your relationship with food, faulty thinking, rigid rules and habits, your relationships, self-esteem, perfectionism and the dysregulation of emotions such as your anxiety, depression, guilt and shame.

Therapy is guided by a parallel track approach; the nutritional rehabilitation track and the cognitive-emotional track.

I provide psycho-education throughout to support your change. Therapy may involve maintaining food diaries and completing homework tasks. Work is also done on relapse prevention and maintaining recovery.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss any questions you may have about counselling and to check my availability.

I understand how daunting it may be to start counselling; to meet an unknown person and hope to open up to them about your concerns. 

I offer you a safe and warm therapeutic space to gently settle down and feel comfortable to feel able to process.

The initial session will allow us to meet and get a sense of whether we would be happy to work together.  This will also give us the opportunity to discuss what brought you to counselling, what your goals are and how I can support you in these. 

The aim is to gradually start establishing a professional and therapeutic relationship for the ensuing therapy. 

For the eating disorders therapy there is a questionnaire which I ask you to complete before the initial session.  We will introduce the information from the questionnaire to the sessions identifying and acknowledging the possible work needed.

The therapy for disordered eating and the many eating disorders involves work on the willingness to engage in the therapy and the motivation to change.  Therapy does not promise to be easy and there are many ups and downs. We will look at what is keeping you stuck and address the ambivalence and resistance that may undeniably exist.