Chandana Rathnayake

I offer video/audio sessions and am generally available all week except limited availability on Thursdays and Fridays. 

I started practicing as a counsellor in 2013 in Malaysia and moved to the UK in 2019. As a registered counsellor (BACP 382049) I also work as a mental health adviser for young adutls in higher education sector in the UK.

Prior to all this, I lived as a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka for twenty years and inherited a fair share of valuable life experiences from that chapter of my life. Growing up as monk, I received very traditional education which I later used to access formal education that included psychology and couselling. I left the monkhood to pursue worldly happiness of raising a family which I am enjoying at the moment.

Based on my work with people in the UK for the past three years, I am seeing my past personal and professional life experienes are blending to form a unique style of cousnelling. In this style, I find ways to improvise as we do back home so that I am able to help the person awaken themselves to utilise all the ingredients they bring into the sessions. The darker the materials, the more broken the pieces are... the better! Losses, betrayals, setbacks, hesitations, overthinking... all these are in my practice recycled into solid building materials that we are going to use for the collaborative rebuilding task ahead. As Yalom has said it is very hard for the grandma to explain how she made that stew so declicious. All we know is that she threw in some ingredients from time to time. I think counselling is like that.

I would be a good fit for you if you are struggling to find purpose, motivation or direction in life. So this include career, education or even spirituality. I can also be useful in talking to if you are grieving or going through a dramatic changes in life. I have also seen myself working effectively with people who have declared war on themselves. I am talking about lack of self-love, confidence or esteem. One more thing, as an ex-monk, I am no way a relationship expert. However, people who struggle in relationship domain also have benefited from my work (as individuals, not as couples though!).

Lastly, if you decided to come on board, that decision is going to improve my life as well. All the best wishes!

I do not offer a free initial session. I expect my clients to commit to four initial sessions before we can usefully evaluate the effectiveness of our sessions. In these initial sessions, although I do not administer any formal assessments, I would like to gather more information about my clients including neurodiversity concerns so that we can make informed decisions about the future of therapy.