Shahna Thurston, BACP
5 years in practice
Shahna Thurston is a BACP counsellor who uses an integrative, existential-leaning approach to therapy.
License and registration
- BACP
- 399232 · expires April 2026
- Years in practice
- 5
- Languages
- English
Details are as listed on the therapist's public professional profile. You can check the registration with the body that granted it.
About Shahna
Shahna Thurston is a BACP counsellor who uses an integrative, existential-leaning approach to therapy. She combines person-centred listening with practical skills work. Conversations are straightforward and focused on what matters to the client now.
Shahna has five years of experience supporting people through anxiety and stress. She also helps with trauma and abuse, relationship issues, low self-esteem and difficult life changes. Her work addresses addiction, grief, sleeping and eating difficulties, and challenges linked to neurodiversity such as ADHD.
Background and approach
In sessions she blends client-centred methods with mindfulness and DBT-style skills. This means time is spent on listening, noticing thoughts and feelings, and practising tools to manage emotions. She balances reflection about meaning and values with concrete techniques for day-to-day coping.
Her background includes work with people facing chronic illness, caregiver strain, and cancer-related concerns. She also supports those dealing with blended family dynamics, communication problems, and patterns like codependency and commitment worry. Shahna pays attention to attachment and abandonment themes when they appear in a person’s story.
She works in English and offers a range of online formats. The focus in early sessions is understanding what you want from therapy and agreeing on practical steps. Sessions aim to help people move from feeling stuck to finding clearer choices and better ways to cope.
Focus areas and approaches
Everything Shahna lists on their public professional profile, in their own terms.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Sleeping disorders
- Parenting issues
- Anger management
- Career difficulties
- Bipolar disorder
- Coping with life changes
- Compassion fatigue
- ADHD
- Abandonment
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Postpartum depression
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Approaches Shahna names
- Existential Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
Naming an approach is not evidence of training in it. This directory copies what each therapist lists and does not check training records.
Online support
How Shahna’s approaches work well online
Shahna combines Existential Therapy with client-centred and DBT-informed methods to guide online work. Existential Therapy encourages people to look at meaning, choice and values and can help when life changes or questions about identity are causing distress. Client-centred therapy focuses on warm, non-directive listening so clients feel heard and can shape the direction of sessions themselves. DBT-style skills work teaches practical techniques for emotion regulation, distress tolerance and clearer communication, which people can practise between sessions.Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. Shahna will discuss goals, preferences and what feels most useful, then adapt sessions together. That collaborative process helps decide whether more reflective conversation or more skills practice will best support each person’s aims.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to provide flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face dialogue and visual cues, phone sessions need less bandwidth and can fit into a busy day, live chat can be a shorter check-in, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between sessions. These options help fit therapy around work, family life and other commitments while keeping the focus on practical progress.
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Questions people ask
What kinds of concerns does Shahna address?
She works with stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, trauma and abuse, relationship and intimacy-related issues, self-esteem problems, grief, parenting and sleeping or eating difficulties among other concerns.
How would you describe her therapeutic style?
Her approach mixes existential and client-centred ideas with mindfulness and DBT-style skills work, so sessions pair reflective listening with practical strategies for managing emotions.
What experience does she bring?
Shahna has five years of professional experience working with people facing a range of life challenges and mental health concerns.
What credentials and location are relevant?
She is registered with the BACP and is based in the United Kingdom.
Which languages and international arrangements are supported?
Sessions are offered in English and she does not accept international clients at this time.
What session formats are available?
Sessions can take place via video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging depending on what suits the client.
How are fees handled?
Cost varies with location and therapist availability; sessions are provided through a subscription model that can be cancelled at any time.
How do I begin therapy with her?
Start by selecting the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and then schedule sessions according to therapist availability.
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