Alana RussellAASW

Alana Russell is an AASW counsellor who uses practical, evidence-based techniques to help people navigate stress, anxiety and trauma. She writes plainly and listens closely, aiming to make sessions straightforward and useful for people juggling demanding jobs and family life. Her work often addresses postpartum depression and the particular strains around pregnancy and childbirth. She supports people coping with workplace strain, compassion fatigue and difficult life transitions.

Alana draws on seven years of clinical experience with frontline professionals, veterans and others facing high-stress roles. She values trauma-informed care and uses strengths-based approaches to build resilience. Cognitive behavioural therapy techniques are a regular part of her work, focused on changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviours.

Sessions typically move at the client’s pace. Alana helps clients set clear, achievable goals and practises strategies in session that can be used between meetings. She also helps people explore attachment or control issues, manage panic attacks, and work through guilt, shame or forgiveness concerns.

Her background includes supporting people with mental health concerns, psychological injury, parenting and motherhood challenges, and addiction-related issues. That experience informs a practical approach to recovery and coping.

Alana encourages simple, realistic steps towards better balance. She helps people identify what’s working, what isn’t, and small changes they can make. The focus is on practical tools, steady progress and making daily life more manageable.

How evidence-based approaches translate to online care

Alana often uses cognitive behavioural techniques to help people notice and change patterns of thinking and behaviour that worsen anxiety or depression. These are practical exercises and small experiments that can be practiced between sessions to reduce panic and improve mood.

She also works from a trauma-informed perspective, which means paying attention to safety, pacing and stabilising skills before moving into deeper memories or problem-solving. This approach helps people who have experienced abuse, traumatic events or workplace-related psychological injury to regain a sense of control.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss needs, goals and preferences and adapt techniques as therapy progresses. Clients and the therapist decide together which methods suit each stage of work.

Session formats are not specified in the biography, so please confirm current options before booking. Online work can make therapy easier to fit into a busy life, reduce travel time and allow shorter check-ins when needed. It can also help people keep continuity of care when schedules are unpredictable or shift work makes in-person appointments difficult.