Rachel Chakawodza , AASW

Rachel Chakawodza is an Accredited Social Worker with the AASW and has more than 12 years' experience supporting adults through hard seasons. She offers a calm, respectful space for people facing stress, anxiety, relationship breakdowns, trauma, parenting strain and questions about self-esteem.

Rachel works in a collaborative way. She listens first, then helps people make sense of what is happening. Sessions focus on practical steps people can use between meetings as well as time to reflect and process difficult feelings.

Her background includes extensive work with people affected by family and domestic violence, childhood trauma and emotional overwhelm. She also supports carers and parents, and is experienced working with people from diverse cultural and faith backgrounds.

Rachel brings a trauma-informed and strengths-based lens to her work. She pays attention to culture, faith and personal values and will include those elements when they matter to a person’s healing. Faith-based perspectives can be part of conversations when a client requests them.

People meet Rachel when they want someone steady, curious and practical. She helps people untangle relationship problems, manage stress and anxiety, navigate major life changes, and rebuild a sense of purpose. Her approach is down-to-earth and aimed at helping people move forward.

Rachel aims to create a supportive partnership where goals are clear and progress is tracked. That makes it easier for people to notice change and to decide what they want next in their lives.

Therapeutic approaches and how online therapy fits

Rachel draws on evidence-based techniques that focus on safety and practical change. One common approach is trauma-informed care, which helps people understand how past harm affects thoughts, feelings and relationships and supports steps to reduce reactivity and rebuild trust. Another is strengths-based work, which highlights a person’s resources and skills and turns those into small, achievable goals people can try between sessions.

Finding the right way of working is part of the process. Rachel will talk with each person about their needs and preferences and together decide which approaches to try. That collaborative planning means sessions can shift if something isn’t helping or if priorities change over time.

Online therapy in her practice uses video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text messaging to make counselling more flexible. Video is useful for deeper conversations and visual connection, phone sessions can fit a lunch break or low-bandwidth moments, and chat or messaging suits shorter check-ins or when typing feels easier. These options help people keep continuity of care around work, family and other commitments.