Alison Cannell, PACFA

Alison Cannell is a PACFA counsellor with 13 years practising as a therapist in Australia. She helps people facing addictions, relationship and family problems, trauma and abuse, and major life changes. Alison uses straightforward conversation to help people who keep putting others first, struggle with saying no, or feel stuck around another person’s drinking or moods.

She offers plain, practical sessions where people can talk through what is happening in their lives. Alison focuses on communication problems, codependency patterns, caregiver stress, attachment concerns and issues tied to family of origin. Sessions look at everyday behaviour and choices rather than labels.

Work may include looking at how control, guilt and shame operate day to day. Alison draws on evidence-based therapeutic techniques to reduce harm from drug and alcohol use and from domestic violence situations. She also helps people manage emptiness, isolation and the ripple effects of separation and divorce.

Her approach is conversational and task-oriented. Clients can expect to identify small, concrete steps between sessions. Alison pays attention to patterns that keep someone stuck and to practical ways to try something different.

Alison has over 30 years’ experience in behaviour change across workplaces and clinical settings, which she brings into sessions when relevant. People meet her to sort out relationship patterns, steady stressful caring roles, and rebuild a clearer sense of their own priorities.

How her approaches fit with online sessions