Anxiety
For when your body reacts before your mind gets a say. We work on what's driving it, what sets it off, and what to do in the moment it arrives — not just why it's there.
HPCSA Registered Counsellor · Online across South Africa
Individual Counselling, Online Across South Africa
My goal is for you to stop seeing me.
Counselling that gives you practical tools, not an indefinite appointment. We work out what's actually keeping you stuck, and then we do something about it — one small step at a time. Online, in Afrikaans or English.
Your first session is free. No commitment to a second.
Signs Individual Counselling Might Help
You don't need a crisis to be here.
- You know something isn't right, but you can't name what
- The same situation keeps happening and you can't see your own part in it
- You're managing, but managing is taking everything you've got
- Something happened and you've never properly dealt with it
- You keep deciding to change and then not changing
- You've built a life that looks fine on paper and doesn't feel like yours
- You're carrying something you've never said out loud to anyone
Most people know there's a problem. Far fewer have looked closely enough to see how it actually works.
How I work
How I Work With Individuals
Talking matters. Doing something matters more.
My goal is for you to stop needing me. If I can help you get to a place where you don't need these sessions, I've done my job. I'm not interested in you being in counselling for the rest of your life.
A lot of the time, observation is the intervention. Most people move through life knowing something is wrong without ever noticing how it actually works — what sets it off, what they do next, what they tell themselves about it afterwards. Once you can see the mechanism, you have a choice you didn't have before.
So we look closely. And then you leave with something to do — a tool, an exercise, an experiment for the week. Because if you want something to change, you have to actually do something differently. Insight on its own doesn't move anything.
That usually means stepping outside your comfort zone, in small and manageable ways. Not dramatic ones. One tiny step at a time is how meaningful change actually happens — and it's a great deal more durable than the version that starts on a Monday and collapses by Thursday.
If you want something to change, you have to do something different.
Areas of support
What I Help With
Whatever brought you here, we start with a free session and work from what you bring.
Trauma
Space to put down something you've been carrying alone, at whatever pace you need. No pressure to go faster than you're ready to.
Anger
Anger is information. We work out what yours is telling you, where it's actually coming from, and how to express it without damaging what matters to you.
Grief
Grief work isn't about moving on or letting go. It's about finding a way to carry someone with you — honouring who they were while making room for how much their absence hurts.
Divorce and separation
For the version of you that exists during and after a marriage ends. The practical upheaval, the identity shift, and the grief nobody quite acknowledges as grief.
Career counselling for entrepreneurs
I've been an entrepreneur my whole life, so I know this pressure from the inside — the loneliness of the decisions, the way the business becomes indistinguishable from you, the guilt of resting. Career counselling that doesn't need the pressure explained to it.
Motivation and direction
For feeling stuck, flat, or unsure what comes next. Working out what you actually want, and then the small steps that get you moving toward it.
Self-esteem and confidence
The internal commentary that runs underneath everything else. Where it came from, whose voice it actually is, and what changes when you stop taking it as fact.
Stress and burnout
When the load stopped being temporary a while ago. Practical adjustments, boundaries you can actually hold, and an honest look at what's driving the pace.
Life transitions
New job, new city, new baby, an ending, an empty house. Transitions rarely cause problems on their own — they expose the ones already there.
Relationships and boundaries
Family, friendships, colleagues. The patterns you keep repeating and the conversations you keep not having.
Here for something in your relationship rather than in yourself? Couples & marriage counselling is a separate offering.
An important one
Building a Life Around a Managed Condition
A diagnosis is not a smaller life.
If you live with a mental health condition, you've probably been told a great deal about your limits and very little about your possibilities. I don't believe a diagnosis decides what your life is allowed to look like.
What I've found is that a fulfilling life usually isn't on the other side of some enormous transformation. It's on the other side of a handful of well-chosen adjustments. Together we find the ones that fit your life, your condition, and the people in it — so that you can live fully rather than carefully.
As a Registered Counsellor, I do not diagnose or treat mental health disorders. I work alongside your treating professionals to help you build a life that works around a condition already being managed.
How I see people
You Are Not a Category
You can love someone and feel lonely with them. You can want to leave and want to stay. You can be doing well and still be tired of holding it together.
None of that makes you inconsistent. It makes you a person. Most of the frameworks we're handed ask us to pick one truth and discard the rest — and that's usually where the stuckness starts.
I'm not here to sort you into a type. I'm here to help you hold everything that's true at once, and find your way forward from there.
What underpins this
Counselling Approaches and Modalities I Use
The clinical foundation underneath this work is drawn from established, evidence-based approaches.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
For the thought patterns running underneath the behaviour. What you tell yourself about a situation usually shapes what happens next more than the situation did.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
For what genuinely can't be changed. Building a life around your actual values rather than around waiting for circumstances to improve first.
Person-Centred
You're the expert on your own life. My job is a space where you can be honest without being judged, and where nothing you say gets used to sort you into a category.
Solution-focused and practical tools
Exercises, experiments and structures you take into your week. This is the part that makes the difference between understanding something and changing it.
As a Registered Counsellor, I do not diagnose or treat mental health disorders. Where a diagnosed condition is part of the picture, I work alongside the professionals treating it.
What to expect
What to Expect in a Counselling Session
60 minutes, online, wherever you are.
01
Your free first session
You tell me what brought you here. I listen, ask, and we get clear on what you actually want to be different. No payment, no obligation to book a second.
02
We look closely
At the thing itself, and at how it works — what sets it off, what you do next, what you tell yourself afterwards. This part often changes things on its own.
03
You leave with something to do
Every session ends with something practical for the week ahead. Small enough to be doable, specific enough to be useful.
04
We work toward you not needing this
We check in on what's shifting and what isn't, and adjust. The aim is a point where you've got what you need and these sessions stop.
I'm based in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, and work online with individuals across South Africa — and with South Africans living abroad.
Sessions run on a video call, so all you need is a private space and a decent connection. No travel, no waiting room, no sitting in a car park beforehand.
From people I've worked with
What People Say
"It took me years, countless specialists, and a lot of money to find the right counsellor, and Sumarie is absolutely it. She understands me, works with my personality, and has genuinely changed my life. She is truly one of the best counsellors I have ever worked with."
"Sumi is an amazing counsellor. She is exceptionally warm and friendly and goes beyond what may be required to provide help and support. She is pragmatic and solution driven. It is very clear that she first and foremost deeply cares about her clients and loves what she does. I would highly recommend her!"
"From the get go Sumi made me feel safe and comfortable, I could really feel the care instantly, she really wants to make a difference in your life for your well being. I would most definitely recommend her to everyone. Thanks Sumi!!"
Free downloads
Free Counselling Resources and Tools
Practical tools you can start using before your first session.
Free guides and worksheets — grounding techniques for anxiety, tools for noticing your own patterns, and exercises you can work through on your own.
Browse the Free ResourcesIndividuele Berading in Afrikaans
Ek doen sessies in Afrikaans of Engels — net soos jy die gemaklikste voel.
Aanlyn berading, oral in Suid-Afrika. Jou eerste sessie is gratis.
Questions
Individual Counselling: Common Questions
Rates vary between practitioners and provinces. Online individual sessions here are R600, and your first session is free with no obligation to book a second. If your income doesn't stretch to the full rate, message me on WhatsApp to ask about sliding scale pricing — every situation is considered individually.
About the counsellor
I'm Sumarie Engelbrecht
I'm an HPCSA Registered Counsellor in private practice in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, working online with individuals and couples across South Africa, in Afrikaans and English.
Qualifications
- BA Psychological Counselling — University of South Africa (UNISA), 2019
- BPsych Registered Counselling (Honours Equivalent) — South African College of Applied Psychology (SACAP), 2022
Registration & accreditation
- Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) — Registered Counsellor since 2023, registration number PRC 0042480
- Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) — Practice Number 1142720
Read more about how I work
Page last reviewed: September 2026
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