Alana Thompson

Alana Thompson is an Accredited Social Worker and member of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) with 18 years of clinical experience in Australia. She sees people dealing with stress, anxiety, grief, depression, career uncertainty and ADHD, and she supports those coping with trauma and emotional abuse.

She uses straightforward conversation and practical planning to help people manage day-to-day problems. Sessions often involve clarifying immediate goals, developing coping steps, and practising small behavioural changes that make daily life easier. Alana pays attention to how thoughts and feelings affect behaviour and decision making.

Her earlier work was in child protection and family services, supporting young people and their families through complex and confronting issues. She later worked in university student welfare, providing counselling, referrals and life-skill coaching for students navigating study and work pressures.

Alana completed a Bachelor of Psychology, a Master of Social Work and a PhD in Social Work and Law. She has also completed Mental Health First Aid training. Those academic and frontline roles shaped her focus on practical improvements and less adversarial ways of responding to difficult systems.

Now back in full-time practice, Alana helps people who feel stuck in work or life consider their next steps. She works with clients to set clear, manageable goals and to build skills for handling setbacks and stressful moments.

Therapeutic approaches and how online sessions work

Alana draws on evidence-based techniques that focus on changing unhelpful thinking and behaviour and on understanding emotional responses. Cognitive-behavioural approaches are used to identify thought patterns that keep problems going and to practise alternative ways of responding for issues like anxiety, depression and workplace stress.

She also integrates emotional-processing work to help people make sense of grief, trauma and strong reactions. This involves naming feelings, tracking how they show up in behaviour, and planning manageable steps to reduce overwhelm and improve day-to-day functioning.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Alana discusses options with each person and chooses methods together based on the client’s needs, goals and preferences. That collaborative process helps decide whether more skills-focused work or deeper emotional processing is the best next step.

The original biography does not list specific online session formats, so confirm current options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit sessions into a busy week, reduce travel time and allow shorter check-ins when needed. It also means the therapist and client can focus on what to work on between sessions, with practical plans that fit ordinary life.