Summar Ali, BACP

Summar Ali is a United Kingdom based therapist with 11 years of professional experience supporting people through anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship difficulties, addiction, and a wide range of life challenges. She offers a compassionate, nonjudgmental approach that aims to help clients make sense of painful experiences, rebuild connection after hurt, and develop practical tools to manage everyday stressors.

Her clinical background spans work in the NHS at CAMHS, school counselling, drug and alcohol services, bereavement support, and as a sexual trauma therapist for a local charity. She has also taught trainees in NHS services as a lecturer at the University of Southampton and at the Anna Freud Centre. When not working online she practices animal-assisted therapy, bringing an additional relational dimension to her work.

Summar draws on training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Attachment-Based Therapy, Client-Centered Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to tailor support to each person’s needs. Her formal qualifications include a BA in Counselling and Psychotherapy, postgraduate certificates in evidence-based interventions for children and young people and in supervisory skills, a higher education certificate in academic practice with fellowship status, and continuing professional development in the neurobiology of trauma. She is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), which reflects her commitment to professional standards.

Summar works with individuals facing issues including grief, parenting and family difficulties, intimacy and sexual diversity concerns, ADHD, bipolar challenges, sleep problems, anger and self-esteem, career matters, and coping with life transitions. She is experienced supporting people impacted by attachment and abandonment issues, adoption and foster care, neurodiversity, codependency, dissociation, and other complex presentations. Her practice welcomes international clients and offers flexible remote options to fit different lifestyles and needs.