Dana Kabaila - Counsellor
Dana is a counsellor, narrative therapist, Jungian Coach and mentor based in Naarm/Melbourne. She is endlessly fascinated by the diversity of brains, bodies and beings in the world and committed to supporting neurodivergent folk to live meaningfully and sustainably. Narrative Therapy allows the critique of oppressive societal structures and makes room to question claims about “success” and “normality”. As someone with her own “spiky profile”, Dana is quick with word meanings and associations, but is likely to bump into the doorframe as she greets you. This helps ground her work in humility and humour.
Many people who consult with Dana do not have a formal diagnosis and may present as high masking and experience barriers to self-identifying. The combination of stereotyped ideas of neurodivergence and internalised ableism can make self-identifying a complex and confusing journey. With curiosity and interest, Dana walks alongside clients to dignify suffering, celebrate survival and resistance, identify and meet needs, and strengthen community and sense of belonging. Dana has experience supporting client’s exploring:
– gender expansiveness, sexuality and neuro-queer identity
– childhood, familial and trans-generational trauma
– meltdowns, shut downs, burn out and recovery
Jungian Coaching training supports symbolic work (e.g. dreamwork, art making, nature connections, mythology explorations) which Dana has found particularly helpful during times of major transition (e.g. parenthood, career change or break, grief and loss) and times where clients feel “stuck”. She is the current host of The Jungian Coaching Room and previously hosted season 4 of the C.G. Jung Society of Melbourne podcast.
Dana’s background in speech pathology helps her connect with people through varied communication methods. Her experience working with children contributes to a nurturing approach to the “young parts” held in the stories of adults. Dana has specialist training in:
– PDA
– Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria
– Situational Non-speaking (clinically labelled Selective Mutism)
– eating differences
– trans and gender expansive voice coaching