Chandana Rathnayake , BACP, NCPS

Chandana Rathnayake began practising as a counsellor in 2013 in Malaysia and relocated to the United Kingdom in 2019, where he continues his clinical work while also serving as a mental health adviser for young adults in the higher education sector. He is a registered counsellor with BACP and holds an NCPS credential - BACP indicates registration with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy in the UK.

Before training in psychology and counselling, he spent twenty years living as a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka, receiving a traditional education that later supported his formal studies in mental health. He left the monkhood to pursue family life and brings that life transition into his therapeutic perspective, combining contemplative experience with professional training.

Chandana describes his approach as a blend of personal and professional experience that adapts to each person's material. He works collaboratively with clients to transform painful experiences - losses, betrayals, setbacks, and overthinking - into resources for rebuilding a purposeful life. He likens counselling to a practice of mixing ingredients over time, allowing the difficult pieces to become part of a new structure.

He is a good fit for people searching for purpose, motivation, or direction in areas such as career, education, or spirituality, and for those coping with grief or significant life changes. He has also worked with individuals struggling with self-love, confidence, or self-esteem issues. While not a couples therapist, he has supported many people with relationship difficulties in individual sessions.

Chandana works with a wide range of concerns including stress, anxiety, grief, depression, addictions, trauma and abuse, parenting and family issues, anger, career concerns, compassion fatigue, ADHD, and intimacy-related problems, along with additional focuses such as attachment issues, codependency, and multicultural concerns. His clinical approaches include Client-Centered Therapy, Existential Therapy, Internal Family Systems, and Systemic Therapy. He provides therapy in English and Sinhala and is accepting clients, including international clients.