About Joanna
Joanna Lum Wai is a counsellor working in the United Kingdom with nine years of professional experience. She holds NCPS and focuses on helping people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, low self-esteem, and life changes. Joanna aims to meet clients where they are and make the first steps feel less daunting.
Her style is respectful and compassionate. She adapts conversations and plans to each person's needs rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.
Background and approach
Sessions are practical and aim to help people notice small changes that make everyday life easier. Joanna uses a mix of approaches depending on what a person needs. She draws on client-centred ways of working that focus on the person's own priorities.
She also uses cognitive behavioural ideas to help spot unhelpful thinking and try different behaviours. For people carrying painful memories or overwhelm, Joanna includes methods that address trauma and emotional patterns. She takes time to build trust and to slow the pace if a topic feels too big.
The focus is on safety and on practical steps people can try between sessions. Joanna works with a broad range of concerns, including relationship and intimacy issues, grief, sleep and eating difficulties, anger, career and the challenges of caregiving. She also supports people facing identity concerns such as LGBT-related matters.
Her aim is to help people regain steadiness and clearer choices.
Approaches and online support that suit your life
Joanna draws on client-centred work that focuses on what matters most to the person in front of her. This approach means conversations are led by the client's priorities and pace, and plans are built around real-life goals and concerns.She also uses cognitive behavioural therapy, which helps people recognise unhelpful thoughts and try small behavioural changes. CBT can be useful for anxiety, mood difficulties and practical day-to-day coping. For trauma-related concerns she incorporates methods that work with emotional memories and responses, helping to reduce distress tied to past events.
Finding the right approach is collaborative. Joanna will discuss options with the client and adapt methods as needs, goals and preferences become clearer. The plan can change as work progresses, with a focus on what helps the person feel steadier and more able to manage challenges.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to fit different schedules. Video is useful for fuller conversation, phone works well when bandwidth is limited, live chat can be a quick check-in, and messaging supports ongoing reflection between appointments. These options aim to make therapy more flexible and easier to fit around work, family and daily life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Also listed
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 9 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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