Donna Mcallister, BACP

Donna Mcallister uses a person-focused counselling style to help people untangle overwhelming feelings. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Therapeutic Counselling (Hons) and works as a BACP-registered counsellor in the United Kingdom. Donna draws on practical methods to help people manage stress, anxiety and low mood. Her work often looks at how relationships and attachment shape current difficulties. She uses Attachment-Based Therapy to explore patterns from past connections and how they affect trust and closeness now. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, is used to spot unhelpful thinking and try small, realistic changes in behaviour. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy - ACT - features when people want to build values-led goals and learn skills to live alongside difficult emotions. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy - DBT - is offered for emotion regulation and practical coping skills. Donna blends these approaches with a warm, client-centred way of working so sessions stay focused on what matters to each person. She has three years of professional experience helping with issues including relationship stress, grief, addiction, trauma, parenting strain, eating and sleeping difficulties, ADHD and career-related worry. Additional areas she supports include body image, caring responsibilities, chronic illness and intimacy-related concerns. Sessions aim to be straightforward. Donna helps people name their difficulties, try out strategies between meetings, and review what helps. The first step is often deciding what a better day would look like and planning small steps towards it.

How Donna's approaches translate to online therapy

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people clarify what matters to them and take small actions even when feelings are difficult. It suits worries like anxiety, low mood and life changes where values-based goals can provide direction.

Attachment-Based Therapy looks at patterns from early relationships and how they affect current trust, closeness and conflict. This approach can help people understand repeated relationship difficulties and build different ways of relating.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - CBT - focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviours to reduce distress. It is practical and useful for anxiety, depressive thinking and sleep or eating problems.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. Donna will discuss these methods with each person and decide together which fits best for their needs, goals and preferences. That collaborative process means plans can change as progress is made.

Online therapy offers flexibility for people with busy schedules or who prefer not to travel. Video calls recreate face-to-face conversation, phone sessions use less bandwidth, and live chat or text messaging can be used for shorter check-ins or ongoing support between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, caring duties or health needs while keeping the focus on practical outcomes and steady change.