About Zahira
Zahira Virani is a counsellor who uses somatic principles alongside talking therapies to help people feel steadier in their lives. She combines body-aware techniques with person-centred work to support people facing stress, anxiety, relationship strain, grief and other pressing concerns. Zahira works in English and Gujarati and holds BACP registration, bringing six years of counselling experience in the United Kingdom.
Her sessions balance careful listening with practical steps people can try between meetings.
Background and approach
She draws on client-centred methods to keep the conversation focused on each person’s needs. Cognitive behavioural ideas are used when helpful to spot patterns and try small experiments that change thinking and behaviour. Zahira also uses attachment-based ideas to look at how early relationships affect present difficulties.
That can be useful for intimacy problems, abandonment worries, and ongoing patterns with partners or family. Dialectical approaches help when emotions feel overwhelming, offering ways to manage strong feelings without shutting down. People come to Zahira for many issues, including parenting strains, addiction concerns, body image and chronic health stress.
She supports work on sleep, eating, career choices, ADHD concerns, and compassion fatigue. Her style aims to be warm and collaborative, helping people work toward clearer goals. Sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging.
The therapy model is adapted to each person, with an emphasis on practical steps, bodily awareness and a kind, steady therapeutic presence.
How somatic and relational approaches work online
Somatic-informed work focuses on noticing bodily sensations and how they link to emotions. In practice this might mean slow breath awareness, gentle movement or noticing tension so people can learn new responses to stress. Attachment-based therapy looks at patterns in close relationships and how they shape feelings about safety and closeness, which can help with intimacy, abandonment concerns and repeating relationship cycles.Client-centred therapy keeps the work focused on the person’s own goals and experience. The counsellor offers empathic listening and reflection so people can make sense of their feelings and decide what changes to try. Zahira aims to combine these approaches, and she will discuss options with each person to find the best fit based on needs, goals and preferences in a collaborative way.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to make therapy more flexible. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions suit less visual interaction, and messaging can support short check-ins or ongoing contact between meetings. These options help people fit therapy around work, family life and mobility needs while keeping the focus on practical skills, bodily awareness and steady therapeutic support.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Trichotillomania
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 6 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English, Gujarati