Bridget Hannaford, PACFA

Bridget Hannaford is a PACFA counsellor in Australia with five years' experience. She works with stress, anxiety, relationships, trauma and abuse, grief and parenting concerns, and helps people understand how family patterns affect current life.

She often addresses family of origin issues and attachment concerns. Bridget uses talk-based work alongside body-focused approaches to notice how stress appears in the body. Sessions include practical skills for managing intense emotions and everyday worries.

Bridget draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people notice unhelpful thoughts and rebuild routines that support better mood. She also uses Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills for emotion regulation and calm responses.

Attachment-Based and Client-Centred ideas guide how she approaches relationships and family patterns. This includes looking at roles people grew up with and how those roles influence communication, closeness and expectations now.

She has worked with people affected by domestic violence, betrayal and other painful experiences, and with those facing migration, cross-cultural issues, separation and blended family challenges. Bridget supports grief work and helps people process loss while managing day-to-day responsibilities.

People who come away from her sessions usually have clearer ways to notice triggers, communicate needs, and try different behaviours. To start, she asks about current priorities and what patterns from the past are most troubling right now.

Therapeutic approaches used in online sessions