Avigail Abarbanel

I have been a psychotherapist in private practice since 1999. My first eleven years were in Canberra, Australia, and in 2010, I re-established my practice after moving to the Scottish Highlands, where I have been living and working ever since.

I am Senior Accredited with the BACP (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy), and I work with adult individuals, relationships, and families. I am also a group psychotherapist, experienced public speaker, training facilitator, writer, consultant, and clinical supervisor.

I see therapy not as a way to ‘fix’ broken objects, but as a process to support people to grow towards their potential. Since the introduction of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) by Dr Dan Siegel, there is no longer any excuse for psychology, mental health, or therapy to remain a mystery to people. People should have enough knowledge and confidence to ask for the therapy they need, and not settle for poor service. My short book, Therapy Without A Therapist, is all about that.

I publish short books deliberately. People reach out for self-help books usually when they are not doing so great, and their concentration and attention span might not be at their best. Someone once told me that good English is simple English, and I have always followed this principle in my writings. I believe that if writers are clear about what they are trying to communicate, they should be able to write clearly and accessibly, without dumbing things down and insulting readers’ intelligence.

I am passionate about human potential, and I know it is not that difficult to start to move in that direction if we had the will for it. I feel saddened to see that what we do best as a species is repeat patterns. In therapy people grow and rewire any patterns that were wired into them from the past. I think we can do this as a species as well. I am also passionate about sharing knowledge. I think everyone needs to know what people in my profession know. Unlike many other field, psychology is everyone’s business.

If you want to read some of my essays have a look at my Substack Account . I call it ‘Fully Human Essays’ (https://avigail.substack.com/). Everything on my Substack account is free to read. Some of my writings are also on Academia.edu for readers who are familiar with the platform.

I have always loved science fiction, and (some) fantasy, and my favourite author is the late Ursula Le Guin. For those who are interested, my Myers-Briggs personality type is INFP. It means that I am values-driven, and idealistic. I stopped apologising for this many years ago… I am also an activist for Palestinian human rights. As a former Israeli citizen, born and raised there, granddaughter of holocaust survivors, and former soldier in the Israeli army, it is my moral and ethical duty to support the Palestinians, and oppose Israeli settler-colonialism.

If you read any of my books, please do leave feedback. It is very helpful to other readers. It would also be nice to hear from you if you want to contact me. My contact details, and more information about me and my work are on my work website: www.fullyhuman.co.uk

Thank very much you for reading!!