ABOUT DAN ADOBAW
I want counselling to feel deeply human.
A place where you can be honest, feel understood, and be challenged with care, not analysed from across the room.
Counsellor & Psychotherapist · PACFA Clinical Member · Sydney
Hi, I'm Dan
Warmth, honesty and emotional precision
I’m a counsellor and psychotherapist based in Sydney, working primarily with couples and individuals. Before training as a therapist, my professional life included education and the arts, and I have always been interested in people, relationships, communication and the stories we make sense of our lives through.
What matters most to me in counselling is creating a relationship where people can be real. You do not need to impress me, use therapeutic language or arrive knowing exactly what is wrong. We can begin with what is happening and work from there.
I work primarily with couples and individuals navigating relational distress, emotional disconnection, overwhelm and patterns that have become difficult to shift.
I am interested in the visible problem, but also in what is happening underneath it. Anger may carry hurt. Withdrawal may protect against overwhelm or failure. A demand for reassurance may hold a fear of no longer mattering. When those deeper experiences become clearer, behaviour often begins to make more sense.
That understanding does not remove accountability. It gives us a more useful place from which change can begin.
How I think about therapy
Feeling understood can make change more possible
Therapy should offer more than advice delivered from a distance. I see it as a collaborative relationship where we can slow down what usually happens too quickly, give language to what has been difficult to say, and make room for new responses.
I bring warmth and curiosity, but I will not simply nod along. Challenge has a place in therapy when it is grounded in respect and offered without shame.
WHY RELATIONSHIPS MATTER
We are shaped in connection
Relationships can be where our deepest fears and longings become most visible. They can awaken old questions about whether we matter, whether others will stay, whether our needs are too much, or whether closeness is safe.
The problem is often not one person or the other. It is the painful cycle both people get caught in.
MY APPROACH
Relational, attachment-informed and trauma-informed
Emotionally Focused Therapy
My couples work is strongly informed by EFT / EFCT, an approach that focuses on emotional bonds, protective patterns and the ways partners reach for safety and connection.
Attachment-informed
I pay attention to how experiences of closeness, disconnection and dependence shape what people expect from relationships and how they respond under threat.
Trauma-informed
I work with awareness that protective responses may have developed for good reason. Pace, choice, emotional safety and the impact of the nervous system matter.
Person-centred and collaborative
You are not a problem to be interpreted. Your lived experience, values and goals help guide the work.
Qualification and Membership
Professional Background
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Postgraduate in Counselling and Psychotherapy, Western Sydney University
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Clinical Member, Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA)
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Emotionally Focused Therapy-informed couples work
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Attachment-informed and trauma-informed practice
Professional development is ongoing, with a particular focus on couples therapy, attachment and trauma-informed relational work.