Ketan Kulkarni

Kia Ora and Welcome. I am experienced in helping people work through challenges to create lasting change and live fulfilling lives. I enjoy working with adults and children. We will work collaboratively to achieve your therapy goals.

I am currently accepting new clients. 

Areas of Special Interest

Adults: Feeling stuck & overwhelmed, sadness, stress, depression, anxiety, anger, decision-making, life transitions, trauma, relationship issues.

Couples: Culturally responsive couples work for Indian/Asian/South Asian migrant couples who are struggling with relationship issues. Mixed culture relationships or culturally blended family relationships with negotiating differing values.

Children, adolescents, teenagers: sadness, shyness, bullying, anger, disruptive behaviour, depression, anxiety.

Counselling for Adults

We live in a complex world with many demands on us that affect our emotional wellbeing. I believe that every individual has within them their own creativity to work through these challenges and demands. I bring in all my experience and skills to help you access your own creativity, work through the barriers and experience contentment and satisfaction in life.

Counselling for Migrants

I have a special interest in working with immigrants adjusting to living in New Zealand and who may be experiencing struggles due to cultural differences in workplaces; in family and personal values; and in parenting, etc. I also help children and teenagers of 1st generation immigrants with the challenges of balancing their own cultural values while integrating Kiwi values.

Counselling for Children

Children also experience distress that gets communicated either in their behaviour (aggression, disruptiveness, attention struggles) or their emotions (anger, depression and anxiety). This usually creates frustration and worry for you as a parent. I help children give expression to their emotions and needs in insightful ways so they can continue to be curious and creative in order to improve the quality of their relationships to themselves, with family, with peers and school.

I am experienced in helping children of all ages negotiate the trials of childhood and will connect with them empathically and kindly. Play is the language of children and play-based, creative, non-directive and expressive therapeutic interactions help in generating lasting change for them. I work hard to balance providing children their autonomy during sessions, while also empowering parents to support the gains their children make in therapy.

My overarching therapy is child-led, client-centred and non directive. I also add to this style two specific modalities based on suitability.

• Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children with Externalising Behaviours (RFP-): This is a limited session, evidence based treatment for children between 6 years and 12 years. who are expressing behavioural struggles, such as irritability, non-compliance, verbal aggression, lying, mean or unkind behaviour.
• Sandtray work: Sandtray work is a creative modality that utilises miniatures of objects to help young children identify, express, experience or implicitly regulate their underlying emotional needs in a thoughtfully curated therapeutic framework witnessed non-judgmentally by a therapist. I am currently undertaking ongoing training and supervision requirements through the Sandplay Therapy Association of New Zealand and Australia (STANZA).

A therapeutic needs assessment that involves between 3-4 sessions is initially conducted with the child and the parent(s) to determine if RFP-C or sandtray work are suitable treatments. A treatment focus is then clarified collaboratively with the parent and child and subsequent therapy sessions are usually a combination of child sessions and parent sessions to address the treatment foci. 

Therapeutic Approach

My approach to therapy is collaborative and creative. We will focus on developing a safe and supportive therapeutic relationship to create long term change. I have worked with a diverse range of people and I bring in all my experience and skill to help you achieve your therapy goals.

About Me

I have lived in New Zealand since 2006 and have worked in community health organizations, addiction rehabilitation and private practice.

I have helped adults with anger, personal and professional relationships, emotions (sadness, depression, anxiety) and addictions. I have worked for several years helping children, adolescents and teenagers experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties and have also worked with parents in developing effective parenting techniques to guide behaviour positively.