Rate Michael Elwan

Hi, I’m Michael. I’m an award-winning Accredited Social Worker and therapist based in Australia, working with adults and couples who feel worn down, stuck, or quietly overwhelmed by life rather than broken by it.

Many of the people I support are not in obvious crisis. They are holding things together on the surface while carrying anxiety, grief, relationship strain, identity questions, burnout, or long years of responsibility underneath. Therapy becomes a place where they finally get to slow down and be met without judgement.

My approach is calm, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive. I draw on emotionally focused, narrative, mindfulness-based, and acceptance-based approaches. I care about helping you understand the patterns you are living inside, not just managing symptoms. Sessions focus on building clarity, emotional steadiness, and more grounded ways of relating to yourself and others.

My work is shaped by both professional experience and lived and living experience. Before becoming a therapist, I was a young carer for my father and later lived through the profound grief of losing loved ones to suicide. I know what it feels like to carry more than you should have to, and how invisible that can feel. Those experiences continue to guide how I sit with people in the room.

Alongside my clinical work, I bring formal training and professional accountability to the space we work in together. I am an Accredited Social Worker and a full member of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW), and a member of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy (AA-CBT). I am also completing a PhD in mental health. I share this not to overwhelm you with titles, but to reassure you that the care you receive here is grounded in both experience and professional standards.

My work has been recognised nationally, including being named the 2025 AASW Social Worker of the Year, receiving the WA Mental Health Award for Lived Experience Impact and Inspiration, and being a finalist for the Sir Ronald Wilson Leadership Award and the Barbara Hocking Memorial Award. I mention this not to impress, but to reassure you that I take this work seriously and hold it with care.

Outside the therapy room, I’m also a husband and father of two, which keeps me grounded in the everyday realities of relationships, responsibility, and the work it takes to stay connected.

If you are looking for therapy that feels thoughtful rather than rushed, honest without judgement, and grounded in dignity as much as change, you are very welcome here.