Alison Keane – Clinical Counsellor, Psychotherapist and Mindfulness  Teacher

I am an experienced, registered Brisbane counsellor and psychotherapist who uses mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) in my work with individuals and couples.

My one hour therapy sessions follow a traditional pathway of supportive conversation and therapeutic challenge. If you are experiencing anxiety, stress or depression I may talk to you about the benefits of mindfulness and teach you accessible ways to try mindfulness as a way of taking good safe care of yourself. However, this doesn’t always happen in my sessions.

As a former MBSR teacher and hatha yoga teacher I am qualified and trained in teaching lifestyle mindfulness, restorative and yin yoga, therapeutic body scan and mind and breath-based practices to help in the management of stress. 

Alison Keane PACFA (reg 21476) counsellor, psychotherapist & mindfulness teacher

Counselling and Psychotherapy

I have a private counselling practice in Brisbane’s inner north-west. Here I support couples with their relationships and also work with people who experience anxiety, stress and depression.

How do I work with clients?

I use therapeutic conversation that includes thoughtful and compassionate challenge, insight and a mindful presence alongside therapy approaches such as CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), narrative and psycho-dynamic therapy. When working with couples I see the relationship as the ‘client’ and with this in mind I may support you and your partner using a traditional family systems approach combined with mindfulness.

I began training as a relationship counsellor at Relationships Australia in 1992 and have been a qualified counsellor since 1995. I undergo regular professional development to stay up to date in my work and this includes a Counselling Masters (MSSc), and training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

My therapeutic work includes supporting people experiencing post-traumatic stress, grief and loss and suicide postvention, and those wanting to explore their spirituality.

Mindfulness

I have been teaching and guiding the practice of mindfulness in Brisbane since 2007. As a psychotherapist, hatha yoga teacher and having my own meditation practice I was curious whether there was a way I could combine gentle yoga-style movement practices and meditation in my work as a therapist. I already knew how beneficial all of these wellbeing pathways had been in my own life.

In 2007 with these thoughts in mind I travelled to northern California to study Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) under the direction of Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Jon Kabat-Zinn.*

I returned home to become Brisbane’s first MBSR teacher and together with my counselling and yoga teaching delivered the the 8-week psycho education course in the Queensland capital for the next 12 years. In 2010 my Brisbane MBSR Course was featured in an award-winning SBS documentary called The Silent Epidemic.

In 2023, I use mindfulness based interventions (MBIs) in my counselling work to support people with their stress and to teach them the benefits of returning awareness to the present moment.

I am now one of a handful of Australian mindfulness teachers accredited with the international Center for Mindfulness in Medicine Healthcare and Society (CFM).**

My hope is that with my professional guidance and care you will become familiar with life-affirming mindful choices to help you build further on your clarity, resilience, insight and self-compassion. 

* Dr Kabat-Zinn developed the evidence-based psycho education course after distilling eastern mindfulness and compassion practices for western medicine and audiences in the late ‘seventies.

** The CFM is the international body involved in setting up global mindfulness teaching standards.