About

Mom, wife, daughter of immigrant parents, self care advocate, and healer. Those are just a few words to describe Sharmin Akhter, Founder of Wellness Within Counseling, LLC. Sharmin is a Philadelphia Based Licensed Clinician with over 10 years of experience. She graduated with her Masters Degree in Clinical Social Work from Temple University in 2012. For several years she worked in community mental health, serving underprivileged youth and families. In her role as a Medical Social worker, she provided grief counseling and psycho-education to families who were undergoing intensive medical treatments or mourning the loss of a loved one. She has also helped shape, develop and train new mental health programs throughout the state of Pennsylvania. Sharmin has provided consultation to other healthcare providers and supervised employees to help them attain clinical licensing. She has extensive training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (trained at the Beck Institute) and completed a 2 year training Systemic Family Therapy (trained at Center for Family Based Therapy).



Specialization

At Wellness Within Counseling, we take cultural competency very seriously to ensure that our clients of all backgrounds feel seen, respected, and understood. One of our areas of expertise is working with adult children of immigrants who struggle with the complexities of bicultural identity. We understand that navigating 2 or more cultures can feel heavy, confusing, and create tension in families and within the individual self. Our 1st and 2nd generation therapists use both a professional and lived/personal lens to help pull folks out of unhealthy patterns stemming from shame, guilt, and conflict to create depth, meaning and understanding. Our ultimate goal is to help you become your most authentic self.


we can help with

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Self-Esteem

  • Work-Life Balance

  • Decision-Making


  • Life Transition

  • Family Conflict

  • Grief/Loss

  • Relationship Issues

  • Cultural Identity/Confusion


ways WE CAN HELP

We use a wide range of modalities and implement only evidence/research based interventions. Below are a few of our most common methods:


  • CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) - A common type of talk therapy that helps individuals pinpoint and challenge negative thinking patterns and unhelpful behaviors that contribute to their day to day problems.

  • Mindfulness - This approach is heavily focused on creating awareness on the "here and now". It helps you tune in to your mind and body to become more aware of how you are responding to uncomfortable situations. You will learn to simply pay attention to thoughts and feelings without placing any judgement on them.

  • Psychodynamic - An intervention that uses self-reflection and self-examination to target unconscious thought processes to better understand how they manifest into behaviors.

  • Narrative - The goal of Narrative Therapy is to separate the person from the problem. By stepping out of the problem and reflecting back, one is able to gain different perspectives and attach new and empowering meaning to their stories.

  • Strengths Based - This intervention helps individuals recognize and draw from their positive attributes by reconnecting with their own internal strengths and resources.