Katia Erokhina

A conversation with Katia Erokhina

• What led you to choose psychotherapy or counselling as a profession?

  My path to psychotherapy wasn’t a straight one. After immigrating to Australia, I studied accounting and worked as an accountant, but I was always far more curious about people than numbers. My own experiences of migration, relationships, change and later discovering my neurodivergence deepened that curiosity. Finding Gestalt therapy felt like finding a language for something I had long been interested in: how we become who we are through our relationships, experiences and the worlds we live in.

• Which philosophical approaches have influenced your professional development?

  My work has been strongly influenced by Gestalt therapy, particularly its existential, phenomenological and relational foundations. I am drawn to the idea that people cannot be understood separately from their relationships, environments and wider social context. Humanistic and neurodiversity-affirming perspectives have further shaped my practice, supporting an approach grounded in curiosity, dialogue and respect for different ways of experiencing and making sense of the world.

• Which particular aspects of health or the human journey are you interested in?

  I’m particularly interested in how we find a way of being ourselves while staying connected to others. This includes relationships and intimacy, belonging, identity, neurodivergence, chronic illness, major life transitions and the ways we adapt when life asks something unexpected of us. I’m also fascinated by how our relationships and environments shape us, and what becomes possible when we begin to understand ourselves with greater curiosity rather than judgement.

• What methods do you use?

  My work is grounded in Gestalt psychotherapy and a relational, trauma-informed and neuroaffirming approach. With neurodivergent people, I can also offer a more structured approach using psychoeducation, collaborative problem-solving, executive-function support and practical strategies around sensory needs, routines, communication, overwhelm and everyday functioning. In couples work, I integrate EFT, the Gottman Method and Relational Life Therapy (RLT) within a relational Gestalt foundation.

• When do you think the client will start to feel that progress is being made?

  This varies from person to person and depends on what brings you to therapy. Some people notice a shift within the first few sessions through greater understanding, relief or having something practical to work with. Longer-standing relational or emotional difficulties often take more time. I regularly check in about how therapy is going so we can notice what is changing, what is helpful and whether we need to adjust our approach.

• How has therapy made a difference in your life?

  Therapy has been an important part of my own life for many years. It has helped me understand myself and my relationships more deeply, navigate significant changes and losses, and become more aware of the ways I adapt to the world around me. It has also taught me that meaningful change is rarely neat or linear. My experience of being a client continues to shape my respect for how vulnerable, challenging and sometimes transformative the therapeutic process can be.

• What do you like most about being a therapist?

  What I value most is being able to sit alongside people in experiences that can feel painful, confusing or lonely. There is something deeply meaningful to me about creating a steady and supportive space where someone does not have to carry what they are going through alone, and where their pain can be met with care, curiosity and without judgement.

• Do you ever have 'bad hair' days?

  Absolutely. Some days my hair has its own therapeutic process, and I’ve learned not to interfere with it.

• What do you think is the most significant problem we face, in the world today?

  Disconnection. From each other, from our communities, from the natural world and sometimes from ourselves. We are increasingly expected to function as self-sufficient individuals, while humans are fundamentally relational. I think many of the difficulties we face become harder when people feel isolated, unseen or as though they have to manage everything alone.

• Can you share the name of a book, film, song, event or work of art that inspires you?

  There are a few very different things that inspire me. Irvin Yalom’s writing has stayed with me for years! I love his willingness to sit with the big, uncomfortable questions of being human: meaning, mortality, freedom, responsibility and connection.
  I also love the movie "Interstellar". Something about the exploration of time completely fascinates me and how small we are in the scale of the universe, and yet how enormously significant our relationships can feel within one human life. And then there are white reindeer calves. I once came across an account describing how white reindeer calves can sleep incredibly deeply, sometimes remaining asleep when others are already alert and on the move. I found this so moving. They are not failing at being reindeer; they are simply different and may move through the world differently.