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, couples and children. We will work collaboratively to achieve your therapy goals.

I am currently accepting new clients. 

Areas of Special Interest

Adults: Navigating feeling stuck or overwhelmed, sadness, stress, depression, anxiety, anger, decision-making, life transitions, trauma, and relationship concerns.

Couples: Specialising in culturally responsive support for Indian, Asian, and South Asian migrant couples facing relationship difficulties. I also assist mixed-culture and blended families in navigating different values and expectations.

Children, adolescents, teenagers: Supporting young people with sadness, shyness, bullying, anger, disruptive behaviours, depression, and anxiety.

Counselling for Adults

Modern life can be demanding and complex, often impacting our emotional wellbeing. I believe every person has the creativity and inner resources to overcome these challenges. Using my experience and skills, I support you in tapping into your strengths, overcoming barriers, and finding greater contentment and satisfaction in life.

Counselling for Migrants

I have a special focus on supporting immigrants as they adjust to life in New Zealand, including navigating cultural differences in workplaces, family, personal values, and parenting. I also work with children and teens from first-generation immigrant families, helping them balance their own cultural identity while embracing Kiwi values.

Counselling for Children

Children often express their distress through behaviours—like aggression, disruptiveness, or attention difficulties—or through their emotions, such as anger, depression, or anxiety. This can be challenging for parents. I help children find healthy ways to express their needs and emotions, fostering curiosity, creativity, and stronger relationships with themselves, their families, and peers.

With experience supporting children of all ages, I connect empathetically and kindly, using play-based, creative, and expressive therapeutic techniques to encourage lasting change. I aim to balance children’s autonomy with empowering parents to reinforce progress made during therapy.

My overarching therapeutic style is child-led, client-centred, and non-directive, complemented by two specific modalities when appropriate.

• Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children with Externalising Behaviours (RFP-C): A short-term, evidence-based treatment for children aged 6–12 who are experiencing behavioural challenges such as irritability, non-compliance, verbal aggression, dishonesty, or unkind behaviours.
• Sandtray work: Sandtray work is a creative modality that utilises miniatures 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).

An initial therapeutic needs assessment (3–4 sessions) is conducted with both child and parent(s) to determine suitability for RFP-C or sandtray therapy. We then clarify treatment goals together, and ongoing sessions usually include a mix of child and parent appointments to address these goals collaboratively.

Therapeutic Approach

My therapeutic approach is collaborative and creative, centring on building a safe and supportive relationship to foster lasting change. Drawing on my diverse experience, I am committed to helping you achieve your goals in therapy.

About Me

Since 2006, I have called New Zealand home, working across community health, addiction rehabilitation, and private practice settings.

I’ve supported adults dealing with anger, relationship issues, emotional difficulties (like sadness, depression, and anxiety), and addictions. I also have experience working with children, adolescents, and teenagers facing emotional and behavioural challenges, and I enjoy helping parents build positive, effective strategies for guiding their children’s behaviour.