Bonjour and Welcome to Donnarel Counselling

Bonjour, and welcome to Donnarel Counselling.

My name is Arnaud Domange, and Donnarel Counselling has grown from many years of working closely with people, bodies, emotions, stories, and the complexity of human experience.

My background brings together psychology, counselling, body-based work, crisis support, and many years in therapeutic practice. I am currently completing my Honours year in psychology after graduating with a Bachelor of Psychology and Counselling from the Cairnmillar Institute, with a double major in psychology and counselling. Alongside my studies and counselling work, I also bring more than two decades of experience as a massage therapist, including many years working in elite sport.

At the heart of my work is a simple belief: people are more than their symptoms, struggles, behaviours, or diagnoses. Human beings are complex, relational, embodied, and deeply shaped by their life experiences. Counselling, for me, is not about fixing people. It is about creating a safe, respectful, and compassionate space where people can feel seen, heard, and supported as they make sense of themselves and their lives.

Donnarel Counselling offers support for people navigating anxiety, emotional distress, addiction and recovery, relationship difficulties, life transitions, grief, trauma, self-worth, identity, and the broader challenges of being human.

Sessions are available online and in private practice in Thornbury and Northcote, as well as in Panton Hill, where sessions can take place in a quiet natural setting at a stable with horses nearby. When appropriate, walk-and-talk sessions can offer another way to engage with therapy, allowing reflection, movement, the body, and the surrounding environment to support the therapeutic process.

In many ways, therapy is about the mind in movement. From a psychodynamic perspective, what is held within us often finds expression through feeling, memory, body, relationship, and action. Sometimes walking side by side can create a different kind of space for thoughts and emotions to emerge.

My approach is grounded in person-centred and humanistic counselling, while also drawing on trauma-informed practice, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, psychodynamic thinking, Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, and the connection between mind, body, and nervous system. I work with curiosity, warmth, honesty, and respect for each person’s pace and story.

I see myself as a person first and a therapist second. My role is not to stand above or apart from the people I work with, but to meet them with humanity, care, and professional responsibility.

Donnarel Counselling is a place for reflection, connection, and growth.

Welcome.