Avi Lior Counselling

Person and Emotion Centred Therapy

My therapeutic work is grounded in an organism-centered framework that understands distress not primarily as disorder, diagnosis, or faulty cognition, but as unresolved energy activation within a living system. Rather than focusing only on symptom management or narrative restructuring, I work at the level of emotional charge, embodied experience, and interrupted action patterns — where many difficulties are actually generated and maintained.

At the core of this approach is a simple premise: when emotional and relational experiences cannot be fully processed — through expression, boundary, protest, grief, or contact — the organism retains unresolved charge. Over time, this charge shapes perception, reaction patterns, attachment responses, and identity conclusions. Therapy, in this model, is less about adding techniques and more about removing blocks to completion and restoring natural regulatory capacity.

In sessions, I track activation at its source rather than working only with the secondary thoughts and behaviours that appear after the system has been triggered. This means attending closely to shifts in breath, muscle tone, impulse, and affect, and helping clients safely contact the underlying charge beneath anxiety, anger, despair, or shutdown. Instead of immediately regulating or reframing these states, we develop the capacity to stay present with them long enough for their underlying action tendencies to become clear.

Often, what emerges are unfinished organismic movements: a boundary that could not be set, a protest that was suppressed, a reaching impulse that was not received, or grief that had no witness. When these patterns are recognized and supported under safe relational conditions, they can move toward completion. The result is not catharsis for its own sake, but functional discharge and reorganization.

A defining feature of my work is prioritizing reception before intervention. Many people have never had their emotional intensity met without withdrawal, control, or reinterpretation. Providing steady, non-retaliatory, non-collapsing presence allows the nervous system to risk fuller expression. This relational reception is often the missing ingredient that allows charge to metabolize. Techniques are used — but in service of process, not as overlays imposed on it. Timing and pacing matter.

While I am clinically informed, my orientation is functional rather than diagnosis-driven. Instead of organizing treatment around labels, I organize it around processes: where charge is held, which action patterns are incomplete, what triggers activation spikes, where expression collapses or overflows, and what reception or boundary conditions are missing. This keeps therapy close to lived experience and adaptable to the individual organism.

A significant portion of my work addresses attachment activation — especially patterns where bond-seeking and self-protection collide. Rather than pathologizing these responses, I help clients understand them as lawful survival programs operating under high charge. Integration involves reducing how intensely and how quickly the nervous system reacts to relational triggers, increasing tolerance for uncertainty, restoring boundary capacity, and developing the ability to reach without collapse and guard without isolation. This is built through paced exposure, embodied awareness, protest completion, and safe relational contact — not insight alone.

I view psychological health not simply as symptom reduction but as restored vitality and expressive freedom. When charge resolves and blocked processes complete, people do not just feel calmer — they feel more alive, more flexible, more creative, and more capable of authentic contact. Therapy becomes less about managing oneself and more about inhabiting oneself.

This work is experiential, collaborative, and responsive. It respects the intelligence of the organism and proceeds at a pace that supports integration rather than overwhelm. My role is not to fix clients, but to accompany, orient, and stabilize the conditions under which their own system can reorganize — toward coherence, completion, and real contact.

The areas I broadly focus on are:

Emotional pain
Depression
Anxiety
Sexual abuse
Addiction
Trauma and Grief - integrating pain and loss
Disassociation
Childhood trauma
Intrusive Thoughts/OCD
Parts work
Young people and children

In Person Counselling

Telehealth

North Fitzroy

avidliorcounselling@gmail.com

Client testimonials

“I’ve been a client of Avi’s for over two years and cannot recommend him more highly as a therapist. His approach is unique and sometimes surprising, but the changes in myself and my life speak volumes. I feel like myself, calm, and centred. All of which I’d not experienced before. And my capacity to do things that I previously found nigh on impossible has grown exponentially. Friends and family have also noticed positive changes, commenting on how relaxed I am now. Before seeing Avi, I had seen several different psychologists and even a psychiatrist over the years. I never felt seen and they only offered band-aid solutions to my struggles. If you’re looking for someone to help you unpack and resolve trauma, including childhood SA, you’ve come to the right place. Thank you, Avi. You’ve saved my life in more ways than one.”

“My experience with Avi was extremely positive. His ability to switch between formal and informal communcation styles during sessions helped create a comfortable and familiar environment. Having no prior experience with these types of sessions i was still able to reach a level of vulnerability and understanding within the first week.”

“Avi helped me through the hardest point of my life and has been central in making me feel like myself again. After 3 years with Avi I can confidently say my mental state has never been better! I will always be grateful for the time we spent together and I am confident he can help others the way he helped me.”

“I have been working with Avi since June 2023, and I can honestly say that he has been an incredible support throughout my journey. He has helped me navigate and work through the trauma of my childhood, teenage years, and young adulthood, much of which I had spent years dismissing as ‘just things that happened’.
Avi has guided me through some very dificult situations with patience, understanding and genuine care. His compassion, insight and ability to create a safe space have made a profound difference in my life. I’m deeply grateful for everything he has helped me uncover and heal. I could not recommend him more highly.”

“I started working with Avi over 12 months ago. Having done therapy with two previous psychotherapists spanning over 30 years, Avi is the first to address and explain deep rooted post-traumatic stress issues including both sexual and emotional abuse.
After each session using both kind yet firm analysis, I am beginning to confront and understand them.
If you are committed and sincere about addressing your problems, look no further.”

“I have had anxiety and depression for a very long time and have seen a great many mental health professionals and in my opinion Avi is the very best by far.
He is deeply intuitive and uses a number of techniques to enable healing. It feels like he is reaching into your very soul to find and understand the problem and then fix it.
I am still working with Avi on my childhood trauma issues (and some adult ones too), but already I am happier and more carefree than I have ever been in my life.
I highly recommend Avi to anyone looking for a rare, highly talented and extraordinary therapist.”

In working with Avi, I have developed a stronger sense of self. He has helped me not only identify past trauma but also work towards freeing me from the role that trauma plays in my everyday life. I have found him very easy to talk to and personable which has been essential in allowing me to open up in our sessions and dig deeper. His method focuses on giving an internal, visual representation to past traumatic events or emotions. This has allowed me to interact and resolve issues related to those events and feelings. This approach is great to connect to these emotions in a more concrete way; by visualising how they look/ exist in myself, speaking directly to/ with them, rather than merely discussing them in conversation with a therapist. As a result, working with Avi has left me feeling internally more calm with a greater understanding of who I am and why I am so, as well as a sense of confidence and self assuredness.”

“Avi is an empathetic, highly skilled, non-judgemental counsellor.
He is able to guide and find the root causes of emotional and mental trauma, and provides guidance and strategies for positive outcomes.”