Dr Zounish Rafique

Dr Zounish Rafique

Dr Zounish Rafique qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 2007 from the University of Sheffield. She has also completed a Post Graduate Diploma PGDip in Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT).  

Experienced Adult Mental Health Psychologist 

Since qualifying, she has worked with adults in the NHS within Community Mental Health Teams and Primary Care, in both England and Scotland. She has more than 20 years experience.

While the people she works with have been labelled with the whole range of diagnoses used in Adult Mental Health Services, Dr Zounish Rafique largely understands people’s difficulties as consequences of, and attempts to, survive traumatic experiences. 

Clinical Psychologist offers Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) too

As well as her training to become a Clinical Psychologist, Dr Zounish Rafique has completed additional therapy trainings, including completing a PGDip in Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT).

In her work, she aims to create a safe space where people feel heard and understood, without judgement. She appreciates that coming to therapy can provoke some anxiety and feel like a big step. She does not expect people to share everything immediately, or at all, as it can take time to build the trust to do so. 

She works with individual needs drawing on different approaches, to allow us to make sense of their experiences, process emotions in relation to these and create new narratives.

Psychologist offers Different Therapy Approaches 

Working with different peoples’ individual needs, Dr Zounish Rafique draws on different approaches, to allow her and the person him/herself to make sense of people’s experiences, process the emotions in relation to these and create new narratives.  She aims to develop a collaborative relationship with clients through setting goals, eliciting feedback throughout and respecting and validating a client’s experience of their inner world and life. 

She offers:

• Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)
• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
• and Structured Clinical Management (SCM)

Dr Zounish Rafique takes a trauma-focused approach with most of the people she works with. She focuses on how our experiences have shaped the way we view ourselves and our world, how we learnt to survive and respond to our emotions. Whether she is using CAT or not, she will help you notice patterns in the way that you relate to people, yourself and to her. We build this understanding together and use it to think about what might be happening in the ‘room’ with her, as well as what might come up in the future. Working towards a recognition of these patterns often leads naturally to change in itself.

Understands Impact of Cultural Influences on Mental Health

Growing up in Britain with a Pakistani background, Dr Zounish Rafique is interested in thinking about culture-specific difficulties including generational differences and how these impact people.  

Dr Zounish Rafique has been involved in research looking at depression in Pakistani women, as well as a study looking at people’s experiences of forced marriages.  She is also interested in the potential limitations of Western models of psychological distress and alternative ways of working.

She is passionate about offering Psychology in the real world.

Published in academia

She has published peer reviewed articles:

• considering Adopting New Identities When a Partner has Depression ;
• as well as in the renowned journal the British Journal of Clinical Psychology  An exploration of the presence and content of metacognitive beliefs about depressive rumination in Pakistani women.

Clinical Supervision Offered to Psychologist Colleagues and others

As well as offering therapy sessions, Dr Zounish Rafique is keen to support the professional development of colleagues by providing psychological therapy and through supervision and mentoring.