About Sugandika
Dr. Sugandika Subawickrama is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Licensed Professional Counselor with two decades of experience. She practices in New Jersey and has worked in both national and international settings.
She helps people who are dealing with depression, anxiety, stress, addiction, and life transitions. She creates a calm, nonjudgmental space where clients can talk through difficult feelings. Sessions focus on what matters most to the person in front of her.
Background and approach
Conversation is practical and goal-oriented while still allowing space for feeling and reflection. Her background includes work across different regions, which shaped a flexible approach to care. That experience informs how she adapts methods to fit each person’s situation and culture.
She aims to make therapy understandable and useful in day-to-day life. In sessions she uses a mix of client-centered listening, cognitive behavioral techniques, and mindfulness practices. She may also draw on motivational interviewing and narrative approaches when helpful.
The goal is to find tools that reduce distress and build coping skills. People come to her for a range of concerns, including relationship strain, grief, parenting stress, work pressure, eating and sleep problems, and ADHD-related struggles. She also supports people dealing with trauma, substance issues, and compassion fatigue.
Dr. Subawickrama uses straightforward language and practical steps so progress feels tangible.
Therapeutic approaches and how they work online
Dr. Subawickrama often uses client-centered therapy, which centers sessions on the person’s own goals and experience. This approach involves attentive listening, reflecting what the person says, and helping them set practical steps to move forward.She also uses cognitive behavioral therapy, a hands-on method that looks at how thoughts influence feelings and actions. CBT is useful for anxiety, depression, stress, sleep problems, and patterns like avoidance or unhelpful thinking. Mindfulness therapy is another tool she brings in to help people build moment-to-moment awareness and reduce reactivity to stress.
Finding the right mix of methods is part of the work together. The therapist will talk with each person about goals, preferences, and daily life. That conversation guides which approaches are tried and how they are adapted over time.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video calls recreate a face-to-face conversation for deeper exchanges. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging allow shorter check-ins, ongoing support between sessions, and flexibility during busy days. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or other routines.
Questions people ask
What kinds of issues does she help with?
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What session formats are offered?
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What this counselor works with
Also listed
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- New Jersey, New York, Arizona, Oregon, Nevada, Virginia
- Languages
- English, Sinhala