Welcome to Indlela

Indlela (i-ndle-la) Zulu word meaning path, way, journey, resource, direction.

Sawubona and Hello! My name is Ayanda and I’m a BACP registered Integrative Counsellor based in South East London (SE1). I offer long and short term therapy as well as soundingboard sessions.

Through my practice, I support clients to reconnect to and re-member themselves.

Picture of Ayanda Dlamini-Wolff, MBACP. A portrait shot of a woman with brown skin and black locs wearing a black necklace and red top. Looking directly at the camera

Are you living as yourself or what it took for you to survive?

In my practice, how you are feeling is understood as a signal: a signal that something within you needs to be listened to.

Slowly.

Carefully.

With curiosity and compassion.

Often how we feel now is linked to what we have lived through. When experiences of harm, overwhelm or not being fully seen are repeated or left unacknowledged, they don’t disappear. Over time, they can start to shape how we see ourselves, how we relate to others and how we move through the world. We live and see ourselves according to what it took for us to survive rather than who we are.

This can show up as us feeling

  • Anxious

  • Depressed

  • Ashamed

  • Overwhelmed

  • Lost or “off”

  • Finding it difficult to ask for help

  • Finding it difficult to trust yourself or others

  • Feeling like a fraud or imposter

  • Feeling like we don’t know ourselves

  • Like your value is based on what you do – for a living or for others

Although not exhaustive, these feelings are not fixed identities but signals pointing to experiences that may not yet have had space to be understood or adaptations that no longer resonate with who you are becoming.

Making sense of what you carry

In our work together, we can begin to make sense of these signals so they become more understandable, less overwhelming, and more workable in your everyday life. In our sessions, we slow things down enough to begin noticing what is happening beneath the surface.

This may involve gently exploring:

  • How you experience your emotions

  • Patterns that repeat in relationships - with yourself, others and wider society

  • How past experiences may be shaping your current experience

  • What has helped you cope

  • What may support you to feel more steady and trusting of yourself

This isn’t about rushing for insight or forcing surface-level change. Our work is about empowering you to create a shift from a place of clarity and alignment with yourself.

You can click here to learn more about my approach and training.

I offer two ways of working, depending on what feels most helpful right now. Both are rooted in helping you make sense of your emotional experience, using that clarity to shape a life that feels more aligned with who you are.

Counselling

Counselling offers an ongoing space to explore your emotional experience over time.

This may be helpful if you are looking for:

  • a space to explore long-standing patterns

  • a consistent therapeutic relationship

  • deeper integration and longer term change

This can be a slower process where understanding unfolds gradually and through the work we do together. This work can be shorter (6-12 sessions) or longer term with the length of our work being confirmed during our assessment session.

An initial assessment session (75-90min) costs £120.

Subsequent 50min sessions cost £80 per session.

Soundingboard sessions

Soundingboard sessions are focused and one-off 90min spaces for moments when something feels stuck, unclear or difficult to think through alone. They are not counselling or coaching sessions but a reflective space to think out loud, explore different angles, and begin to hear your own thinking more clearly again.

You might use this session when:

  • you are facing a decision and feel stuck

  • something feels emotionally or mentally tangled

  • you want clarity before taking a next step

  • you need space to hear yourself think

I support you to make sense of what is happening in a way that brings clarity and perspective. You will also take your own notes during the session, decide your next steps and how you will support yourself with these.

A 30min follow-up session is available within 12 months of the initial session if this is helpful.

A 90min Soundingboard session costs £120

A 30min follow-up session costs £48

If you are interested in counselling or soundingboard sessions, you can book a free intro call with me below to discuss your needs and ask any questions you have.

You can also find me on Instagram and TikTok where the content I post is focused on offering questions to aid self-reflection. These videos can help to give you a sense of my style and how I work.

Why “Indlela”?

Indlela is a Zulu word meaning “journey,” but also “resource” or “way of doing something.” It reflects the way I understand my work. It is both a steady process of making sense of lived experience and also honouring what has helped you get here: all the ways you have adapted, coped, and made meaning along the way, even when things have felt hard.

My role is to walk alongside you, facilitating your exploration. This means working with all of who you are – your mind as well as your body and your spirit. This also means recognising the impact your wider social context has had on you and how this may have shaped, and continues to shape, how you feel, know and move through the world.

How we could work together

Ready to get in touch?

Book an intro call below