Derrel Drinnan, AASW

Derrel Drinnan is an AASW social worker with more than 20 years of professional experience supporting people through life's challenges. She combines formal social work training with years of lived experience and a compassionate outlook shaped by a Christian worldview, offering practical guidance and quiet encouragement to those seeking change.

Derrel has particular experience helping people manage stress, anxiety, grief and loss, and major life transitions. She also works with issues such as self-esteem, motivation and compassion fatigue, and offers support around abandonment, codependency, guilt and shame, and end-of-life and hospice concerns. Her practice emphasises strengths-based and person-centred principles, recognising that individuals often carry the resources for their own healing and growth.

In session she draws on a range of evidence-based techniques, including motivational interviewing to build motivation for change, solution-focused strategies to identify practical steps forward, trauma-informed methods to recognise the impacts of past hurt, and emotional regulation strategies to help manage overwhelming feelings. She aims to create an open, respectful space where thoughts and feelings can be explored without judgement.

Derrel invites people to take the first step when they are ready and to consider whether her approach feels like the right fit for their journey.

Evidence-based approaches for online therapy

Derrel uses person-centred and strengths-based practice to help people explore their values and build on existing strengths. This approach focuses on listening, identifying personal resources and supporting practical steps that fit each person’s life, which can be especially helpful for issues like self-esteem, life transitions and finding purpose.

She also employs motivational interviewing to increase readiness for change and solution-focused strategies to identify clear, achievable goals. These techniques are brief and action-oriented, making them well suited to online formats where clients want practical tools and progress.

Finding the right therapeutic approach is a collaborative process. Derrel works with clients to decide which methods best match their needs, goals and preferences, and adapts strategies over time as progress is made.

Online therapy with Derrel is offered by video call, phone session, live chat or text-based messaging, providing flexibility for busy schedules, mobility limitations or those in regional locations. These options allow therapists and appropriately qualified or registered professionals to work with people in ways that fit everyday life while maintaining a therapeutic focus and continuity of care.