Meet Asian Australian Counsellor: Bek La

We know that it's not always easy trying to work out which therapist we might like to work with: Because the decision isn't just about where they're located and when they're available, but there's a bit more of a human, relational element to the decision too.

So here at Shapes and Sounds, we want to help make that process just a little easier.

Every month, we'll be introducing a therapist from the Asian Australian Mental Health Practitioner List to help you gain a bit more insight into who you feel might be a good fit for you or someone that you know.

This month we're excited to connect you with Bek who is a counsellor offering services in Elsternwick, VIC and Telehealth Australia wide. We hope you enjoy connecting with Bek below!

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1. What led you to choosing mental health as a career?

Through a series of deeply personal events, I was brought face to face with my own internal patterns and challenges — the kind that quietly shape the way we move through life until we finally stop to look at them. That reckoning became the beginning of my own journey toward self-healing and acceptance, and working with my therapist during that time was transformative.

I had always known I would spend my life helping people. I just wasn't sure in what capacity. Before becoming a therapist, I worked as a nurse, and while that work was meaningful, I eventually felt called to the deeper, emotional and relational layers of being human. Each moment of awareness, each act of self-compassion, sends a ripple outward, moving us closer to a gentler, kinder and more compassionate world. I wanted my work to live in that space.

2. What is your unique cultural heritage?

Chinese-Vietnamese Australian

3. What are your areas of specialty and what kind of frameworks do you work from?

My approach to psychotherapy attends not only to the mind, but also to the body, the emotions, the nervous system, and the relationships that shape us.

That's because so much of what we carry can't always be understood or processed through words alone — it's held in how we feel, how we react, and how we relate.

Often, the patterns that keep us stuck live not just in our thoughts, but in the body itself. This is why I integrate somatic and nervous system approaches into my work.

At the heart of everything is the therapeutic relationship. When therapy feels grounded and safe, it becomes a space to explore your internal world with genuine curiosity and compassion — to make sense of the patterns that show up in your life, to understand how past experiences may be shaping your present, and to discover new ways of being with yourself, with others, and with the world around you.

4. What kind of clients are you best able to support?

• Relationship challenges (romantic partnerships, breakups, family, friendships, dating)
• Repeating relationship patterns that feel difficult to shift
• Anxiety, stress, and difficulties with emotional regulation
• Bi-cultural, cross-cultural, and intergenerational dynamics
• Attachment patterns & barriers to intimacy
• Childhood trauma
• Low self-worth, perfectionism, and self-criticism
• Life transitions & identity shifts
• Intercultural relationships & cultural identity
• People-pleasing & boundary difficulties

5. If you could be your own therapist right now, what do you think you would say to yourself?

I think I remind myself the same thing I so often say to my clients when we're doing somatic and nervous system work: "What's here now if we slow things down right now?"

We live in a world that rewards speed and resolution, but the body doesn't heal on that timeline. The nervous system usually asks for something gentler, a willingness to stay with what's here, even when what's here is uncomfortable or unclear.

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Connect with Bek via our Asian Australian Mental Health Practitioner List HERE.

Alternatively, if you feel like Bek may be a good fit for someone that you know, be sure to forward this page on to them too. Let us continue to not only support ourselves but all those around us too!

If you require urgent assistance, please do not contact Bek or any of the practitioners on this list. Instead, please call emergency services on 000 or call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Shapes and Sounds does not recommend or endorse Bek or any of the practitioners listed on the Asian Australian Mental Health Practitioner List.

Please always consult your GP before making changes to your mental health care plan.