Shahira Kamal

Shahira Kamal is Harbor’s Clinical Director and a UKCP-registered psychotherapist. She has practised for nearly two decades in the United Kingdom and Egypt.

Her experience spans substance misuse treatment units, private practice, psychiatric hospitals, NHS services and charities. She specialises in anxiety, eating disorders, trauma and substance misuse.

Alongside her client work, Shahira has also run teams and overseen psychological services throughout her career.

Professional Background & Qualifications

Shahira trained at Regent’s University London, gaining an MA in Psychotherapy and Counselling (with Merit) and an Advanced Diploma in Existential Psychotherapy. Her diploma earned her the Hans W. Cohn Award for Excellence.

She also holds a BA (Hons) in Psychology from The American University in Cairo.

She is registered with the UK Council for Psychotherapy.

Healthcare Leadership & Experience

Before Harbor, Shahira was Managing Director and an existential psychotherapist at The International Clinic in London, where she ran operations and managed the team. She has also worked in private practice in London.

She was a focal counsellor at Hope House, Action on Addiction, and an honorary trainee psychotherapist in the Adult and Arabic Family Services Department at Parkside Clinic NHS Trust, both in London.

In Cairo, she worked as a psychotherapist with Exist: Counselling, Education, Network, and as a focal counsellor and psychologist in training at Behman Hospital and Behman Psychological Consultations.

Approach to Care

Shahira trained as an existential psychotherapist, an approach that examines how people make sense of their lives and the choices before them. She sees the therapist-client relationship as central to that work.

Having worked in hospitals, addiction services and private practice, she is used to helping people whose difficulties overlap, such as trauma alongside addiction.

Now as Clinical Director at Harbor, she brings together her psychotherapy experience and clinical leadership background to support personalised therapeutic care.