People · Health · In Conversation
Making Mental Health Feel Normal
Dr. Athary Alfadhly, a Kuwaiti clinical psychologist, on CBT, ending stigma, and a field that never lets you stand still.
Dr. Athary Alfadhly is a clinical psychologist specialising in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, working across anxiety, depression, stress and emotional wellbeing. She is also a trainer and mental health educator, and the through-line of her work is a quietly ambitious one: to make psychological support feel accessible, safe and normal in a region where, too often, it still is not.
“Many people still hesitate to seek help because of fear, misunderstanding or social stigma,” she says. “Mental health care should feel empowering, safe and normal.”
How It Began
A Passion, Then a Practice
Her path started with a fascination for human behaviour and a desire to help people live better. “I focused on understanding human behaviour and learning modern, evidence-based therapeutic approaches that create meaningful and lasting change,” she says.
Through her clinical training she gravitated to CBT and contemporary psychotherapy, working with people facing anxiety, depression, stress and trauma. In time, that practice widened into teaching, building workshops, diplomas and training programmes for other psychologists and mental health professionals.
The Work She Is Proudest Of
Lifting the Whole Profession
What she is proudest of is not a single case but a body of work that joins clinical psychology, education and professional development. “Seeing professionals grow, succeed, and positively impact others through what they learned is something that truly fulfils me,” she says.
It is also why her biggest professional fear is standing still. “One of my biggest fears is relying on outdated knowledge in a field that constantly evolves.” The advice she carries is fittingly brief: never stop evolving.
From Kuwait
What Home Made Possible
Asked what Kuwait gave her that nowhere else could, her answer is rooted in community. “Kuwait gave me the opportunity to grow, contribute, and build my journey within a community that values ambition, education and meaningful impact,” she says. It became the platform for her mental health work, and shaped her sense of responsibility to give back.
Speaking openly about mental health in the region took nerve. She calls her most daring move exactly that: starting initiatives, leading collaborations, and raising the standard of practice, all of which “required courage, persistence and belief in my vision.”
In Her Words
The Quick Answers
What drives her on a hard day“Growth comes through challenges, not comfort.”
At her bestEarly morning, before anyone else.
Her phone“I use it, it does not use me.”
Her social mediaSpontaneous and real.
Approach to luxuryTravel, always.
Ideal escapeA beach in the Maldives.
MoneyInvest it wisely.
Every day, without failReading, exploring new ideas, developing her skills.
People would describe her asThe one who makes it happen.
The Quiet Work of Changing Minds
For Boujeez, Dr. Athary represents a shift the Gulf is only beginning to make out loud. Wellbeing here has long meant the body and the surface. She belongs to a generation of Kuwaiti professionals insisting it also means the mind, and doing the unglamorous work of raising standards, training others, and saying the quiet part plainly.
Her ten-year goal is to build internationally recognised mental health and training initiatives that make modern therapy more accessible across the region and beyond. On the evidence of how she started, the ambition is not the surprising part. The consistency is.