Our story

"Growing Small" captures a paradox that speaks to both expansion and intentional intimacy. In the context of Growing Small Counselling, it reflects your practice’s evolution from solo work to a small collective while staying deeply personal, community-centered, and culturally responsive. It’s about scaling with care—growing in reach, impact, and depth without losing the essence of close, attuned, and relational support.

Growing Small Counselling is more than a practice—it’s a philosophy, a way of being. Inspired by my name, Makakhiwe (meaning to build, to create in Zulu), this space is grounded in the wisdom of gentle, intentional growth. Just as deep roots strengthen a tree, healing requires slowness, patience, and care.

Our Journey

In a world that often pushes us to move faster, Growing Small invites us to slow down, honor our stories, and give ourselves permission to recover and heal.

Meet our team

Makakhiwe Masuku

(They/Them)

Founder | Lead Counsellor 

Cultivating Growth, Healing & Connection

Makakhiwe “Mak” (they/them) is a counsellor, facilitator, and advocate for healing. With several years of experience in the community sector providing trauma-informed and culturally responsive therapeutic care. They specialize in supporting individuals and families through  anxiety, trauma, relationship breakdowns, and shifting family dynamics. Blending their South African culture and somatic wisdom, psychodynamic insight, and evidence-based approaches like CBT, solution-focused therapy, family systems, and attachment theory. Mak helps clients rebuild, reconnect, and thrive.

As the founder of Growing Small Counselling, they are passionate about making therapy accessible, offering outreach and tele-based support to create spaces where resilience takes root and transformation flourishes.

 

Registration: M.A.C.A Level 2 Australian Counselling Association 

Qualifications:

  • Masters of Psychotherapy and Counselling | ACAP
  • Graduate Diploma of Counselling | Southern Queensland University 
  • Bachelors of Psychological Sciences and Criminology and Criminal Justice | Griffith University