Agnes Nugrawati Salim, M.Psi., Psikolog

Head Clinical Psychologist | Adult Clinical Psychology | Psychological Counselling | ACT | taVNS | Art Therapy

Agnes Nugrawati Salim, M.Psi., Psikolog is the Head Clinical Psychologist at Empowering Awareness Counselling & Consultancy and a licensed Indonesian psychologist specialising in adult clinical psychology. Agnes brings extensive experience working with both Indonesian and international clients, including individuals from Western backgrounds, and is highly experienced in adapting psychological care to different cultural, relational and personal contexts. She is fluent in Indonesian and English and also speaks Mandarin, allowing her to work comfortably with clients from a wide range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Her clinical work includes psychological counselling and therapy for people experiencing anxiety, depression, addiction, emotional dysregulation, personality-related difficulties, trauma, relational problems, low self-esteem, chronic stress, burnout and wider emotional or behavioural concerns. Agnes also integrates Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness, Motivational Interviewing, art-based therapeutic work and nervous-system-focused approaches including transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) where appropriate. Her work is grounded in the belief that people should never be reduced to a diagnosis. Every person arrives with a different history. Different relationships. Different coping strategies. Different strengths. Different reasons for struggling. For Agnes, effective psychological care begins with understanding the person behind the symptoms.

A Licensed Indonesian Clinical Psychologist

Agnes completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology with a concentration in Clinical Psychology before progressing to a Master’s Degree and Professional Qualification in Adult Clinical Psychology. Her professional training developed her expertise in assessing and supporting adults experiencing a broad range of psychological, emotional, behavioural and relational difficulties. As an Indonesian Psikolog, Agnes brings formal professional psychological training into the clinical leadership of Empowering Awareness. She also holds the same senior role as Head Clinical Psychologist at our sister organisation, Pesona Jiwa, strengthening clinical continuity across both organisations. Her dual role means she contributes both to ongoing psychological counselling and to more intensive, multidisciplinary mental-health support when this is appropriate.

Psychological Counselling and Therapy

Agnes works directly with clients through individual psychological counselling and therapeutic sessions. Her approach is warm, collaborative and highly individualised. Rather than expecting every client to respond to the same therapeutic model, Agnes adapts her work according to the person’s needs, psychological history, current circumstances and readiness for change. Her work may involve exploring:

• anxiety and chronic worry
• depression and low mood
• addiction and problematic coping behaviours
• personality-related difficulties
• trauma and difficult life experiences
• emotional regulation
• relationship and attachment difficulties
• low self-esteem
• identity and self-worth
• chronic stress and burnout
• emotional numbness and disconnection
• grief and loss
• life transitions
• family difficulties
• patterns of avoidance or self-sabotage
• difficulties expressing or understanding emotions

The aim is not simply symptom reduction. Agnes helps clients understand why certain patterns developed, what those patterns may have once protected them from, and whether they are still helping in the present. This allows therapy to move beyond: “How do I stop feeling this?” towards: “What is happening here, why does it make sense, and what would meaningful change look like for me?”

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

One of the approaches Agnes incorporates into her work is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT can be especially useful for people who have spent a great deal of time fighting their own internal experience. Trying not to feel anxious. Trying not to think certain thoughts. Trying to control uncertainty. Trying to avoid emotional discomfort. These attempts can sometimes become part of the problem. ACT helps people develop a different relationship with difficult thoughts and feelings. The aim is not to eliminate every uncomfortable internal experience. It is to develop greater psychological flexibility. To notice what is happening without automatically being controlled by it. And to begin making choices that are more closely aligned with personal values, even when difficult emotions are present. For Agnes, this fits naturally with a wider therapeutic philosophy centred on resilience, self-awareness and meaningful change.

Mindfulness and Emotional Awareness

Agnes also incorporates mindfulness-based approaches where appropriate. Mindfulness is not simply about becoming calm. It can help people develop greater awareness of thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and behavioural patterns as they occur. This can create an important pause between experience and reaction. For example, a person may begin recognising: “I am becoming anxious.” “I am starting to withdraw.” “I am assuming the worst.” “I am feeling rejected.” “I want to react, but I have another choice.” That awareness can be especially valuable for people who have spent years operating automatically in response to stress, trauma or difficult relationships. The goal is not to remove emotion. It is to develop a more flexible relationship with it.

Motivational Interviewing

Agnes also uses Motivational Interviewing in her clinical work. This approach can be particularly helpful where someone feels ambivalent about change. A person may understand intellectually that something needs to change while another part of them remains attached to the familiar behaviour. This is common in addiction. But it also appears in relationships. Work. Health. Self-care. Boundaries. And many other areas of psychological life. Rather than telling someone what they should do, Motivational Interviewing helps explore the person’s own values, motivations and reasons for change. This matters because sustainable change is rarely created by instruction alone. People are more likely to maintain change when they understand why it matters to them.

Addiction and Behavioural Change

Agnes has considerable experience working with people affected by addiction and problematic coping behaviours. Addiction is rarely only about the substance or behaviour itself. Alcohol, drugs, food, work, relationships and other behaviours may all become ways of regulating difficult internal states. Anxiety. Trauma. Shame. Loneliness. Stress. Emotional numbness. Painful memories. A sense of not being enough. For this reason, Agnes’s work looks beyond the behaviour. She helps clients understand: What state am I trying to change? What happens before I use this coping strategy? What does the behaviour provide temporarily? What does it cost me over time? What other forms of regulation or support might become possible? This approach fits closely with Empowering Awareness’s wider work around counselling, psychotherapy, addiction recovery and behavioural change.

Trauma-Informed Psychological Support

Agnes also works with people affected by trauma and difficult life experiences. Trauma does not always present as obvious flashbacks or panic. It may appear as: Hypervigilance. Emotional numbness. People-pleasing. Perfectionism. Relationship difficulties. Difficulty trusting. Fear of abandonment. Avoidance. Overworking. The inability to rest. A persistent sense of danger despite being physically safe. Trauma-informed work needs to be paced carefully. The aim is not to force someone to repeatedly revisit painful material before they have enough capacity to tolerate it. Safety, trust and therapeutic relationship matter. Sometimes the first stage of trauma work is simply helping the person recognise: “This response developed for a reason.” Understanding can reduce shame and create a more compassionate starting point for change.

Integrating taVNS Into Psychological Work

Agnes also incorporates transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) within her work where clinically appropriate. taVNS is a non-invasive neuromodulation approach that applies mild electrical stimulation through specific areas of the external ear associated with sensory innervation from the auricular branch of the vagus nerve. At Empowering Awareness, this is not treated as a replacement for psychological counselling or psychotherapy. It is one potential support within a wider therapeutic process. This distinction matters. Technology cannot process grief. It cannot set a boundary. It cannot change an unhealthy relationship. It cannot understand someone’s history. Psychological therapy remains central. But physiological support may sometimes help a person become more able to remain present, regulate internal activation and engage with psychological work. Because Agnes works across both psychological therapy and nervous-system-focused interventions, she is able to integrate these areas rather than treating the mind and body as entirely separate.

Art Therapy and Creative Therapeutic Work

Agnes also uses art-based therapeutic approaches where appropriate. For some people, words are not always the easiest starting point. A person may know that something is wrong but struggle to explain it. They may have spent years intellectualising difficult experiences. Or certain emotions may simply be easier to express through image, colour, symbol or form. Art-based therapeutic work provides another route into the person’s experience. It is not about artistic skill. There is no requirement to draw well. The value lies in expression. This can be particularly useful when working with:

• trauma
• grief
• identity
• emotional numbness
• anxiety
• difficult relationships
• transitions
• experiences that are difficult to verbalise

Creative work can also help someone step outside the pressure of having to produce the “right” answer during therapy. Sometimes what emerges visually creates a conversation that would have been much harder to reach directly.

Working With Indonesian and International Clients

One of Agnes’s particular strengths is her extensive experience working with both Indonesian and Western clients. Psychological care is never entirely separate from culture. The way people understand distress differs. The role of family differs. Ideas about independence, responsibility, emotional expression, success, relationships and mental health can all vary significantly across cultures. A therapeutic approach developed in one cultural setting should not automatically be imposed on everyone in exactly the same way. Agnes is able to work comfortably across these different contexts. Her fluency in Indonesian and English allows her to work naturally with both local and international clients. Her ability to speak Mandarin further broadens that accessibility. For international clients, this means receiving professional psychological support from someone who is experienced in communicating across cultures rather than assuming that every client will understand therapy in the same way. For Indonesian clients, it means working with a psychologist who understands the cultural, family and social context around their experiences. That balance is particularly important within Empowering Awareness, where our client base is both Indonesian and international.

Professional Experience

Agnes has built her clinical experience across a range of psychological and community settings in Indonesia. Her professional background includes work with:

Ohana Space

At Ohana Space, Agnes provided psychological support within a therapeutic environment focused on individual wellbeing and emotional development.

Bagikan Ceritamu

Agnes also worked with Bagikan Ceritamu, contributing to a platform centred around creating space for people to share personal experiences and access psychological support.

Government Social Service Department — West Java

Her professional experience also includes work with the Government Social Service Department in the West Java area. This provided experience addressing mental-health and psychosocial needs within a broader community and public-service setting. This aspect of Agnes’s career is important. Her experience has not been limited to one private-practice environment or one type of client. She has worked across private, community and public-sector contexts. That breadth contributes to the adaptable and grounded way she works today.

Published Psychological Research

Agnes is also a published psychological researcher. Her academic work adds another important dimension to her professional profile. She is not only applying psychological knowledge clinically. She has contributed directly to psychological research within Indonesia.

The Mediating Effect of Self-Esteem on the Association Between Minority Stress and Social Well-Being Among Indonesian Young Adult Gay Men and Lesbian Women

Agnes co-authored research examining the relationship between minority stress, self-esteem and social wellbeing among Indonesian young adults. The study explored how minority stress may affect social wellbeing and examined the mediating role of self-esteem. The work is particularly significant because it contributes to psychological research based specifically within an Indonesian population and cultural context. Published research: https://doi.org/10.24123/aipj.v39i1.5794 ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377899597_The_Mediating_Effect_of_Self-Esteem_on_the_Association_Between_Minority_Stress_and_Social_Well-Being_Among_Indonesian_Young_Adult_Gay_Men_and_Lesbian_Women_Pengaruh_Mediasi_Self-Esteem_Terhadap_Hubung

Pengaruh Psikoedukasi terhadap Pengetahuan Inklusivitas pada Anak-Anak di Yayasan Panti Asuhan Z

Agnes is also an author of research examining the impact of psychoeducation on children's knowledge and understanding of inclusivity within an Indonesian orphanage setting. This work reflects her experience not only in one-to-one psychological practice, but also in psychoeducation and community-based psychological intervention. Published research: https://doi.org/10.24912/psenapenmas.v0i0.15215 ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356513607_PENGARUH_PSIKOEDUKASI_TERHADAP_PENGETAHUAN_INKLUSIVITAS_PADA_ANAK-ANAK_DI_YAYASAN_PANTI_ASUHAN_Z

Research Grounded in Indonesia

Agnes’s published research strengthens an important part of the clinical identity of Empowering Awareness. Much of the global psychological literature has historically been developed using Western populations. Yet psychological experience is influenced by: Culture. Family. Community. Identity. Social expectations. Stigma. Belonging. Agnes’s research contributes directly to psychological understanding within Indonesia. Her published work has addressed areas including:

• minority stress
• self-esteem
• social wellbeing
• inclusivity
• psychoeducation
• stigma
• Indonesian social and cultural contexts

That experience complements her clinical work with both Indonesian and international clients. She brings international accessibility without losing the Indonesian context in which Empowering Awareness operates.

Head Clinical Psychologist at Empowering Awareness

As Head Clinical Psychologist, Agnes contributes to the clinical leadership and psychological direction of Empowering Awareness Counselling & Consultancy. Her role extends beyond individual client sessions. She contributes to the quality and consistency of psychological care across the organisation and works collaboratively within the wider clinical team. She is also Head Clinical Psychologist at our sister organisation, Pesona Jiwa, creating continuity between ongoing outpatient psychological support and more intensive residential retreat care. This shared leadership role strengthens collaboration between the two organisations and helps ensure that clients can access different levels of support without losing the underlying clinical philosophy.

A Multidisciplinary Approach

Psychological difficulties rarely fit neatly into one category. Anxiety can coexist with trauma. Burnout may involve depression. Addiction may function as emotional regulation. Relationship difficulties may connect with attachment and self-esteem. For this reason, Agnes works within a wider multidisciplinary framework. Where appropriate, care can involve collaboration with:

• psychotherapists
• psychologists
• psychiatrists
• medical practitioners
• addiction specialists
• nervous-system-focused practitioners
• counsellors and therapists
• complementary therapeutic practitioners

The aim is always to understand the whole person. Not simply assign a label and treat one isolated symptom.

Agnes’s Clinical Philosophy

At the centre of Agnes’s work is a belief that personal growth is not defined by a simple division between success and failure. People make progress. They struggle. They experience setbacks. They adapt. They begin again. For Agnes, resilience does not mean never falling. It means developing the ability to understand what happened, reconnect with existing strengths and continue moving forward. She works to create a therapeutic environment that feels welcoming, respectful and psychologically safe. A space where clients can speak honestly. Explore difficult experiences. Recognise patterns. Develop greater self-awareness. And begin identifying the resources they already possess. The psychologist is not there to dictate someone’s life. The role is to help the person understand themselves more clearly and make more informed choices.

Helping Clients Recognise Their Own Capacity

One of Agnes’s core aims is to help people recognise that they often possess more internal resources than they realise. When someone has been anxious, depressed, addicted, overwhelmed or emotionally exhausted for a long time, it becomes easy for the difficulty to become their identity. “I am an anxious person.” “I am broken.” “I always fail.” “I cannot change.” Psychological work can begin separating the person from the problem. The person has anxiety. They are not anxiety. They have developed coping patterns. Those patterns are not their entire identity. They have experienced setbacks. That does not mean they are incapable of growth. For Agnes, this shift is central to meaningful psychological care.

Agnes at Empowering Awareness

What Agnes brings to Empowering Awareness is unusually broad. She is:

• a licensed Indonesian psychologist
• a specialist in adult clinical psychology
• Head Clinical Psychologist across Empowering Awareness and Pesona Jiwa
• highly experienced with Indonesian and Western clients
• fluent in Indonesian and English
• able to speak Mandarin
• experienced in anxiety, depression, addiction, personality-related difficulties and relational concerns
• trained in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• experienced in mindfulness-based approaches
• experienced in Motivational Interviewing
• involved in taVNS and nervous-system-focused therapeutic work
• experienced in art-based therapeutic approaches
• experienced across private, community and government settings
• a published psychological researcher

This combination makes Agnes an important part of the clinical identity of Empowering Awareness. She brings together professional psychological training, substantial clinical experience, cross-cultural understanding, emerging nervous-system approaches and research rooted specifically within Indonesia. For our Indonesian clients, that means access to psychological care that understands the cultural and social context in which they live. For our international clients, it means working with an experienced Indonesian psychologist who is highly comfortable working across cultures and in English. And for all clients, it means being treated as a person first. Not simply as a diagnosis.