Elza Berk

“I built MyTruth because I needed it then and it didn’t exist. Every counsellor on this platform has been chosen for their capacity to sit with what is real.”

About Elza

Elza founded MyTruth from lived experience — as a person in 26+ years of recovery, someone who spent over 20 years working inside South Africa’s leading rehabilitation clinics, and a researcher who has seen the system fail too many people.

She is a WHO Researcher — collaborating with Dr Claire Brooks and Julieanne Cullen on defining the understanding of dignity and human rights through lived experience for the WHO’s Mental Health and Human Rights Guidance. Since 2025 she has sat on the Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI) as an LEC Member for Addiction and Harm Reduction, and she has co-authored research with King’s College London. In 2024 she was a keynote speaker at an addiction conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on the importance of lived experience in research.

Elza specialises in addiction counselling using harm reduction, trauma, eating disorders, narcissistic abuse, coercive control, divorce trauma and expat support. She sees clients herself on 12-session packages.

Read Elza’s full story →

Specialities

• Addiction counselling (harm reduction)
• Trauma
• Eating disorders
• Narcissistic abuse
• Coercive control
• Divorce trauma
• Expat support
• Substance use
• Stress
• Grief

Qualifications & experience

• BA Psychology (2025)
• ASCHP WCW/271
• WHO Researcher with Dr Claire Brooks & Julieanne Cullen — Dignity & Human Rights through Lived Experience
• Healthy Brains Global Initiative (HBGI) LEC Member, Addiction & Harm Reduction (2025)
• Co-authored research with King’s College London
• Keynote speaker, addiction conference, Lisbon, Portugal (2024): the importance of lived experience in research
• 25+ years of experience
• Sober 26+ years

How Elza works

• Trauma-informed care
• Inner child work
• Harm reduction
• Person-centred

Sessions are 50 minutes online via WhatsApp, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams. Offers individual and couples counselling. Also works with teenagers (13–17, with guardian consent). Elza works with clients on 12-session packages.