Nadia El-Nakla has built a public profile through local government, equalities work and psychotherapy in Dundee. Official records identify her as a West End councillor and Depute Lord Provost, while institutional and professional profiles document her counselling work and ownership of NY Counselling & Training.
Her background also connects Scotland and Palestine. El-Nakla has described herself as Scottish-Palestinian, raised in Dundee by a Scottish mother and Palestinian father. Alongside her political and professional roles, she has spoken publicly about family experiences, pregnancy loss, humanitarian concerns and the way personal experience has influenced her public communication.
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Full name | Nadia Maged El-Nakla |
| Background | Scottish-Palestinian, raised in Dundee |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Council ward | Ward 3 – West End, Dundee |
| Current civic role | Depute Lord Provost of Dundee |
| Political affiliation | Scottish National Party (SNP) |
| Professional work | Psychotherapy and counselling |
| Practice | NY Counselling & Training |
| Education | Politics at the University of Dundee; master’s degree in counselling at Abertay University |
| Public responsibilities | Equalities work, Dundee Drug and Alcohol Partnership, and Leisure & Culture Dundee trusteeship |
Scottish-Palestinian Background and Education
Companies House records her full name as Nadia Maged El-Nakla and her birth month and year as January 1984. The same official record gives her nationality as Scottish and her country of residence as Scotland.
El-Nakla has directly described herself as Scottish-Palestinian and said she was raised in Dundee. She has spoken about growing up with a Scottish mother, Elizabeth El-Nakla, and a Palestinian father, Maged El-Nakla. El-Nakla has directly described herself as having been raised in Dundee.
Her Palestinian family background was part of her childhood as well as her later public life. In a 2021 interview, she said she regularly spent summer periods in Gaza while growing up, often staying for around six weeks and maintaining close connections with relatives there.
Her education developed along two different professional paths. Leisure & Culture Dundee records that she studied Politics at the University of Dundee before later completing a master’s degree in counselling at Abertay University. A self-presented professional biography says she graduated in 2005 with an MA in Politics and returned to university in 2018 for postgraduate counselling study.
From Political Work to Dundee City Council
El-Nakla’s involvement in politics predates her election to local government. In 2021, reputable reporting identified her as a senior case worker for Dundee City East MSP Shona Robison. She has also said that she worked for an MSP for eight years and previously held a development role within the equalities sector.
Before gaining elected office, she was already presenting politics as a career she had chosen for herself. In comments reported in 2020, El-Nakla emphasised her own campaigning history, political experience and ambitions. She also said her campaigning around Palestine had begun during her teenage years.
Her formal entry into Dundee City Council came at the local election on 5 May 2022, when she was elected as an SNP councillor for Ward 3, West End. That date is established by Dundee City Council’s official election record. Dundee City Council’s statutory record confirms that she was elected on 5 May 2022.
Becoming Depute Lord Provost and Taking on Civic Responsibilities
El-Nakla’s council responsibilities expanded in October 2025. Dundee City Council formally appointed her Depute Lord Provost of Dundee on 27 October 2025. Institutional material from Leisure & Culture Dundee describes her service in the role from November 2025, while the council minutes establish the formal appointment date.
Her wider civic responsibilities include equalities and community-focused work. Leisure & Culture Dundee identifies her as the Equalities Spokesperson for the SNP Administration Group on Dundee City Council. She has also served on the Dundee Drug and Alcohol Partnership and as a Dundee City Council-appointed trustee of Leisure & Culture Dundee.
Official records continued to show her active as Depute Lord Provost during 2026, including council and committee meetings in April and May. In February 2026, council minutes recorded that she had resigned from the Scrutiny and Audit Committee. That change concerned one committee membership rather than her position as councillor or Depute Lord Provost.
Building a Professional Career in Psychotherapy
Alongside her civic responsibilities, El-Nakla has developed a separate career in counselling and psychotherapy. Leisure & Culture Dundee states that she owns and runs NY Counselling & Training, while her professional directory profile places her practice in Dundee.
Her profile lists postgraduate counselling qualifications and describes her approach as pluralistic, meaning her work is not presented as being limited to a single therapeutic framework. The same professional material records work with individuals and couples, as well as interests involving mediation, eating disorders and couples counselling.
Her training history also includes experience connected with addiction services. Counselling Directory identifies her as MSc, MBACP and labels her a verified professional under its own credential-checking process. That directory is an independent professional platform rather than the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy itself.
The combination of counselling and public office has remained part of her current institutional profile, rather than representing a career she left behind after entering politics.
How Personal Experience Shaped Her Public Voice
One of El-Nakla’s most detailed first-person interviews concerned pregnancy loss. In 2020, she spoke openly about repeated miscarriages and the emotional and physical consequences of those experiences.
She discussed the importance of support from family and friends and argued that people experiencing miscarriage should have better information about both medical and emotional support. She also described the value of allowing grief to be acknowledged rather than trying to dismiss it with reassurance.
Those comments belonged to a specific period in her life. At that time, she said she felt her body had been through enough. Her family circumstances later changed, and in July 2024 the birth of daughter Liyana Jenin Yousaf was publicly announced by Humza Yousaf.
By 2025, El-Nakla was also speaking about how personal experience had affected her wider public communication. In an interview conducted in October that year, she said events involving relatives in Gaza had encouraged her to share more of her personal experience in public.
She also described a distinction between private emotion and public communication. Her view was that emotion could motivate action, while effective public communication sometimes required managing how that emotion was expressed so that the substance of the message remained clear.
Advocacy, Equalities and Community Engagement
El-Nakla’s public advocacy has centred particularly on Palestinian issues, humanitarian concerns and equalities. In October 2023, writing in her own name, she called for humanitarian access, a ceasefire and a means for civilians to leave Gaza safely while describing the circumstances faced by members of her family.
In January 2024, she urged the UK Government to create a route through which Palestinians with relatives in Britain could seek safety. She drew a comparison with arrangements introduced for Ukrainians.
Her community-focused comments have also extended to younger people in Dundee. In 2025, she said she supported creating safe spaces in which young people could discuss material they encounter online and in public debate, with damaging narratives challenged before they became more deeply embedded.
She has also referred to work in schools connected with such discussions.
Family and Other Publicly Confirmed Personal Details
El-Nakla is married to former Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf. The broad fact of their marriage is well established, although the chronology requires some care. In a 2020 interview, El-Nakla referred to an Islamic wedding at the end of July in a sequence indicating 2017. Reputable reporting has also commonly described the couple as having married in 2019. No authoritative explanation has been published that reconciles those two dates.
Her family includes three daughters. Earlier interviews identified her older daughter Maya and daughter Amal, while the birth of Liyana Jenin Yousaf was publicly announced in July 2024. In October 2025, El-Nakla described her children as then aged 16, six and one.
Reliable sources also identify Mohammed El-Nakla and Ramsay El-Nakla as her brothers. El-Nakla has additionally referred publicly to a sister, although the available material does not establish a complete sibling count.
Business Interests and Other Verified Public Records
Companies House records El-Nakla as an active director of H & N YOUSAF LTD, with her appointment beginning on 6 September 2024. She is also listed as a person with significant control, holding more than 25% but not more than 50% of the company’s shares and voting rights.
The company remained active in the latest verified records, with accounts made up to September 2025. Those filings establish her documented business interest but do not provide a basis for calculating her personal wealth.
A separate official Dundee City Council record from June 2025 shows that El-Nakla declared an interest in housing-related business because she was registered as a landlord. The record does not disclose the number or value of any properties.
No authoritative public record provides a reliable figure for her personal net worth.
Nadia El-Nakla’s Work Across Civic Service and Psychotherapy
Nadia El-Nakla’s verified public record spans elected local government, equalities-related work, counselling and community engagement. Her path into Dundee City Council followed earlier political employment and campaigning, while her psychotherapy career developed through postgraduate counselling study and her own Dundee-based practice.
By 2026, official and institutional records continued to identify her as a West End councillor, Depute Lord Provost, trustee and psychotherapy practitioner. Her direct interviews add a separate first-hand dimension, covering family experience, grief, humanitarian advocacy and the way she approaches public communication.
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