Ruth Richards

Ruth Richards is an integrative counsellor and psychotherapist based in the United Kingdom with 16 years of experience supporting people through personal change and recovery.

She works with a wide range of concerns including stress, anxiety, relationship and family difficulties, trauma and abuse, depression, grief, parenting challenges, anger, self-esteem, career issues, coping with life changes, ADHD and compassion fatigue. Ruth also offers coaching alongside therapeutic work and is a female therapist of colour who lists Christian, older, conservative and liberal perspectives among her professional descriptors.

Ruth approaches therapy in a down-to-earth, non-judgemental way, listening actively and responding with empathy. People come to her for different reasons - to reconnect with themselves, to work through hidden pain and fears from past events, to learn practical skills for everyday pressures, or to strengthen and maintain relationships - and she adapts sessions creatively to suit each individual’s goals and pace.

She provides both short- and long-term counselling and psychotherapy using an integrative model. Integrative counselling in her practice aims to promote healing and a sense of wholeness by addressing the full range of a person’s needs and helping them to realise their potential. Ruth asks clients to be willing to explore their lives and to identify the factors that may be sustaining current difficulties, and she supports them to set goals and practise new behaviours that can reduce limitations and increase life satisfaction.

Within integrative therapy Ruth draws on techniques and concepts from several approaches, selecting those that are most appropriate for each client. Her role is to create a therapeutic relationship in which clients feel heard and understood, and to work alongside them as they move through the process of change and recovery.