Ruth Frances, BACP

Ruth Frances is a BACP counsellor with five years' practice who offers one-to-one work for people feeling overwhelmed by loss, illness, or everyday stress. She sees clients dealing with depression, anxiety and the emotional effects of cancer, and provides both short and longer-term counselling. Ruth aims to create a warm, trusting space so people can speak honestly about difficult things.

She focuses on helping people facing relationship strain, grief, trauma and addiction concerns. Her background includes work with bereavement services and cancer support organisations, so she is used to talking about loss and illness alongside more common mental health concerns. Ruth also supports people with issues such as sleep problems, eating worries, anger and parenting stress.

Ruth uses approaches that centre the person and their experience. She draws on client-centred methods to listen and reflect, and uses cognitive behavioural ideas to help with unhelpful thinking and practical coping. Attachment-based and mindfulness work also inform her conversations when relevant.

Her experience includes voluntary and professional roles with Cruse Bereavement Care and Macmillan, where she completed further training and continuing professional development. Ruth describes her work as compassionate and straightforward, with an emphasis on building trust before moving to practical change.

People who come to Ruth often want a calm, steady presence while they work through loss, life transitions or relationship and intimacy-related concerns. She encourages small, manageable steps and aims to match the pace to each person's needs.

How Ruth's approaches shape online counselling

Ruth commonly draws on client-centred work and cognitive behavioural therapy. Client-centred therapy means the conversation is guided around what matters to the person, with the counsellor reflecting and helping you find your own solutions. Cognitive behavioural therapy focuses on identifying unhelpful thought patterns and trying practical strategies to change them, which can help with anxiety, mood and sleep issues.

She also integrates attachment-based ideas, which look at patterns in close relationships and how those patterns affect emotions and behaviour. This can be useful for intimacy-related problems, commitment worries and communication difficulties. Together these approaches let Ruth tailor sessions to the things a person needs to work on most.

Finding the right approach is part of the process and happens collaboratively. Ruth will discuss goals and preferences in early sessions and adjust the balance of listening, practical exercises or reflective work to suit the client. That means the plan can change as needs evolve.

The practical benefits of online therapy include easier fitting of sessions into a busy week and reducing travel time, which helps people keep up with regular appointments. If you want to work together, please confirm the current session options before booking so you know what formats are available. Many people find online work helps maintain continuity of care while fitting therapy into everyday life.