Ruth Bridges
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This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
This professional is accepting new clients but may have a waitlist. Please enquire with them directly to discuss availability.
About me
I’m an experienced Person-Centred Counsellor (17 years) offering long and short-term (1-1) counselling/therapy in the Penrith area of Cumbria - having previously worked for ten years within the Chester and Nantwich areas of Cheshire.
I provide a warm and facilitative therapeutic environment within which you can move towards deeper self-understanding and emotional well-being. I have a strong appreciation of what it is to be human and hurting and I work with the deepest sensitivity and compassion. I find it a great honour to be with my clients and offer high levels of empathy, understanding and respect.
Informed by my own experiences, I am acutely aware of the impact of physical and emotional pain. I’ve worked with clients through relationship difficulties, loss and grief, anxiety and depression, trauma, serious illness, and at the end of life (Macmillan) - this is an area of counselling very close to my heart.
Client Testimonial
"Alfred Adler, an Austrian psychotherapist and founder of the school of individual psychology, once said "Understanding a human being is no easy matter". However, in order to attempt to understand a person, all one needs is the right tools, the knowledge, the passion, but most importantly a profound desire to do so. It is a combination of all these qualities that Ruth brings to every single session. Through empathy and compassion Ruth creates a judgement free environment where you can feel safe and comfortable enough to be as vulnerable as you desire. Her sessions, to me, are emblematic of a vast lake in the early hours of the morning, calm and still, yet deep and powerful. Through our sessions Ruth offered her undivided attention, she said exactly what I needed to hear, exactly when I needed to hear it. However, contrastingly she was completely silent exactly when I needed it most. All of which culminated in allowing me to fully express my emotions, my values, and wholeheartedly speak my truth. I am extremely grateful for what Ruth has helped me to accomplish, she has changed my life and for that I will be forever thankful." - Homer (2021)
Professional Registration
I’m a full and registered member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy – BACP and am bound by its ‘Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions’ (2018). In accordance with professional guidelines I have regular supervision within a professional context.
Training, qualifications & experience
I have an MA Counselling Studies, PgDip Counselling (BACP Accredited Course) and a BA (Hons) in Early Childhood Studies. I am a full/registered member of the BACP (MBACP Reg.) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
I have many years' experience working with children and adults in education, health and community settings. From 2006 until I re-located to Cumbria in 2015, much of my therapeutic work was with Macmillan providing counselling to patients, carers and nursing staff; I also had private and clinic-based practices offering counselling and psychotherapy.
Alongside my work with clients I have considerable experience training counsellors. Until recently I was Programme Leader of the MA/PgD Counselling & Psychotherapy at the University of Cumbria.
Member organisations
BACP is one of the UK’s leading professional bodies for counselling and psychotherapy with around 60,000 members. The Association has several different categories of membership, including Student Member, Individual Member, Registered Member MBACP, Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Accred) and Senior Registered Accredited Member MBACP (Snr Acccred).
Registered and accredited members are listed on the BACP Register, which shows that they have demonstrated BACP’s recommended standards for training, proficiency and ethical practice. The BACP Register was the first register of psychological therapists to be accredited by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
Accredited and senior accredited membership are voluntary categories for members who choose to undertake a rigorous application and assessment process to demonstrate additional standards around practice, training and supervision.
Individual members will have completed an appropriate counselling or psychotherapy course and started to practise, but they won’t appear on the BACP Register until they've demonstrated that they meet the standards for registration. Student members are still in the process of completing their training.
All members are bound by the BACP Ethical Framework and a Professional Conduct Procedure.
Accredited register membership
The Accredited Register Scheme was set up in 2013 by the Department of Health (DoH) as a way to recognise organisations that hold voluntary registers which meet certain standards. These standards are set by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
This therapist has indicated that they belong to an Accredited Register.
Areas of counselling I deal with
Other areas of counselling I deal with
Acute and chronic illness
End of life/dying
Therapies offered
Fees
£45.00 per session
Free initial telephone or online session
Concessions offered for
Additional information
For all my services I offer an initial (no obligation) 30-minute telephone or Zoom consultation free of charge. Thereafter (subject to annual review - January) my fees are:
Counselling — £45 per session (1 hour)
I accept payment by direct ‘bacs’ transfer only please
When I work
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Please note - COVID-19: I have recently released some (limited) face to face appointments. Please contact me for further details. Flexibility Mon-Fri for online or 'phone counselling.
Further information
If you live in the Penrith or North Lakes area of Cumbria and feel you might want to explore counselling but are not quite sure, please feel free to drop me an e-mail or text to arrange an initial, no obligation/no fee, 'phone consultation (circa 30minutes).
This first appointment offers time for you to talk through what you feel you might want from counselling, for us to discuss an initial working contract and (importantly) to see if we might work well together.
I welcome and respond swiftly to all enquiries and will happily answer any questions you may have.
