Ruth Glew

I offer face to face  counselling and also UK wide on-line sessions. I will work with you to help you overcome the difficulties you are experiencing. I help clients with a range of issues such as anxiety, depression, low self esteem  relationship issues to name a few.  Making sense of your situation, we can explore and put into action strategies that will help you move forward. I have a wealth of experience to help with a wide range of psychological difficulties and mental health conditions, having  more than 30 years in the NHS as a General Nurse, Mental Health Nurse, Genetic Counsellor and qualified Cognitive Behavioural therapist. In addition, my specialist area is in helping people and their loved ones to 'live well' with chronic or life limiting illnesses such as Motor Neurone Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and cancer.

My Approach:

I provide a friendly, respectful, confidential and safe space for us to explore your difficulties. My aim, and passion, is to assist you to alleviate your distress, improve your sense of personal wellbeing, to help you make decisions for yourself and to work towards finding an effective way through. Therapy is tailored to your individual needs aiming to help you make progress straight away.

My main counselling qualification is in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (level 7) which is proven to help in a wide range of emotional and physical health conditions.  CBT is recommended by National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a proven effective treatment for depression and anxiety. CBT looks at the connection between our emotions, thoughts, behaviour and physical reactions and by gaining awareness of these connections, we can learn invaluable skills that will help us manage difficulties both now and in the future. During your therapy sessions, we will explore what might be contributing to your distress and helping you identify more effective strategies to manage your situation. 

I also have  training and experience with other theoretical backgrounds such as person centred,  acceptance and commitment therapy, compassion focussed therapies  and transactional analysis which  can be very helpful for certain problems  and that we may explore depending on the situation.

Initial session:

Prior to our first session I will contact you by phone to get a little more detail and to explain how the counselling sessions work. If you are happy to go ahead we will arrange an initial assessment session.  The most important factor in therapy is that you feel that you safe enough to  be open and honest with me, having this initial session allows you to make sure that I am the right person to help you. You will be asked to tell me as much about your reasons for seeking assistance as you can so that we can gain a better understanding of how I may be able to help and ways in which we may work together.  We will be working at your own pace and if you feel uncertain about exploring certain things, your decisions will be respected. During this first session, my job is to listen and by doing this I hope that you will feel supported and understood. We will also begin to explore ways of how you can better manage your situation so that you leave the session with some tools to move forward. 

Subsequent Sessions:

At the initial session we will agree a way forward.  As it is impossible to predict how things will progress, I  suggest 6 sessions to start with, but aim to review progress in every session.  Some clients just have one session or some have sessions for over a year, most probably have 6-8 sessions.

I offer counselling in a quiet and private location with free parking. There is also a bus route nearby connecting to Cardiff, Bridgend and the Rhondda valleys.

I also offer personal therapy to trainee therapists and supervision to counsellors and health professionals.

My fees are £60 for an hour's session.

I offer a free 15 minutes introductory telephone call.

Supervision:

I am also a qualified supervisor and provide supervision for health care professionals, and counsellors/therapists within the NHS and privately.

Professional Membership:
BACP

BABCP