About Joanna
Joanna Ridgeway is an ACA counsellor who helps people manage stress and anxiety and rebuild confidence. She offers a calm, non-judgemental space where clients can talk about difficult feelings and find clearer ways forward. Joanna works with people facing relationship strain, trauma and abuse, and low mood.
She also supports concerns around self-esteem, motivation and adjustment after major life changes. Conversations are straightforward and focused on what matters most to the client.
Background and approach
Her approach blends attachment-based ideas with client-centred listening and practical cognitive techniques. That mix helps people understand patterns in their relationships and test new ways of thinking and reacting. Sessions pace is set by the client and aims to feel useful from the start.
Joanna draws on 14 years of experience in Australia and adapts her approach to each person. She pays attention to the things that make life harder, such as chronic health problems, caregiving stress, or past abandonment experiences, and works with clients to set realistic goals.
People who choose Joanna often want clear, compassionate guidance and practical tools to manage symptoms day to day. She supports clients through steady conversation, behaviour-focused strategies and emotion-focused work when relationships and attachment come into play.
Approaches that translate well to online care
Attachment-based work focuses on how early relationships shape current feelings and reactions. Online sessions can help people notice patterns in their close relationships and practise new ways of connecting and responding. Client-centred therapy emphasises careful listening and reflection. In a remote setting this means the therapist follows the client's lead, offering space to speak and gentle guidance to explore emotions and priorities.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Joanna will talk with clients about their goals and preferences, then suggest a blend of approaches and check in regularly. That collaborative process helps tailor techniques to what actually helps the person in day-to-day life.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging. Video suits deeper conversations and exercises that use facial cues, phone sessions can fit a busy break or use less data, chat or messaging is useful for brief check-ins or when people prefer writing. These options make it easier to keep continuity and build new habits without long travel.
Questions people ask
What concerns does Joanna commonly help with?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much experience does she have in practice?
What credentials and location are listed?
Are sessions offered in other languages or to international clients?
Which session formats are available?
How does pricing work for sessions?
How do I begin working with Joanna?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.