About Penny
Penny Ralston is a counsellor registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, with five years of professional experience. She focuses on practical support for people feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety and low mood. Penny aims to make the first step feel manageable for anyone who is unsure where to begin.
She creates a calm space for clients to talk honestly about difficult thoughts and feelings. Sessions are non-judgemental and paced to suit each person.
Background and approach
Penny encourages small, achievable steps rather than big, sudden changes. In sessions she draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, helping clients notice patterns of thinking that keep problems going. She also uses Mindfulness Therapy to build simple awareness skills that reduce reactivity and ease anxious moments.
Penny has experience supporting people with grief, relationship worries, self-esteem issues and life transitions. She also helps those facing addiction concerns, parenting strain, career uncertainty and relationship intimacy issues. Additional focus areas include autism and Asperger syndrome and young adult concerns.
Work with Penny is collaborative and down-to-earth. She will listen to what matters most to the client, set clear short-term goals and review progress together. Practical exercises and between-session tasks are offered when useful to help change feel tangible.
Penny provides sessions in English and carries out work via video calls, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to suit different needs and schedules.
How CBT and Mindfulness translate to online therapy
CBT helps people spot thought patterns that increase anxiety or low mood and then tests them with small, practical experiments. Online sessions can include guided exercises, thought records and planning steps to try between meetings.Mindfulness Therapy teaches simple attention and breathing skills to reduce reactivity and build tolerance for uncomfortable feelings. These skills work well in brief online check-ins and can be practised during short daily moments away from other demands.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk through goals and preferences, try different techniques and agree what feels most helpful. Progress is reviewed together and methods are adjusted as needs change.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to work without needing to travel. Video calls are good for face-to-face rapport and workbook-style tasks, phone sessions suit shorter check-ins or when bandwidth is limited, and live chat or text messaging lets people check in between calls or fit therapy around a busy day. These formats make it easier to keep continuity while juggling family and work commitments.
Questions people ask
What concerns does Penny help with?
How does she approach therapy?
What is her background?
Where is she based and what are her credentials?
Can I work with her if I live outside the UK?
Which session formats are available?
How are sessions paid for?
How do I begin therapy with her?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Grief
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Intimacy-related issues
- LGBT
- Parenting issues
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Trauma and abuse
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 5 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
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