Penny Ralston
Supportive counsellor for everyday mental health challenges
About Penny
Penny Ralston is a counsellor registered with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) who has five years of professional experience. She focuses on everyday struggles like stress, anxiety, low mood and self-esteem. Penny aims to create a calm, non-judgemental atmosphere so people can say what they really think and feel.
She offers practical ways to manage worry and lift motivation. Sessions often start by talking through current problems and working out small steps forward.
Background and approach
Penny uses familiar tools from cognitive behavioural work and mindfulness to help people change unhelpful thought patterns and build coping habits. Penny also supports people facing relationship and intimacy concerns, grief, addiction challenges and life changes. She has additional focus on autism and Asperger Syndrome and on issues that affect young adults.
Her approach is straightforward and solution-focused while remaining warm and patient. People typically find sessions useful for tackling anger, parenting stress, career worries, ADHD-related difficulties and bipolar-related concerns alongside mood issues. Penny balances listening with practical exercises so progress can be noticed between meetings.
She aims to help people feel more in control and better able to cope with daily life. To begin, she encourages a simple conversation about what matters now and what realistic goals look like. That initial chat helps shape the work that follows and the tools that will be most helpful.
What Penny works with
How Penny works
Listed by Penny among the ways they work.
Listed by Penny among the ways they work.
Sessions & fees
How CBT and Mindfulness work online
CBT, or cognitive behavioural therapy, focuses on the link between thoughts, feelings and actions. In practice this means identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and trying small experiments to change them, which can reduce worry and low mood. Mindfulness therapy teaches simple attention and breathing practices to help people notice difficult thoughts without getting swept away by them, which can help with stress and emotional regulation.Choosing the right approach is part of the work. Penny will discuss your goals and preferences and together you will decide which methods to try first. She treats this as a collaborative process and regularly checks in to see what is helping and what needs adjusting.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging to suit different needs. Video calls let you work face to face from wherever you are. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or you prefer not to be on camera. Live chat and text messaging are useful for shorter check-ins, tracking progress between sessions or when you need flexibility around work or study. Registered or accredited professionals can adapt exercises so they work well in each format.
| Session length | Typically 50 minutes |
|---|---|
| Client ages | Adults, 18 and over |
| Fees | Subscription via BetterHelp, cancel anytime |
| Insurance | Not billed directly |
Questions people ask
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Areas of focus
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
- Registered with
- BACP
- Languages
- English
