About Vanessa
Vanessa Richards helps people deal with stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, and relationship problems. She also supports clients facing grief, addiction, low self-esteem, parenting strain, career changes and challenges linked to ADHD and bipolar. Vanessa's straightforward approach suits people who want practical tools and a calm space to talk.
She uses familiar, evidence-informed methods such as client-centred work, cognitive behavioural techniques, dialectical behaviour strategies, emotionally-focused ways of relating and motivational interviewing.
How Vanessa works
Sessions focus on what matters now and on small steps that make a difference day to day. Vanessa aims to build a trusting relationship so difficult topics can be addressed without judgement. Vanessa holds the BACP credential, which indicates registration with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
She has five years of experience as a counsellor and has worked both in the NHS and the personal sector. Her background includes supporting people affected by trauma and abuse and working with people facing the cancer pathway through earlier clinical roles. In therapy she adopts a relational stance, paying attention to how people connect with themselves and others.
Conversations may include identifying unhelpful thinking, developing emotion regulation skills, or exploring past experiences that affect current patterns. Practical exercises and reflective discussion are used alongside gentle challenge. Vanessa offers sessions in English and accepts international clients.
People can expect flexibility in session format and a collaborative plan that reflects their goals and circumstances.
Vanessa lists 11 ways of working on the entry:
What Vanessa works with
The areas below are the ones Vanessa selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | BACP |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 5 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | United Kingdom |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How Vanessa’s approaches translate to online therapy
Client-centred work focuses on listening and following what matters most to the person. Online sessions let the counsellor create a supportive space where people set the pace and topics for discussion, useful for issues like low self-esteem and life transitions.Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) helps people notice and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. In remote sessions this often includes short exercises, homework tasks and step-by-step behavioural experiments that can be discussed on video or in messages.
Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) offers practical skills for managing strong emotions and improving relationships. Online formats work well for practising skills between sessions and checking in by message about how new strategies are going.
Choosing the right approach is a joint process. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and what feels workable, then try methods that fit the person's needs. That collaborative planning can change over time as progress is reviewed.
Online therapy is flexible and can fit around work, family and travel. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation, phone sessions use less bandwidth, live chat can be useful for shorter check-ins and text messaging supports ongoing reflection between appointments. These options make it easier to keep continuity and practise skills in everyday life.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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