About Ruth
Ruth Stoan is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with 35 years of clinical experience guiding people through big life transitions. She greets each person who reaches out with straightforward support and helps them take concrete steps toward change. Ruth emphasizes practical work alongside personal exploration so clients feel progress quickly.
She has a long history of helping people with stress, anxiety, grief, depression, relationship struggles, and addictions. Ruth also addresses issues such as self-esteem, career shifts, compassion fatigue, and ADHD.
Background and approach
People often seek her help when life changes raise questions about identity, purpose, or next steps. Ruth blends several approaches in sessions, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, client-centered work, cognitive behavioral tools, emotionally-focused techniques, and existential perspectives. She uses mindfulness, breath work, imagery, and skill building to support change.
Sessions focus on clear goals and practical strategies that clients can use between meetings. Ruth commonly works by video so she and a client can connect face to face, but she also meets by phone, live chat, or text when that fits someone’s routine.
She supports people navigating loss, caregiver stress, family of origin issues, body image concerns, and intimacy-related challenges among other topics. Her style is encouraging and direct. She partners with each person to identify barriers and build new habits.
The emphasis is on usable tools, steady progress, and helping people reclaim energy for the life they want.
Therapeutic approaches and online sessions
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on noticing unhelpful thoughts and learning small actions that reflect what matters most, which can help with anxiety, stress, and life transitions. Client-Centered Therapy centers the conversation on the person's perspective, offering empathy and support while the client finds their own solutions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) offers clear tools to change unhelpful thinking and habits, useful for depression, anxiety, and managing everyday struggle.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Ruth discusses goals and preferences with each person and adjusts methods as they learn what helps most. She combines techniques so sessions fit the client's pace and needs rather than forcing a single method.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy flexible. Video helps with face-to-face connection, phone can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat suits brief check-ins, and text messaging lets people share short updates between sessions. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into a busy schedule and to continue work through changes and transitions.
Questions people ask
What kinds of concerns does Ruth address?
What is her general therapy style?
How much experience does she have?
Where is Ruth licensed and based?
Which languages are supported and can international clients participate?
What session formats are offered?
How are costs handled?
How do I get started with her?
What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Self-love
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 35 years
- Licensed
- Missouri
- Languages
- English
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.