About Rita
Rita Sandhu is a BACP-registered counsellor with 13 years of therapy experience and a long career in nursing. She combines talk-based work with body-aware methods, including somatic approaches, to help people manage stress, anxiety and trauma. Rita aims to make the first steps into therapy feel straightforward and respectful.
She writes that taking that first step takes courage and acknowledges the difficulty of starting. Rita draws on a range of approaches to match each person's needs.
Background and approach
She uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help people notice what matters to them and take practical steps aligned with those values. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is used for hands-on skills to manage unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. Attachment-based ideas help when relationships and early bonds are a focus.
Her nursing background informs a practical, calm way of working. That experience shapes how she listens and responds to sensitive concerns such as grief, chronic illness, caregiver stress and bereavement. Rita says she brings steady, compassionate attention when people talk about painful events.
People seek her help for many issues including depression, addictions, sleep and eating problems, parenting pressures, ADHD and sexual diversity concerns. She also supports those coping with life transitions, career questions and compassion fatigue. Additional topics she notes include attachment, adoption and body image.
Rita offers sessions in English and sees international clients. Therapy is available by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging. Sessions are arranged via a subscription model that can be cancelled at any time.
How somatic and practical approaches work online
Somatic-informed work pays attention to bodily sensation and how stress shows up in the body. Online sessions can still notice physical responses through discussion and guided awareness to support grounding and regulation.Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people clarify their values and take small action steps towards them. It focuses on building psychological flexibility and practical choices rather than changing every thought. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) offers structured tools to identify thinking patterns and test new behaviours, which can be practised between sessions and reviewed remotely.
Choosing the best approach is part of the process. The therapist will work collaboratively to find what fits the client's needs, goals and preferences. That may mean blending somatic awareness with ACT or CBT and adjusting methods as progress unfolds.
Online therapy offers flexibility for people juggling work, parenting or health challenges. Video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging make it easier to connect from different locations and at different times. These options let people try different formats and find what feels most comfortable while keeping therapy consistent and accessible.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- HIV / AIDS
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Traumatic brain injury
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Systemic Therapy
- Experience
- 13 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English