Ranka Smith , BACP

Ranka Smith is a counsellor with 26 years of professional experience working in the United Kingdom. She holds BACP accreditation, and she focuses on common concerns such as stress, anxiety, low self‑esteem and depression. She also helps people facing relationship and intimacy-related issues and those coping with grief or life changes.

Her approach aims to make conversations straightforward and grounded. Sessions are intended to be a space where people can speak openly about difficult feelings without fear of judgement. Ranka aims to support and empower people who are ready to make changes in their lives.

Over more than two decades she has used a mix of approaches that suit individual needs. That means practical strategies for daily problems alongside attention to how early relationships shape current patterns. She adapts the pace to each person, balancing problem-focused work with time to reflect on emotions.

Ranka works with people dealing with addiction issues, compassion fatigue, eating and sleeping difficulties, and ADHD among other concerns. She also offers support around attachment, body image and communication problems. Therapy is aimed at helping people build coping skills and clearer ways of relating to others.

Sessions are offered in English and in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. International clients are accepted and sessions can be held by video call, phone, live chat or text-based messaging. To start, prospective clients follow an online matching process and then arrange sessions to suit their schedule.

How Ranka’s approaches translate to online therapy

Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships influence current feelings and patterns. Online sessions can help people notice those patterns and try different ways of relating in the moment, which is useful for intimacy-related issues and attachment concerns.

Client-Centred Therapy focuses on listening with empathy and allowing the person to lead the conversation. This approach suits people who need a trusted space to talk through feelings like grief, emptiness or low mood.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, focuses on practical steps to change unhelpful thinking and behaviour. It is often used for anxiety, stress, sleep and some eating-related issues, with clear tools that people can practise between sessions.

Choosing the right approach is usually a joint process. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and what feels most helpful, then adapt methods as work progresses. That collaborative decision-making helps shape a plan that fits each person’s needs.

Online therapy offers flexibility in how sessions happen. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues, phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited, live chat can suit brief check-ins, and text messaging supports ongoing reflection between meetings. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, caring responsibilities and different life rhythms.