Registered Clinical Counsellor
Professional Associate of the Neufeld Institute
Auckland, New Zealand
Ruth McConnell is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (Canada) with more than 20 years experience as a counsellor. She trained and worked in Scotland and Canada before moving to New Zealand 5 years ago. She is currently working as Senior Lecturer in the School of Counselling at Laidlaw College and in Private Practice. She specializes in Attachment issues both in adults and children; her clinical work involves counselling couples and individuals experiencing relationship difficulties, depression and anxiety. She completed her MA (Honours) in Social Anthropology and Psychology at Aberdeen University, followed by a Ph.D in Counselling Psychology from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. She has authored several journal articles and conference papers on the effects of separation and divorce on children, and has regularly led Parenting courses in Vancouver, Canada as well as Professional Development training for counsellors. While in Vancouver, Ruth trained with Gordon Neufeld as a facilitator for his Power to Parent courses so she provides parent consulting on behavioural and emotional issues in children and adolescents from a developmental, attachment based framework. Ruth grew up in the Amazon region of Brazil as the daughter of Scottish missionaries. She lives in Red Beach, north of Auckland and is married to Mark; they have two teenage daughters.