Ruth Anthony-McClary, LCSW
Licensed in New Jersey · 30 years in practice
Ruth Anthony-McClary offers a calm, steady presence for people who are feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, grief, or life changes.
License and registration
- LCSW, New Jersey
- 44SC04805000 · expires August 2026
- NPI
- 1164504031 · national provider identifier
- Years in practice
- 30
- Languages
- English
Details are as listed on the therapist's public professional profile. You can check any license with the state board and any NPI with the national registry.
About Ruth
Ruth Anthony-McClary offers a calm, steady presence for people who are feeling overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, grief, or life changes. She is a licensed clinical social worker with 30 years of experience and focuses on helping people strengthen coping skills and build healthier day-to-day routines. She listens with respect and adapts conversations to each person’s needs.
Sessions center on practical steps someone can try between meetings, such as new ways to handle strong emotions or small changes that improve mood.
Background and approach
Her tone is compassionate and direct, aimed at results rather than jargon. Ruth uses approaches that help people understand how their relationships and past experiences affect current feelings. She helps people notice unhelpful patterns and try different responses.
Conversations often include clear strategies for managing anxiety, improving communication, and easing grief. Over three decades in practice, Ruth has worked with a wide range of concerns including trauma and abuse, parenting stress, chronic illness, career strain, and compassion fatigue. She also supports people dealing with attachment issues, adoption and foster care questions, body image, and coping after disasters.
Her session style blends collaborative listening with skill-building techniques. Clients can expect an individualized plan and concrete next steps after sessions. Ruth aims to make the work feel manageable, one step at a time.
Focus areas and approaches
Everything Ruth lists on their public professional profile, in their own terms.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Self esteem
- Depression
- Relationship issues
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- Parenting issues
- Anger management
- Career difficulties
- Bipolar disorder
- Coping with life changes
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Control issues
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Forgiveness
- Hoarding
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Postpartum depression
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual dysfunction
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Approaches Ruth names
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Systemic Therapy
Naming an approach is not evidence of training in it. This directory copies what each therapist lists and does not check training records.
Online support
How Ruth’s Approaches Translate to Online Therapy
Ruth uses attachment-based work to help people see how early and close relationships shape current feelings and reactions. This approach can help with intimacy concerns, abandonment worries, and improving communication by tracking patterns that repeat in relationships.She also uses client-centered therapy, which means sessions begin with listening and following the person’s priorities. That makes it easier to tailor goals and to try small changes that feel doable. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is another tool she brings in to break down unhelpful thoughts and practice new behaviors step by step, which can be useful for anxiety, depression, and coping with change.
Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. Ruth will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences. She adjusts the plan over time based on what is helpful and what is not.
Online therapy offers flexibility in how sessions take place. Video calls let participants use visual cues and a conversational flow similar to in-person meetings. Phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is limited or a quieter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging work well for brief check-ins, coaching-style suggestions, or people who prefer writing over speaking. These formats make it simpler to fit therapy into a busy life and to keep steady progress between meetings.
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Questions people ask
What kinds of problems does Ruth help address?
She helps people with stress, anxiety, depression, trauma and abuse, grief, relationship and intimacy concerns, parenting strain, career issues, bipolar disorder, and coping with life changes.
What is her general approach in sessions?
Sessions are collaborative and down-to-earth, combining client-centered listening with techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness to build coping skills and change unhelpful patterns.
How long has she worked in clinical practice?
Ruth brings 30 years of clinical social work experience to her practice, which informs her range of strategies and practical guidance.
Where is Ruth licensed and based?
She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in New Jersey and practices from that state.
Which languages are supported for sessions?
Sessions are offered in English.
What formats are available for meeting online?
Ruth offers video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging so people can choose what fits their schedule and comfort level.
How is cost handled for sessions?
Cost varies with location and therapist availability and sessions use a subscription model that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin working with her?
Start by selecting the Start Therapy button, complete the short matching questionnaire, and then schedule sessions according to therapist availability.
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