About MindEmbody Therapy
The Part You Can’t Think Your Way Through
Coming to therapy is harder when you’re good at things.
You’ve solved bigger problems than this one: budgets, teams, households, other people’s emergencies. And here you are on a therapist’s About page, quietly irritated that this is the part you can’t think your way through.
That irritation is useful, and it’s the first thing we’ll put to work.
You’ll Work with Someone Who Talks Back
Therapy with me is interactive. We work off the strengths you already bring and open a dialogue about what isn’t working.
I’ve had a lot of therapy myself, good and bad. The ones I didn’t like sat back and asked how that made me feel. I run mine as a conversation.
Expect questions. Expect me to remember what you said three weeks ago, because I don’t take notes while you’re talking.
Being fully in the room is most of this job. The other part is less comfortable.
I’m Not Shy! I Will Challenge You
You have faced and overcome challenges to get to where you are at. I won’t shy away from continuing to challenge you in the name of your personal growth.
I strike a balance between validating your struggle and pushing you to overcome it. What I hear back is some version of “I didn’t feel like you were just yessing me.”
That balance is also why my clients describe a comfort and warmth in our interactions that they’re often not finding elsewhere in their lives.
Warmth is what lets the challenge land.
Take Five Deep Breaths. You’ll Feel It.
Fairfield County has a low tolerance for hooey, and so do I. Nobody is asking you to sit on a rock in lotus position for five hours.
So I explain the mechanics instead.
Take five deep breaths and your nervous system comes down. You can feel it happen in your own chest.
Once you understand why your heart races before a hard conversation, the tools stop sounding like a wellness trend.
Your Thoughts Are Not Facts
That sentence does more work in my office than any technique I could name. We go after the thoughts that run on a loop and fact-check them, because your brain treats a fear like a certainty.
The first time you catch one mid-loop, something moves.
Noticing the Pattern Is Your First Real Win
You’ve been practicing these patterns of thinking and feeling for forty-some-odd years. Turning that around inside a year is fast, though it rarely feels fast.
Clients tell me “nothing’s happening, it’s been two months.”
So I count the small things. When you walk in and say “I noticed I did the thing again,” that’s the hinge the rest of it swings on.
None of the real work happens in my office. It happens in Thursday’s conversation with your partner, and in the tools you keep long after our last session.
About Rebecca Ruff, MA, LPC, NCC
I have lived the life a lot of my clients are living.
Before I was a therapist, I worked in the corporate world. High demand, long hours, and a running argument with myself about work/life balance, time management, and whether leisure was something I was allowed.
A marriage, a divorce, and parenting all came before the license, too. So when you tell me you’re succeeding at everything and enjoying almost none of it, nothing has to be translated.
Through the same work we’ll do together, I found my way toward presence and contentment. Now I want to share that process with you, and I have the training behind it.
What Qualifies Me to Push You
I am a licensed professional counselor in the State of Connecticut, with a master’s in Clinical Mental Health from Fairfield University. I’m also a National Certified Counselor and a member of the American Counseling Association.
My training focused on anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationships. What I reach for depends on you: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness are where I usually land, dialectical skills (DBT) when feelings outrun you, Internal Family Systems (IFS) when two parts of you want opposite things.
If the real question is what all of this is for, I’ll go down the existential road with you. Underneath all of it is neuroscience: your brain and your body are what I find most interesting, and that curiosity doesn’t clock out at five.
Outside of the Room
I’m playing with my dog, or cooking and baking up a storm. I also love getting out on my motorcycle.
Let’s Start the Dialogue
Plenty of people keep a therapist’s page open for weeks before doing anything. Fifteen minutes on the phone will tell you more than another week of thinking.
Call me at (475) 215-2634 or email mindembodytherapy@gmail.com, and let’s set up your free 15-minute consultation. I see clients in Weston and online throughout Connecticut.
Step Into Modern Empowerment
If the part about not being heard is the part that landed, bring me that one first.
The first call is free and runs about 15 minutes. Reach me at (475) 215-2634 or send a few lines to mindembodytherapy@gmail.com.
It can come out clumsy the first time. Understanding it is my job.