About Erika
Erika Rucker is a licensed professional counselor who centers somatic awareness in her work. She brings a calm, practical style to sessions and focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, relationships, trauma, grief, depression, and addiction. Erika is based in West Virginia and conducts sessions in English.
She keeps sessions grounded and straightforward. She listens for what feels stuck in the body as well as in the story. Erika blends somatic work with attachment-based and client-centered methods to help people notice patterns and try different responses.
Background and approach
Cognitive tools from CBT and emotion regulation skills from DBT are added when they help reach goals. Erika has three years of counseling experience and an LPC license in West Virginia. She has worked with concerns such as parenting strain, intimacy problems, body image, chronic pain and illness, caregiver stress, and substance use.
She also supports people dealing with grief, sleep problems, career stress, and ADHD-related challenges. In session she aims to build trust and practical steps. Conversations often include breathing, body awareness, simple skills practice, and clearer communication strategies.
The work is collaborative and paced to what each person can handle. To begin, clients complete a brief matching questionnaire and schedule a time to meet. Erika uses a subscription model for sessions that can be canceled at any time, with formats that include video calls, phone, live chat, and text messaging.
How somatic and attachment approaches work online
Somatic work helps people notice how stress and emotion show up in the body through breath, tension, or posture; online sessions use guided attention and simple in-the-moment practices to build that awareness and reduce reactivity. Attachment-based therapy looks at how early relationship patterns affect current connections; it helps people understand their needs and try new ways of relating in everyday life.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist collaborates with each person to mix somatic awareness, attachment-focused exploration, and client-centered listening based on goals and comfort. Together they try methods and adjust the plan until it fits the person's needs and pace.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to make therapy flexible. These options let people choose what feels most manageable that week, whether that is a live conversation or ongoing messaging for check-ins. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into busy days and access support from home or work.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Co-morbidity
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Hypnotherapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 3 years
- Licensed
- West Virginia
- Languages
- English