About Ruth
Ruth Westfall is a licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with 30 years of clinical experience. She focuses on somatic work alongside talk-based therapy to help people who are coping with long-term stress, trauma, anxiety, and mood concerns. Ruth writes and talks plainly about how these issues can show up in everyday life and offers practical ways to respond.
She has spent decades supporting people affected by trauma and victims of crime, and later worked in a public health setting with a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
Background and approach
That experience shaped her view that trauma and stress can affect physical health, relationships, work, and schooling. She points out how these effects can persist for years and become part of daily life. Ruth uses client-centered methods to help people identify strengths and goals.
She combines cognitive behavioral techniques and mindfulness to teach concrete coping skills for anxiety, panic, and depression. Somatic methods add attention to bodily experience and regulation when stress feels overwhelming. Her approach is straightforward and collaborative.
Sessions focus on what is useful now - reducing panic, managing mood swings, or improving sleep and energy. She also addresses caregiver stress, grief, domestic violence aftermath, and issues related to identity and relationships. Ruth practices in Michigan and sees people in English.
She encourages a paced process where people learn skills, notice change, and build on small successes over time.
Approaches that connect body and skills in online care
Ruth uses somatic work to help people notice how stress appears in the body and to develop breath, grounding, and movement strategies that reduce physical arousal. This approach can be useful for panic, post-traumatic stress, and persistent tension that feels stuck in the body.She also uses client-centered methods that place the person’s experience at the center of the session. That means the therapist follows each person’s pace and priorities, building on what already works for them. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, is included when the focus turns to changing unhelpful thoughts and building concrete coping skills for anxiety, depression, and mood swings.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will listen to symptoms, goals, and preferences, and together they will try methods that feel doable. Sessions can shift over time as needs change, mixing somatic practices, mindfulness moments, and practical skill work.
Online sessions are offered by video, by phone, or through live chat and text-based messaging, which adds flexibility for busy schedules or limited mobility. These formats let people access regular support without travel, and they make it easier to maintain steady practice between sessions.
Frequently asked questions
What concerns does Ruth commonly help with?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How long has she been practicing?
Where is Ruth licensed and based?
What languages are supported for sessions?
Can people outside the U.S. work with her?
What session formats are available?
How are fees and getting started handled?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Parenting issues
Also works with
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Domestic violence
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Mood disorders
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Post-traumatic stress
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 30 years
- Licensed
- Michigan
- Languages
- English