Mitzy D. Ruelas (she/her/hers/ella)

I will support you in processing cultural or societal discourses related to self-advocacy and boundaries. I will help you understand the roots of such discourses and how you internalized them. Using a strength-based approach to identify opportunities for self-advocacy and boundary setting that feel natural to you.

You will learn insight and awareness to recognize how certain presenting concerns may be connected to the lessons passed down generations, what you observed growing up, and even epigenetics. We will peel back the layers of culture, socialization, and political history to gain a better understanding of you and your world view. With this newfound insight and awareness, we will work on breaking unhealthy generational patterns, process your values, and develop agency to create generational healing.

I will help you build an understanding of what your body feels when you are experiencing anxiety and develop grounding skills to manage it. To address the root cause, we will identify and deconstruct the internal narrative that creates anxiety for you. Often, anxiety is rooted in worrying about (or living in) the future and fearing the lack of control and the unknown. Together, we will build alternative narratives that allow you to be in the present moment.

We will address your concerns in relation to your intersecting identities (i.e., race, gender, sexual orientation, mental and physical ability, class, etc.) and sociopolitics/history. If you’re experiencing imposter syndrome, your self-concept may be defined by internalized microaggressions. Do you doubt your abilities because of your lack of achievement or years of racism, sexism, heterosexism, patriarchy, and other “isms”? By finding the origin of your symptoms, you can find true healing.

We focus on understanding your emotions in order to understand your emotional needs and build healthy ways of meeting those needs for yourself. By understanding your presenting concern then, exploring the negative patterns (i.e.,negative self-talk, self-sabotage, etc.) we can start to identify the underlying emotion and unmet needs (i.e., being seen, validated, etc.). With this knowledge, we work on changing your interaction patterns with yourself and others by voicing your needs and emotions.

Reclaim your power by finding your voice and tell your life story in our own words. Telling your story, allows you to re-define and re-author experiences that make you you. Thus, in therapy I listen to your story, explore unique-outcomes, and create a safe space for you to re-author a congruent life story. By externalizing your behavioral and emotional symptoms, deconstructing the language in your story telling and incorporating strength-based language you can reclaim your story.