About Ruth
Ruth Westfall is a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) with 30 years of clinical experience. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, trauma, and depression using practical skills and steady support. Ruth aims to make therapy clear and workable for everyday life.
She has worked extensively with survivors of trauma and with people affected by crime. During the COVID-19 pandemic she supported clients at a public health center alongside a psychiatric nurse practitioner and saw how prolonged stress shows up across health, work, and relationships.
Background and approach
That experience shaped her emphasis on coping skills and paced recovery. Ruth uses person-centered care and evidence-informed tools like cognitive behavioral approaches, dialectical behavior strategies, mindfulness, and motivational interviewing. Sessions often focus on manageable steps - learning to notice patterns, shifting thinking, and practicing new behaviors.
She also incorporates body-focused techniques when helpful. Her practice addresses a wide range of concerns including parenting strain, grief, anger, low self-esteem, career questions, relationship stress, and mood disorders such as bipolar and seasonal affective disorder. She also supports those facing caregiver burnout, isolation, sexual assault, and domestic violence recovery.
Ruth works with clients in Michigan and offers several online formats. She encourages people to build on their strengths and take gradual steps toward feeling better.
Therapeutic approaches adapted for online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on the person’s goals and experience. The therapist listens closely, reflects what she hears, and helps clients set their own priorities; this approach is useful for people who want a supportive space to figure things out. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts, feelings, and actions connect. It helps with anxiety, panic, and mood problems by teaching practical exercises to test unhelpful thoughts and try different behaviors.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Ruth collaborates with each person to see which methods fit their needs and preferences. Together they try techniques, adjust the plan, and pick strategies that feel doable in daily life rather than following a one-size-fits-all path.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet. Video calls provide face-to-face interaction for skill teaching and coaching. Phone sessions work well when bandwidth is limited or when someone prefers not to be on camera. Live chat and text-based messaging suit shorter check-ins, progress notes, or quick coping reminders between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, caregiving, or other routines.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- 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
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