Stephanie Ruberto Psychologist

Stephanie is a psychologist with experience working with children, adolescents and adults. Her training is in clinical psychology and she has a focus on working with psychological disorders and emotional difficulties. She has been trained in a wide range of evidence-based therapy approaches including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness, interpersonal therapy, mindful self compassion, psychodynamic and acceptance and commitment therapy. She has had experience in a range of settings including youth public mental health, primary and secondary schools, university settings and community counselling and health services. Her warm person centred approach helps people to process difficult emotions and grief from the past and understand the patterns in their life that are contributing to distress. Her approach also involves helping people to understand what is missing in their life and helping them to connect to their inner thoughts and needs so they can become their authentic self and feel connected to others and their lives. By focussing on emotional experiences in the body and finding methods for emotional expression, people learn ways to manage emotions and feel able to cope with life’s difficulties and build resilience. She also helps people to develop compassion and kindness towards themselves and their life circumstances which assists them to continue living their lives despite experiencing distress. She also works with children experiencing emotional or behavioural problems, loss, transition or trauma. She engages these children and helps them to feel safe so they can process through play what might be occurring and find ways to express and regulate their emotions. Her areas of speciality include: • Anxiety, stress and depression in children, adolescents and adults • Emotional problems such as feelings of emptiness, mood swings, sadness or frequent anger • Difficulty feeling connected to others or interpersonal difficulties • Working with people in the creative arts including acting, music and visual arts who are struggling with feelings arising from their work • Those feeling lost or disconnected from themselves and their life or struggling with their sense of self or self-esteem • Children, youth and adults experiencing difficulties transitioning to new life stages (high school to university, changing schools, starting employment) or experiencing grief or complex emotions due to health issues or loss of a loved one, relationship or job • Study or work difficulties in children, youth or adults including procrastination, feeling of disconnection, perfectionism, low motivation or feeling unable to complete work or study tasks • Parenting difficulties including post natal depression, caring for a child with illness or disability • Grief, loss or trauma • Psychosomatic difficulties, chronic illness, chronic headaches or migraines, chronic fatigue or requiring management of health difficulties • Children with a sibling with chronic illness, intellectual disability or autism • Technology overuse that might impacting on studying, work or mental wellbeing