Ruth Cano

Hi. My name is Ruth Cano and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I believe in meeting my clients where they are at in their therapeutic journey. I aspire to create a non-judgmental and welcoming environment to walk together in therapeutic goal progress.

My approach

As part of the therapeutic process, I strive to provide support from a solution-focused theory combined with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to support explored goals and develop tools my clients can utilize in their daily lives.

My focus

I have 8 years of working experience with children, adolescents, and their families who come from challenging parenting backgrounds and are exposed to many stressors within the home and school settings. I have many years treating clients at risk of suicidal ideation and extensive work in safety planning with clients and their families that are at risk.

My communication style

During the time I have with my clients, I strive to create a warm and welcoming environment met with curiosity to develop an understanding of one's life journey. If you are willing to explore aspects of your life and experiences, I will meet you there and explore ways to thrive, not just survive.

My journey to mental healthcare

After graduating with my B.S. in psychology, I realized there was a great need for therapists. I completed my M.S. in counseling psychology and quickly went on to utilize my newly developed skills and educational experience. I gained experience working in a homeless shelter for 1 year counseling individuals and facilitating weekly groups. I also dabbled as an A.B.A technician for 6 months but learned quickly that type of one-to-one experience was not for me. I counseled individual children and adolescents in the school setting for 1 year to support their social and emotional goals that were part of their IEPs. During my time working one-on-one with children and adolescents I wanted to find a way to bridge the gap between the home and school setting by supporting children and adolescents individually and collaboratively with their families and school teams to support goal progress. I discovered my role as Family Case Manager which provided me with just what I was looking for. For the past 7 years, I have provided IEP social and emotional goal support to families and their children who come from various diagnoses including ADHD, ODD, mood disorders, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and ASD. These children and families come from many backgrounds that include foster parenting, kinship parenting (children raised by grandparents or close blood relatives), single-parent families, divorced or separated-parent families, and guardianship families. I have many years of experience assessing for the safety of clients who are at risk or experiencing suicidal thoughts or attempts.

My goals for you

I like to explore the capacity for which an individual can reach their goals and develop goals together that are realistic and achievable. If goals appear challenging, I will assist in exploring challenges and highlight progress that is made to reflect on goals overall and augment them to clients' needs.

My first session with you

During my first session, I will be getting to know you, your experiences, your relationships with others including your family, your views, your strengths, your challenges, and any other significant historical factors that you feel I should know before diving into any therapeutic work. I would also like to know what goals you would like to achieve during therapy and ways you see yourself achieving them.