Joy Rufener, MA, LMHC, LPCC  
Art Psychotherapist

Hi, I’m Joy! I’m from Seattle, WA, and I live in Southern California. I am an art therapist, intuitive energy worker, and artist. My pronouns are she/they. 

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I am a queer therapist familiar with non-traditional relationship structures. I have 14 years of experience working with a variety of populations and presenting issues including adults with grief, anxiety, depression, trauma, LGBTQ+ issues, and relationship issues. I often help people explore their identity and spirituality. At a rapidly increasing rate, I hold space for immense grief about the state of the world. 

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The way I work with clients involves internal exploration in service of external change, both personally and collectively. The world around us impacts us personally, and is often a great source of suffering to us. This shows up in our childhood environment, current environment, family and ancestry, cultural and societal systems, and more. We too have an impact outward, and I enjoy working with people who are intentional about creating a better world.  

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By paying attention to symbols and archetypes emerging in our lives (such as through dream exploration, artmaking, tarot imagery, astrology, mythology, or even which media we are drawn to) we can understand ourselves, where we are in a cycle, and find guidance. 

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I also work with clients to explore the many parts of self within and how they work together (or don’t). I often use experiential techniques to help you interact with these parts. These experiences can feel spiritual and deep, and people are often able to access deep compassion towards themselves, locating inner resource that seemed inaccessible before. Many people have a taste of this process with the concept of “inner child work”, but this goes way beyond that. Have you ever had a conversation with your inner teenager? Inner critic? Maybe even your inner crone?    

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My approach also focuses on much more than the mind. Working on becoming more embodied not only opens us up to healing life’s difficult experiences stored in our bodies, but this process puts us in touch with our greatest intuitive tool. It is also much easier to connect to others if we are connected to ourselves in this way.  

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The "psych" in "psychotherapy/psychology/psychiatry" originated from the word "psyche" or "soul", and much of the field today has strayed from seeing it that way. But I see what I do truly as assisting people in soul work, both personally and for the Anima Mundi, soul of the world.