James Rusk, LICSW

James Rusk is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) with 17 years of clinical experience working with individuals across agency, private practice, and medical settings. He primarily identifies as a Narrative Therapist and integrates principles from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) along with psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, and mindfulness approaches to support clients in making sense of their life stories.

He views the process of shaping meaning from experience as central to well-being, and attends to how the narratives people hold about their past and future influence their present sense of self. Rusk emphasizes the importance of willing presence - the ability to stay with current experience - as a strong predictor of competence and improved coping, and he helps clients notice when they are struggling against their own experience in ways that create pain for themselves and others.

Rusk approaches therapy as a collaborative process in which the client is the expert on their own life and he brings trained therapeutic lenses without imposing a list of shoulds. He works with issues such as stress, anxiety, family and relationship concerns, grief, coping with life changes, addictions, LGBT-related matters, intimacy, parenting, self-esteem, career issues, bipolar disorder, depression, and compassion fatigue. He invites clients who are ready to engage with the deeper material of their inner life - even when that work feels daunting - to explore change together with respect and compassion.