Folktown Counseling Adds Art Therapy to Services with Joy Carin Rufener, LMHCA

Seattle, WA, April 10, 2014 --(PR.com)-- Folktown Counseling has added a third counselor to its staff in an effort to expand services to residents of Ballard and surrounding neighborhoods. Joy Carin Rufener, LMHCA, will join Folktown founder Robert Deeble, LMHC and Karen Kirsch LMHC, at Folktown's offices at 1900 NW Dock Place in historic Old Ballard. Rufener practices Art Therapy as a method of psychotherapy that originally emerged on the east coast in the early 1970s and has now become more prevalent in the west in the last couple of decades.

"We're excited to welcome Joy as her specialty in Art Therapy truly expands our services within the community and enables us to broaden the types of therapy we provide," said Deeble. "Like relational therapy, we believe art therapy is transformational—a great fit for this neighborhood. We're passionate about it and want to see it help change lives."

Those who practice art therapy know that art-making in itself is therapeutic. Most art therapists utilize the art-making process as a vehicle for expression and integration in conjunction with psychotherapy. Art therapists practice from varying theoretical orientations and use art-making in ways most conducive to their therapeutic style and, most importantly, to what fits best for the client. The therapeutic relationship between therapist and client is always of utmost importance and where transformation begins.

Says Folktown's Rufener, who received her masters at Antioch University Seattle, "I view therapy as a journey we are on together. Discoveries made through art-making help us understand our path toward healing and wholeness. In an environment of personal creativity and innate wisdom of both therapist and client, I have found the therapy experience to be more helpful and meaningful."

Rufener is accepting new clients and is available by appointment, she can be reached at 206 206-890-6123.

About Folktown Counseling

Located amid the blue collar bars and quirky restaurants of brick-lined Ballard Avenue, Folktown Counseling (http://www.folktowncounseling.com/therapists_JC.html) fits right in with the old charm of Ballard's historic buildings and mid century aesthetics. Folktown has been housed upstairs in the historic Hansen building, once a bar itself, since 2005.

Folktown's name was inspired by its surroundings, says Deeble. "We wanted a name that described the community we worked in. Given Ballard's Greenwich-Village-like feel and artistic leanings, the name just seemed to fit."

"People often come to see us for a particular concern," says Deeble, "but we hope that that the counseling experience brings about a sense of positive growth, not merely a reduction in negative symptoms. That's what interpersonal approach at the heart of relational psychology is intended to achieve."