Individual and couples psychotherapy in Kitchener-Waterloo and online across Ontario
When you have spent years being who others need, it can be hard to know what you need.
I work with adults and couples who are thoughtful, capable, and often used to carrying more than other people see. You may know how to keep the peace, anticipate what is needed, or make the responsible choice, yet feel less certain about what you feel or want. Therapy gives us time to understand how those patterns developed, what they still protect, and where you want more room to respond differently.
- In person in Kitchener
- Online across Ontario
- Sessions in English and Arabic
Meet Ruba
I work with adults who have become skilled at reading the room, carrying responsibility, and keeping life moving, often at the cost of hearing themselves. My approach is relational, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed. Family, culture, faith, migration, community, and earlier relationships can be explored without assuming those contexts are problems to escape.
Therapy is a space where you can begin listening more closely to yourself. Together, I can help you notice what comes up within you and in the therapy relationship, find words for experiences that have been difficult to express, and make choices that feel more grounded in clarity and self-trust.
- Professional title
- Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
- Registration
- CRPO no. 19051
- Languages
- English and Arabic
You may recognize yourself here
You have become very good at understanding other people. Understanding yourself is harder.
The details will be different for each person, but these are some of the moments that often bring my clients to therapy.
You notice what everyone else needs before you notice your own response.
Your attention moves quickly toward another person’s mood, comfort, or expectations. By the time you ask what you feel, the decision may already have been made.
Explore individual therapyYou agree in the moment, then feel tired, resentful, or trapped later.
Accommodating may protect a relationship or prevent conflict. It can also leave your limits and preferences without a place in the conversation.
Explore people-pleasing and boundariesSomeone else’s disapproval makes you doubt a decision you had considered carefully.
Part of you may know what you want while another part keeps searching for reassurance, certainty, or a way to disappoint no one.
Explore anxiety and overthinkingYou want something to change, but the consequences for connection and belonging feel real.
A boundary, change in faith, relationship decision, or new direction may affect people you love. Therapy can take those consequences seriously without losing sight of your own experience.
Explore culture, family, and identityDifferent concerns, related experiences
What may be bringing therapy to mind
Anxiety, overthinking, and perfectionism
Your mind keeps reviewing, preparing, or looking for certainty because getting it wrong feels difficult to tolerate.
Explore Anxiety, overthinking, and perfectionism
Stress, burnout, and over-responsibility
You are still functioning, but the amount you carry no longer leaves enough room for recovery.
Explore Stress, burnout, and over-responsibility
People-pleasing, boundaries, and self-trust
You adapt quickly to preserve connection and then struggle to recognize what you need or believe.
Explore People-pleasing, boundaries, and self-trust
Culture, family, faith, and belonging
Personal choices carry relational, cultural, spiritual, or community consequences that simple advice overlooks.
Explore Culture, family, faith, and belonging
Grief, transition, and changing identity
A person, role, belief, relationship, or expected future has changed, and you are trying to understand what remains.
Explore Grief, transition, and changing identity
Low mood, disconnection, and loss of direction
Daily life takes more effort, and the people, activities, or parts of yourself that once felt close now seem difficult to reach.
Explore Low mood, disconnection, and loss of directionWhat intentional living means here
Not a perfect life. More room to respond as yourself.
Understand what has become automatic
A quick agreement, a harsh inner response, or the urge to check one more time may feel like “just who you are.” We can slow the moment down and become curious about what you expected might happen, what the response was trying to protect, and why it became so familiar. Understanding a pattern does not remove responsibility for its impact. It gives you more information about where a different response may become possible.
Make room for your own experience
You may be highly practiced at considering everyone else’s position while dismissing, delaying, or questioning your own. Therapy can help you notice emotions, preferences, anger, grief, and limits before they disappear beneath obligation or self-criticism. The purpose is not to place your needs above every relationship. It is to make sure that you are also present in the decisions that shape your life.
Choose without abandoning connection
Greater agency does not have to mean rejecting interdependence, family responsibility, culture, faith, or care for other people. We can think carefully about the values you want to keep, the consequences a choice may carry, and the places where fear or guilt has been making the decision for you. Change may be gradual, relational, and imperfect while still being meaningful.
How therapy begins
You don’t need to know the whole story before the first conversation.
Consultation
A free 30-minute virtual consultation gives you time to describe what is bringing therapy to mind, ask practical questions, and get a sense of how I work. It is not a therapy session or a commitment to continue.
First session
We begin with what feels most present. I will review consent and confidentiality, ask questions, and start learning about the relationships, experiences, and contexts that may matter. You don’t need to disclose everything at once.
Ongoing work
Together, we decide what deserves attention. Some sessions may be reflective, some more practical, and some may hold mixed feelings that don’t resolve quickly. We can revisit the pace, direction, and fit as the work develops.
Common questions
Do I need a clear goal before beginning?
No. You can begin with a recent situation, a feeling that keeps returning, a relationship difficulty, or the sense that the way you have been coping is no longer sustainable. A clearer direction can develop through the first few conversations.
Will therapy focus only on my past?
No. We may explore earlier experiences when they help explain why something in the present feels especially powerful or familiar. The purpose is not to remain in the past, but to understand what it may still be organizing now and what choices are available to you.
Does culturally responsive therapy mean culture must be the focus?
No. Culture, faith, migration, racialization, family, and community are available for discussion when they matter to the concern. They don’t need to become the subject of every session, and I will ask rather than assume what any part of your identity means to you.
Office location
In-person psychotherapy in Kitchener and online therapy across Ontario
944 King Street WestKitchener, ON N2G 1G4In-person sessions are available by appointment at 944 King Street West in Kitchener. Virtual individual and couples therapy is available to clients who are physically located in Ontario at the time of the session. Current format and scheduling options can be discussed during the consultation.
Begin with the part that has been taking up the most room.
You can use the consultation to ask questions and describe the concern in general terms. You don’t need to decide exactly what it means or how therapy should address it before reaching out.