Contemporary Sexuality - February 2009 - (Page 7) Member Spotlight Nancy Garcia-Ruffin, PhD (Brooklyn, N.Y.) Member Spotlight is a monthly column offering an opportunity for AASECT members to get to know more about each other. Each month, a different member’s story will be introduced. If you would like to recommend someone to be interviewed for this column, please contact Hani Miletski, PhD, MSW, Membership Steering Committee chair, at Hani@DrMiletski.com. N ancy Garcia-Ruffin became involved with AASECT two years ago. “I have always been very comfortable talking about sex and sexuality,” she says. “I guess my clients picked up on my openness by sharing intimate details of all aspects of their lives.” At the same time, while supervising clinicians that were just starting out, and in talking to seasoned psychotherapists, Garcia-Ruffin discovered that other clinicians were getting very little sexuality information from their clients. “I realized they weren’t getting any of this information because they were afraid to ask,” she says. Garcia-Ruffin learned that the more she asked, the more information she received. “Being open and non-judgmental is a great place to start, but then what? I needed to obtain the skills necessary to address the myriad issues and problems that came up from merely asking. That’s what brought me to AASECT,” she says. Garcia-Ruffin decided to pursue individual supervision and training because there are no formal training opportunities in her area. She is in supervision with Philip Garippa, an AASECTcertified supervisor and she attends as many educational workshops as possible in her pursuit of certification as a sex therapist. “I attended my first AASECT conference in Charlotte in 2007 and was hooked,” she says. Garcia-Ruffin works 20 hours per week at the East New York Diagnostic and Treatment Center, a general mental health treatment program. Garcia-Ruffin has been at the clinic for six years and has been running the Adult Services unit for the past five years. She supervises an interdisciplinary team of eight professionals, including psychologists, social workers, nurse practitioners and a psychiatrist. Garcia-Ruffin applies what she has learned about sex therapy to her work with all clients, as she likes to think of her work as treating the whole person. She especially enjoys helping her staff feel more comfortable and knowledgeable assessing sexual issues when working with clients. February 2009 Vol. 43, No. 2 | www.aasect.org “We work with an underserved population fraught with psychosocial stressors including poverty, low education, inadequate housing and immigration/acculturation issues,” she says. “These folks generally don’t have the resources to find and pay for sex therapy. Most of them don’t even know that help is available for such problems. I feel fortunate to be able to spread the word and make these services available to people who wouldn’t ordinarily have access to them.” In 2003, Garcia-Ruffin graduated from Fordham University in Bronx, N.Y., with a doctorate degree in clinical psychology. She has a small private practice in Brooklyn that she started a year ago. “The best moment in my career was when I decided to start a private practice,” she says. “The thrill that I get from facing a new challenge is indescribable. It helps me discover strengths that I never knew I possessed.” Most of Garcia-Ruffin’s clients present with anxiety, depression and relationship issues. “I am working on increasing my couples and sex therapy cases,” she says. “Ideally, I would like to build a practice of diverse clients that will allow me to utilize different skills and techniques. That keeps things interesting and challenging for me.” In addition to sex therapy training, GarciaRuffin is also pursuing training in couples’ therapy because she believes one really needs training in both to be successful in either. She recently started a two-year program at the New York University Psychoanalytic Institute for more training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Garcia-Ruffin was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Brooklyn. “Although I came to the U.S. at a very early age, I grew up in a community rich in Puerto Rican culture,” she says. “So, while I have no memories of living in Puerto Rico, being Latina is a strong part of my identity.” Garcia-Ruffin has been married for eight years, and says, “I’ve been very fortunate to have the full support of my husband, Lance, in all of my professional endeavors.” Last year, the couple adopted Garcia-Ruffin’s 17-year-old nephew, Sage, who is now preparing for college next year. “This has been a life-transforming experience for all of us and has brought us tremendous joy,” she says. Many people have influenced her professional development. “One major influence in my career was probably my high school English teacher who told me that I shouldn’t major in psychology because I ‘wouldn’t accomplish much with a BA in psychology.’” — Hani Miletski “One major influence in my career was probably my high school English teacher who told me that I shouldn’t major in psychology because I ‘wouldn’t accomplish much with a BA in psychology.’” — Nancy GarciaRuffin Contemporary Sexuality 7 http://www.aasect.org
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