Ruthie's background

Ruthie Steinberg is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor specializing in Pediatrics and Family Issues. She is also a Parenting Coordinator and a Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator. She maintains a private practice in Palm City Florida.

With over twenty six years experience as a therapist, and as a graduate of Columbia University, specializing in Counseling Psychology, she is currently serving as a private practitioner working with a broad spectrum of clients. Ruthie began her career in 1990, working at New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center. She spent five years working there on the Child inpatient unit where she ran the therapeutic activites for the children ages four through twelve. She also developed a hospital wide adolescent program for adolescents who were admitted to adult units. Ruthie worked both individually and in group settings. She ran over twenty different groups including all the parent child groups and interventions. Ruthie developed a group for sexually abused children, ran it for four years and had it published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Group Therapy. She then taught other clinicians about her research and group.

Ruthie is unique as she will see people as young as three years old in her office. She is a child advocate and she believes in proactive treatment. That includes educating parents and when needed working collaboratively with doctors and teachers, and intervening when very young to avoid crises later in life. She believes in a team approach and constantly communicates with other professionals when needed and appropriate.

In addition to being a therapist and mediator, Ruthie has presented at several Bar Association functions in Indian River, Martin and Saint Lucie Counties speaking on issues of children and divorce and on Parenting Coordination. Ruthie was chosen to be on a panel for the Saint Lucie County Bar Association where she represented the parenting coordination perspective. In addition, she has guest lectured several times at Indian River State College where she taught a class on Abnormal Psychology in Children. In addition, she co-led a seminar for attorneys and therapists about therapists testifying in court.

Ruthie is an extremely eclectic therapist who provides individualized treatment plans for all of her clients. She is passionate about all of her clients well being and she is a strong child advocate.

A Group Intervention Model for Sexual Abuse: Treatment and Education in an Inpatient Child Psychiatric Setting . Journal of Child and Adlescent Group Therapy , vol 4, pp.65-75 (January 1994).