Stacy Ruse, LPC

EMDR, IFS, and Somatic Trauma Educator

Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, is a licensed professional counselor, trauma educator, clinical consultant, author, and experienced yoga teacher whose work integrates Internal Family Systems–informed parts work, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, somatic approaches, polyvagal-informed practice, mindfulness, and transpersonal psychotherapy. She is the founder and owner of Aglow Counseling, a professional education and consultation platform offering courses, consultation groups, and resources for therapists and other helping professionals.

Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, teaches clinicians to approach complex trauma with both structure and flexibility. Her work emphasizes preparation, pacing, informed consent, nervous-system awareness, respect for protective responses, and the therapist’s capacity to remain present during emotionally demanding work. Instead of treating a modality as a rigid script, she encourages practitioners to understand why an intervention is being used, what the client’s system may be communicating, and when consultation or a slower pace is needed.

Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, is the author of IFS Made Simple: A Clinician’s Guide to Internal Family Systems Therapy. New Harbinger Publications lists the 256-page professional guide for publication in August 2026. The book presents a structured introduction to the phases of IFS practice and discusses integration with EMDR, CBT, DBT, mindfulness, neuroscience, and trauma recovery.

Professional Background

Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, earned a Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling and has worked as a psychotherapist, practice owner, clinical consultant, educator, and trainer. Her professional background includes individual therapy, trauma-focused practice, group-practice leadership, consultation, and continuing education for clinicians seeking to strengthen their work with trauma, attachment, dissociation, and emotional regulation.

Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, founded Aglow Counseling as a hub for therapist education, consultation, and integrative trauma resources. Her current public work centers primarily on workshops, courses, clinical consultation, writing, and resources that combine IFS-informed concepts, EMDR, somatic awareness, Polyvagal Theory, and transpersonal perspectives.

Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, is identified by current publisher and professional profiles as an Evergreen Approved EMDR Consultant. The EMDR International Association directory also lists her education in mental health counseling and EMDR consultation work. Her training emphasizes that EMDR is a complete, phased psychotherapy rather than a stand-alone bilateral-stimulation technique.

Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, is also an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher and has completed training in applied polyvagal-informed yoga for trauma. She incorporates mindfulness, breath, movement, sensory awareness, and embodiment into professional education while maintaining that body-based exercises should be optional, culturally responsive, and adapted for clients who may find inward attention activating.

Her training has been offered through organizations including PESI, Psychotherapy Networker, nScience, eCare Behavioral Health, The Embody Lab, and other continuing education providers. Current PESI disclosures identify her as the owner of Aglow Counseling, a consultant and trainer, and a paid consultant for Evergreen Certifications.

Areas of Expertise

Internal Family Systems–Informed Parts Work. Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, helps clinicians understand protective parts, vulnerable parts, internal polarization, and Self-led qualities through a compassionate, non-pathologizing lens. Her teaching encourages therapists to build relationships with protective responses before approaching painful material. Clinical Events’ Demystifying Internal Family Systems Therapy provides related background on parts, protectors, and Self-leadership.

EMDR and Trauma Reprocessing. Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, teaches EMDR through its full treatment structure, including history taking, preparation, target assessment, reprocessing, installation, body scan, closure, and reevaluation. Her approach gives particular attention to readiness, dissociation, target selection, stabilization, and the integration of parts-oriented or somatic strategies when clinically appropriate. Clinical Events’ How EMDR Works offers complementary guidance on EMDR’s phases and clinical application.

Complex Trauma and Dissociation. Ruse’s education examines how prolonged or relational trauma may affect attachment, identity, self-worth, emotional regulation, bodily activation, and the ability to remain present. Dissociation may appear as detachment, numbness, depersonalization, derealization, memory disruption, or reduced awareness of internal experience. Her teaching supports phase-oriented treatment, careful screening, and consultation for presentations that exceed a clinician’s current competence. Clinical Events’ guide to treating complex PTSD addresses related assessment and treatment considerations.

Somatic and Polyvagal-Informed Practice. Her somatic teaching helps clinicians notice posture, breath, movement impulses, sensations, orientation, activation, and settling without assuming that every bodily response proves a specific trauma history. Practices may include grounding, environmental orientation, gentle movement, sensory tracking, or paced awareness. Clinical Events’ somatic therapy techniques guide provides additional discussion of titration, resourcing, interoception, and clinical cautions.

Transpersonal and Mindfulness-Informed Therapy. Ruse includes mindfulness, meaning, spirituality, imagination, and values within an integrative clinical framework. These dimensions may be important to clients, but they require consent and respect for differing religious, spiritual, and nonreligious perspectives. Transpersonal concepts should support the client’s goals rather than impose the therapist’s worldview or replace appropriate assessment and evidence-informed treatment.

Attachment, Shame, and Protective Strategies. Ruse examines how attachment disruption and repeated relational stress may contribute to perfectionism, emotional withdrawal, people-pleasing, hypervigilance, control, or difficulty receiving support. Rather than labeling these patterns as irrational, her teaching considers the protective purpose they may have served. Treatment can then focus on increasing choice, strengthening present-day safety, and developing less punitive relationships with vulnerable experiences.

Therapist Presence and Ethical Integration. Her approach gives attention to the clinician’s own regulation, assumptions, urgency, and emotional responses. Therapist presence is not a substitute for competence, documentation, consultation, or adherence to professional standards. It is a relational capacity that can help clinicians notice when they are moving too quickly, becoming overly certain, or using a favored model in ways that do not fit the client.

Clinical Consultation and Therapist Development. Her consultation and training support clinicians working with EMDR, parts work, complex trauma, dissociation, somatic methods, and integrative case conceptualization. Consultation may help therapists recognize blind spots, refine pacing, clarify modality boundaries, and identify when additional supervision, specialized training, or referral is required.

Authored Publications

New Harbinger verifies the following professional title, which is scheduled for publication in August 2026.

• IFS Made Simple: A Clinician’s Guide to Internal Family Systems Therapy