Stacy Ruse, LPC

Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, is an internationally recognized trauma educator, licensed professional counselor, clinical consultant, author, and experienced yoga teacher specializing in Internal Family Systems, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, somatic psychotherapy, polyvagal-informed practice, and transpersonal approaches to healing.

She is the founder of Aglow Counseling, a professional education and consultation practice offering trauma-focused courses, clinical consultation, experiential learning, and resources for therapists and other healing professionals. Her approach brings together evidence-informed psychotherapy, nervous-system awareness, mindfulness, embodiment, compassion, and respect for the personal meaning clients bring to treatment.

Known for a warm, practical, and down-to-earth teaching style, Stacy helps clinicians understand complex trauma concepts without reducing therapy to rigid scripts. Her professional education emphasizes both technical competence and the quality of presence therapists bring into their work.

Professional Background of Stacy Ruse

Stacy Ruse earned a Master of Science in Mental Health Counseling and has worked as a psychotherapist, clinical director, practice owner, consultant, mentor, and professional trainer. Her experience includes private practice, group-practice leadership, DBT skills-group work, clinical consultation, and education for national and international behavioral-health organizations.

She founded Stacy Ruse Counseling and later Stacy Ruse Counseling Group before developing Aglow Counseling as a wider platform for therapist education, consultation, and trauma-focused professional resources. Her current work places significant emphasis on supporting clinicians who want to integrate trauma treatment with greater confidence, sensitivity, and clinical flexibility.

Stacy has presented through organizations including PESI, Psychotherapy Networker, The Embody Lab, nScience, eCare Behavioral Health, and other continuing-education providers. Her educational programs address EMDR, IFS, complex trauma, dissociation, attachment, somatic awareness, and nervous-system regulation.

Internal Family Systems Therapy

Internal Family Systems is a central area of clinical practice and professional education for Stacy Ruse. IFS offers a non-pathologizing framework for understanding the mind as an internal system containing different emotional and protective parts.

A client may have one part that wants closeness while another fears dependence. One part may seek change while another relies on avoidance, perfectionism, emotional withdrawal, anger, or control to prevent additional pain. These reactions can appear contradictory, but each may represent an effort to protect the person from shame, rejection, danger, or emotional overwhelm.

IFS invites therapists to approach protective reactions with curiosity instead of immediately trying to eliminate them. Treatment may help clients identify parts, understand their protective roles, reduce internal conflict, and strengthen access to qualities associated with Self-leadership, including compassion, curiosity, clarity, courage, calm, and connection.

Stacy’s IFS teaching emphasizes the importance of respecting protective parts before moving toward painful or vulnerable material. Clinicians should not use parts work to pressure clients into recovering memories, disclosing trauma, or accessing emotionally intense experiences before sufficient safety and trust have been established.

Professionals interested in this framework can explore the Clinical Events resource Demystifying Internal Family Systems Therapy, which introduces parts, protective roles, internal polarization, and Self-leadership. Clinical Events also offers Ego States and Internal Family Systems in Trauma-Informed Work, a live training scheduled for November 7, 2026.

EMDR Therapy and Trauma Reprocessing

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is another defining area of expertise for Stacy Ruse. Her professional profiles identify her as an Evergreen Approved EMDR Consultant and an experienced educator who has helped therapists strengthen their understanding and application of EMDR.

EMDR is a structured psychotherapy developed to address distress associated with traumatic and disturbing experiences. It involves more than bilateral stimulation. Responsible EMDR treatment includes history-taking, preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation of adaptive beliefs, body scanning, closure, and reevaluation.

Stacy’s teaching helps therapists understand why preparation and pacing are essential. Before beginning intensive memory processing, clinicians may need to evaluate present-day safety, dissociation, emotional regulation, support systems, substance use, attachment concerns, physical health, and the client’s ability to return to relative stability after activation.

The EMDR International Association provides an authoritative overview of the model and its structured treatment phases. Clinical Events’ guide, How EMDR Works: Clinical Strategies for Trauma Reprocessing, further examines case formulation, bilateral stimulation, preparation, closure, and clinical applications.

Integrating IFS and EMDR

A distinctive part of Stacy’s work is the integration of IFS-informed parts work with EMDR therapy. These approaches can complement one another when clinicians remain clear about the purpose and structure of each model.

Before an EMDR target is processed, an IFS-informed therapist may explore whether protective parts fear the consequences of approaching the memory. One part may worry that the client will become overwhelmed. Another may believe that remaining vigilant is the only way to prevent future harm. A self-critical part may attempt to control the treatment by demanding immediate progress.

Instead of bypassing these responses, the therapist can acknowledge their protective purpose and develop greater internal cooperation. This may reduce treatment blocking, emotional flooding, avoidance, looping, or abrupt disconnection during trauma work.

Stacy’s professional course on IFS-informed EMDR addresses stuck processing, dissociation, blocking, protective responses, and the integration of experiential exercises with structured trauma treatment. The course is clearly identified as an integrative educational program rather than an official IFS Institute certification.

Clinicians should remain trained and competent in any model they use. Familiarity with IFS concepts does not automatically establish competence in EMDR, and completion of EMDR training does not automatically establish advanced competence in complex dissociation or parts-oriented treatment.

Complex Trauma and Dissociation

Stacy Ruse also teaches clinicians working with complex trauma, fragmentation, and dissociative responses. Complex trauma may affect identity, relationships, memory, emotional regulation, physical activation, trust, self-worth, and the ability to remain present during emotionally intense experiences.

Dissociation can appear through numbness, detachment, depersonalization, derealization, memory gaps, reduced awareness of bodily experience, or a sense of observing oneself from a distance. These responses may be mistaken for resistance, avoidance, or lack of motivation when they are actually protective reactions to overwhelming internal or external conditions.

Stacy’s integrative framework encourages clinicians to establish safety, develop resources, identify protective responses, and support internal cooperation before intensifying trauma processing. Her teaching brings together IFS, EMDR, somatic awareness, and polyvagal-informed concepts to help therapists work with the whole person rather than treating individual symptoms in isolation.

Clinical Events’ Trauma and Dissociation: Navigating the Complexities in Clinical Practice offers related education on assessment, grounding, stabilization, therapeutic safety, and readiness for trauma processing. The program is scheduled for September 5, 2026.

Somatic and Polyvagal-Informed Practice

Somatic awareness is another major component of Stacy’s approach. Trauma may be experienced not only through thoughts and memories but also through muscular tension, agitation, collapse, numbness, breath restriction, restlessness, changes in posture, and difficulty sensing safety.

Somatic practice can help clients notice these responses in manageable amounts. Interventions may include orienting to the environment, tracking sensations, using movement, adjusting posture, noticing breath without forcing it, and identifying physical signs of activation or relative stability.

Stacy is trained in applied polyvagal-informed yoga for trauma and integrates nervous-system awareness into her professional teaching. Her official biography identifies her as an experienced registered yoga teacher and notes that embodiment, mindfulness, and nervous-system healing are integrated throughout her programs.

Polyvagal-informed treatment may help clinicians consider how cues of safety, danger, connection, and disconnection affect therapeutic engagement. It should not be used as a rigid diagnostic system or as a claim that every emotional experience can be explained by a single physiological mechanism.

Clinical Events’ article Polyvagal Theory in Clinical Practice: Helping Clients Feel Safe discusses neuroception, co-regulation, autonomic states, voice, movement, and therapeutic presence. Additional practical guidance is available through the Somatic Therapy Training Guide for Mental Health Professionals.

Yoga, Mindfulness, and Embodied Choice

As an E-RYT-500, Stacy integrates selected yoga and mindfulness practices into trauma-informed education. These methods are not intended to turn psychotherapy into a conventional yoga class. Instead, movement, breath, posture, sensory awareness, and present-moment attention may be offered as optional tools for strengthening agency and embodied awareness.

Trauma-informed yoga practice should preserve choice. Clients may need permission to:

• Keep their eyes open
• Change or decline a posture
• Move instead of remaining still
• Focus externally rather than internally
• Stop a breathing exercise
• Maintain physical distance
• Choose a seated or standing position
• Avoid practices that increase dissociation or panic

The intervention should be adapted to the client’s physical health, cultural background, preferences, accessibility needs, and treatment goals. A practice that feels grounding to one person may feel restrictive or activating to another.

Transpersonal Therapy and the Art of Presence

The transpersonal dimension of Stacy’s work considers meaning, identity, spirituality, connection, creativity, and experiences that extend beyond symptom reduction. Her professional materials describe her approach as integrating EMDR, IFS, somatic therapy, and parts work with a transpersonal perspective and an emphasis on presence.

Transpersonal therapy should not impose spiritual beliefs or assume that every client interprets healing through spiritual language. Ethical integration begins with the client’s own worldview. For one person, meaning may be connected to religion or contemplative practice; for another, it may involve relationships, nature, creativity, community, cultural identity, or personal values.

Stacy’s approach encourages therapists to bring genuine human presence into clinical work while maintaining professional boundaries. Warmth and authenticity do not require excessive self-disclosure, blurred roles, or making the therapist’s spiritual perspective central to treatment.

Author of IFS Made Simple

Stacy Ruse is the author of IFS Made Simple: A Clinician’s Guide to Internal Family Systems Therapy, a 2026 New Harbinger title designed to make IFS concepts clearer and more immediately applicable for clinicians.

The book guides readers through five core phases of IFS therapy, including identifying parts, developing trust with protectors, approaching wounded parts carefully, and strengthening Self-leadership. It also incorporates clinical examples, illustrations, mindfulness, neuroscience, and trauma-informed considerations.

The book reflects Stacy’s broader educational style: complex clinical material is organized into a practical framework without losing the compassion and relational sensitivity needed for trauma treatment.

Her professional website also identifies an integrative trauma guide as a forthcoming project with PESI. Because publication plans can change, that project should remain described as forthcoming until final publication details are confirmed.

Clinical Consultation and Therapist Development

In addition to training, Stacy provides clinical consultation for therapists integrating EMDR, IFS, somatic therapies, and trauma-informed approaches.

Consultation may help clinicians examine:

• Case conceptualization
• Protective parts and internal conflict
• EMDR target selection
• Dissociation and stabilization
• Treatment blocking or looping
• Readiness for trauma processing
• Therapist countertransference
• Nervous-system activation
• Scope of competence
• The need for referral or additional support

Consultation supports professional judgment but does not transfer clinical responsibility from the treating therapist. Clinicians remain responsible for client safety, informed consent, documentation, scope of practice, and compliance with applicable laws and professional standards.

Explore Upcoming Clinical Events

Professionals interested in Stacy’s areas of expertise can continue their learning through Clinical Events’ upcoming trauma, IFS, somatic, and dissociation-focused programs.

Working with Developmental Trauma and Attachment from a Somatic Lens takes place on August 15, 2026 and explores attachment adaptations, nervous-system regulation, somatic awareness, and relational repair.

Trauma and Dissociation: Navigating the Complexities in Clinical Practice is scheduled for September 5, 2026 and addresses assessment, grounding, stabilization, therapeutic safety, and trauma-processing readiness.

Ego States and Internal Family Systems in Trauma-Informed Work takes place on November 7, 2026 and introduces parts-based case conceptualization, protective and wounded parts, internal conflict, and Self-leadership.

Visitors can browse the complete Clinical Events continuing education calendar for additional live virtual programs covering EMDR, trauma, dissociation, attachment, somatic therapies, anxiety, professional ethics, and evidence-informed psychotherapy.

Learn With Stacy Ruse

The professional work of Stacy Ruse, LPC, E-RYT-500, brings together Internal Family Systems, EMDR, somatic psychotherapy, polyvagal-informed practice, mindfulness, yoga, transpersonal therapy, clinical consultation, and trauma-focused education.

Her integrative approach encourages therapists to respect protective responses, establish safety before intensive processing, include the body without forcing bodily attention, and treat the therapeutic relationship as an important part of healing.

Through courses, consultation, writing, and experiential professional education, Stacy Ruse helps clinicians develop trauma-treatment skills that are structured without becoming rigid, compassionate without losing clinical accountability, and integrative without overlooking competence or ethical responsibility.