Counselor Spotlight: Pete
Peter Ruffini, LPC discusses his past, the benefits of Christian therapy, and long-lasting emotional wellness.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
Before settling down in the northeast, I lived in Richmond, Virginia; Outer Banks, NC; and Palm Beach, Florida. I attended Rider University for my undergraduate, master's, and post-master's degrees. I’ve been a counselor for about a decade, working in university, government agency, and private practice settings. One of my absolute favorite parts of my career is supervising and training the next generation of therapists here at CCCRD!
I met my wife in undergrad, but she wouldn't date me back then because I was a frat guy. After grad school, I was saved and became a Christian. Guess who I ran into again at church? We got married a year later in 2013 and now have three amazing children all under 5 years old.
What was your journey to becoming a counselor?
It’s a long story, so I’ll summarize. I wasn’t always a Christian and was rebellious in my youth. Now, a little over a decade after being saved during Hurricane Irene, I fully embraced the true meaning of grace and strive to serve Jesus in all I do. I love sharing my testimony by the way! This is why I can relate and I’m able to empathize with my clients without judgment. Because of my own journey through the refining fire, I want to walk alongside others through their own.
In your eyes, how do faith and therapy interact?
In so many ways! Who we are in Christ is the most important part of our identity. Just because we suffer doesn’t mean we are lacking in faith. God doesn’t promise us a life of ease, and he tells us to seek wise counsel. We at CCCRD are trained and licensed clinical mental health therapists who happen to be Christian. You are getting a better level of care than someone would get when they see a secular counselor because on top of the evidence-based treatment we also get to pray with you and bring God into the session!
What’s a unique “hill you will die on?”
It’s OK to have Jesus and a therapist. Yes, I have a mug that says this.
Hobbies?
Mountain biking, working out, and writing. I’m working on a memoir and some fiction. I have a passion for stories and believe there is so much to learn from the shared human experience.
Cake or Pie?
Bacon cheeseburger.
What do you do for fun?
Besides fighting monsters with sticks alongside my children in the backyard? I love going to the beach with my family. Last summer in LBI I set up a treasure hunt for my four-year-old son. I went all out—replica gold coins, a wooden chest buried along the beach that required a key that my son had to find first, clues on a map on authentic parchment paper. He still talks about the time we found “real pirate treasure!”
Between soccer, karate, and wiping noses, my wife and I still find time to connect and go on our own adventures.
Describe your approach to counseling.
I use a two-fold approach to therapy. It’s not just about symptom reduction but sustainable heart change to ensure true emotional health.
We work through CBT techniques and exercises, and I will assign homework—I'm very hands-on. When my clients develop resiliency and better coping mechanisms, they become better equipped to face life’s challenges head-on. But using CBT by itself is often like slapping a Band-Aid on a bleeding wound. To really find lasting healing, we need to dig deeper into the cause or core issue that leads to our suffering in the first place. Where does the anxiety really come from? Cognitive Behavioral Therapy reduces distress, but true insight has a lasting deeper positive impact.
Using a more insightful or psychodynamic approach, we then address false beliefs the client may have about themselves and the world, working through traumas, identifying patterns and attachments from the past, and processing emotions so we deal with the problem at its core, and really dig it out for good.
I’m walking alongside and praying with and encouraging my clients through the entire process. Challenging a client to try something new and scary is most effective when they trust you and know that you really do want the best for them.
What’s the key to emotional wellness?
There’s something to be said about being authentic and intentional, cultivating hope, realizing our inner worth, developing resiliency, making connections to the past, routinely processing and not suppressing feelings, exploring core wounds, and dealing with unfinished business. But I believe the key to peak emotional wellness is what we do after it all, when the smoke clears and the credits start to roll. One story ends but another one is just beginning. It’s not about just getting well and climbing out of the valley and moving on, but to find lasting changes and growth we need to reach back out and help others get through it too—that’s how we find meaning in our sufferings and truly overcome!
What elements of counseling are you most passionate about?
I feel a deep sense of gratitude when a client says, “I really look forward to our sessions,” “I feel so much better after we talk,” “I can tell a difference in just the few months we’ve been meeting,” or “I no longer spend so much time worrying.” God is truly at work here. Every day I get to see him restore, rebuild, and renew minds, hearts, and relationships.