Monica Rusinowski, MA, LPC-Associate (she/her) -- License # 98917

Passionate, Engaged, Warm, & Playful

Monica is a bilingual, trauma-informed therapist and child of immigrants who offers individual and couples therapy for people seeking deeper connection to themselves, their bodies, and their relationships. She believes healing occurs through reconnection-to internal emotional worlds, lived experiences, and the relational and cultural contexts that shape us. Growing up between cultures, Monica developed an early understanding of how identity, language, gender, power, and belonging influence mental health, intimacy, and self-worth.

Her path to becoming a therapist has been shaped by clinical work in diverse communities, training in holistic and mind-body approaches, and a long-standing personal commitment to healing and self-reflection. Grounded in feminist theory and informed by an awareness of power, gender, sexuality, and social systems, Monica brings a nuanced and relational approach to therapy that honors both individual experience and the broader systems in which people live and love.

Monica specializes in working with women and couples, with a particular focus on relationship trauma, attachment wounds, and how neurodiversity-especially ADHD-shows up in intimacy and partnership. She understands the emotional, relational, and identity-based challenges often associated with ADHD in women, including shame, burnout, emotional reactivity, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and difficulty trusting oneself. In both individual and couples therapy, Monica helps clients better understand their nervous systems, communication patterns, and relational needs, supporting them in building more secure, honest, and sustainable connections.

A core area of Monica’s work is sex therapy and intimacy-focused counseling. She is passionate about supporting individuals and couples in healing sexual shame, reconnecting with pleasure, and rebuilding trust in their bodies and desires-especially in the aftermath of trauma, betrayal, or relational rupture. Monica works with concerns related to desire discrepancies, difficulty with arousal or orgasm, sexual avoidance, pain, boundaries, consent, and the impact of trauma on sexuality. Her approach to sex therapy is affirming, nonjudgmental, and grounded in consent, curiosity, and self-agency.

Monica’s integrative approach blends talk therapy with somatic therapy, mindfulness, and embodiment practices, including yoga and body-based awareness. She helps clients explore how trauma, stress, and relational patterns are held in the body, and supports them in developing greater capacity for safety, presence, and connection in both emotional and sexual relationships. Sessions offer a supportive space to explore intimacy, communication, conflict, identity, and desire without shame or pressure.

Through individual and couples therapy, Monica supports clients in reconnecting with their bodies, voices, and inner knowing so they can move through relationships-and the world-with greater confidence, agency, and authenticity. Her work is collaborative, compassionate, and grounded in the belief that healing is not about fixing what is broken, but about returning to what has always been there.

Personal

Monica grew up in New York and moved to Austin to go to UT in 2016. She started her career as a bilingual teacher in 2020 and transferred into the mental health field after 2 years. Monica is an avid reader, yogi, chef, and traveler. She has been to over 30 countries and loves learning about places, people, and cultures. While she loves to travel, when she is home in Austin, you can most likely find her at Barton Springs or Zilker tanning, reading a book, and enjoying the heat and sunshine. Monica has practiced yoga for 10 years and is a regular at Black Swan and Lizard Yoga. She loves to be outside, with the people she loves, and surrounded by nature. While a lover of dogs, she is currently dogless (for now…). She is always open to a good book or restaurant recommendation!

Education & Credentials

• Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy, Selva Wellness Collective, 2025

• Licensed Professional Counselor Associate #98917 (Texas) supervised by Tammy Fisher, LPC-S #63345

• M.A., Clinical Mental Health Counseling, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

• B.S. in Applied Learning and Developments, Bilingual Education, The University of Texas at Austin