Family therapy and counseling in Pueblo, CO

Welcome, and thank you for being here. I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Public Accountant. This unique combination allows me to help clients navigate both emotional struggles and practical life stressors with greater clarity and confidence. I provide a supportive space to understand the patterns shaping your life and develop practical tools for lasting change. If you’re looking for a therapist who will support you and meet you where you are, I would be honored to walk alongside you!

I’m bilingual in Japanese and English and bring a multicultural lens to my work with individuals and couples. I work with clients who are navigating trauma, relationship difficulties, emotional disconnection, or patterns they understand intellectually but have difficulty changing. Therapy is a process of building emotional, mental, and physiological safety; exploring how your experiences have shaped the way you relate to yourself, others, and the world; processing unresolved emotions; and moving toward becoming more whole.

Hello, dear one, and welcome. I'm so glad you're here. I help those who feel everything — the ones who need more recovery time than everyone around them, who've been called "too sensitive" or "too much" by people who never had to carry what you carry. You're not too much. Your nervous system is doing exactly what it was built to do. Many of my clients come to me with anxiety that won't quiet down, depression that's settled in like fog, trauma that keeps showing up in the body, or the kind of exhaustion that doesn't lift no matter how much they rest. For some, it's meant holding everything together — the high achiever, the one everyone calls for advice, the one who looks fine from the outside while running on empty. Burnout isn't a personal failing here. It's what happens when you've been rewarded for ignoring your own needs and limits for too long. For others, it's meant leaving a faith that no longer fits, questioning who taught them to distrust their body and intuition, or untangling the belief that they have to hustle harder, earn their rest, prove their worth, or make themselves small to keep others comfortable. If you see yourself in any of this, you're in the right place. Together, we start understanding what those experiences are trying to tell you, instead of treating them as something to fix. You aren't broken — you are responding to what was asked of you. We figure out what doing this differently could look like, at whatever pace feels right for you. Whatever brings you here, this is a safe, unhurried place to ask the questions you learned not to ask.

At the heart of therapy is a simple, powerful goal: change. Whether you are looking to quiet anxiety, lift the weight of depression, or navigate the complexities of trauma, you are on a unique path toward your best life. While I can’t make those changes for you, I am deeply committed to walking alongside you. With compassion, dedication, and hard work, we will forge a path that helps you actualize the lasting growth you deserve.

I have been a counselor for 40 years, working with individuals, couples, families and groups with psychological as well as addiction issues. I have extensive experience in inpatient as well as outpatient settings. I am eclectic in my evaluation and treatment methods, which gives me flexibility to treat individual needs. Primarily, I use cognitive-behavioral techniques. Many of my clients suffer with depression, anger, and anxiety (panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder); all of which impact potential addictions. I also treat couples and families to better understand their dynamics and to improve their communication skills.

My background consists of psychological testing and understanding personalities. This has helped in my work with children, adolescents, & families. I enjoy working with gay and straight couples, to help them with empathy and communication. I do extensive cognitive work as well as teaching techniques with people suffering from anxiety, anger, and addictions.

I encourage self-awareness to stimulate one's potential. Understanding oneself is essential to reducing anxiety, depression & anger (and in improving relationships). I teach relaxation, meditation, & self-hypnosis techniques to improve personal balance. I guide couples and families to improve relationships through empathy, acceptance, and communication.

With decades of experience, I am well-versed in many different modalities. No one approach works for everyone, so I built a large tool kit to have a broad range of tools available. Areas of expertise include individual, couples and family counseling, trauma recovery, anxiety, depression, special needs of gifted and talented, medical social work, impact of illness, traumatic brain injury, grief and bereavement, positive aging, geriatrics and end of life issues. Having been raised in a military family I enjoy working with our veterans, active duty personnel and their families.

I have found my own personal healing to be intimately connected to nature, and it is here that I believe that we can all begin to rediscover our intrinsic humanity and let go of those things that distract us from our higher selves. In my spare time, I work as an outdoor educator and manage my own private practice and guide Outdoor Retreats

I believe it is helpful and important to translate what is discussed in session and in telehealth meetings into lived experience and real change.

As a graduate of the University of Southern California and an active-duty Navy Licensed Clinical Social Worker, I’ve had the privilege of working with individuals and families around the world including children, teens, spouses, GS employees, retirees, and active-duty service members.

Two decades of clinical excellence.

Dr. Cindy Ruelas-Tafolla's path to becoming a clinician began at age 13 with the sudden loss of her father — an experience that planted the seed of her life's purpose: to be the kind of support she needed during her own darkest moments.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Law and Society from UC Santa Barbara, her Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California, and her Doctorate in Social Work (DSW) from USC.

Over two decades, she has served as a Medical Social Worker, Case Manager, and Behavioral Health Therapist — bringing doctoral-level depth, board-certified credentials, and genuine compassion to every client she works with.