Amanda Frudakis-Ruckel

For people who feel stuck — whether in a career that no longer fits, a grief they can’t name, or a version of themselves they’re ready to outgrow — Amanda Frudakis-Ruckel offers a kind of therapy that is honest without being harsh, and warm without being soft. Based in Long Valley, NJ and available online, she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker whose work centers on adults and older adults navigating anxiety, burnout, abuse recovery, life transitions, and the particular weight of caring for aging parents while managing everything else.

Amanda’s clinical foundation is broad and rigorous — shaped by training at Memorial Sloan Kettering, Weill Cornell Medicine, and NYC’s Mental Health Service Corps, and deepened by her certification as a Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Facilitator. Her approach weaves evidence-based methods with genuine curiosity about what makes each person tick. She’s equally at home helping a professional untangle workplace stress as she is sitting with someone wrestling with questions about identity or mortality — and she brings a dry, grounded humor to both.

What drives her is a conviction that limiting beliefs — the quiet certainties that change isn’t possible, that happiness was never really on the table — are not facts. They’re starting points. Amanda works alongside clients to examine those assumptions and build, carefully and practically, toward a life that actually reflects who they are.