Mental Health Social Worker

Ashlee Ruskin

Ashlee places a strong emphasis on the therapeutic relationship, ensuring her clients feel comfortable in the space. Whilst co-creating safety, Ash provides a collaborative journey with her clients to address their unique mental health challenges. 

Works with

  • Adults

  • Adolescents

  • Groups

Service Types

  • Teleheatlh

Ashlee is currently full and not accepting new clients.

Telehealth Availability

  • Thursdays: 6:00pm – 7:00pm

About

Ashlee Ruskin

Therapeutic approaches

Ash (she/her) is an experienced Mental Health Social Worker practicing on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country. She supports adults, couples, and families from diverse backgrounds with a range of concerns such as anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, anger management issues, family violence, and childhood trauma.

Ash is available after-hours on Thursday evenings, offering individual and couples therapy. She utilises evidence-based modalities such as Schema Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), the Gottman Method (Level 2 training), Mindfulness, and Motivational Interviewing. While drawing from these modalities, Ash ensures that therapy is guided by what her clients want and need. Her practice framework is strengths-based, trauma-informed, collaborative, anti-oppressive, and person-centred.

Drawing from her own therapeutic journey, Ash understands that starting therapy can feel daunting. She places a strong emphasis on the therapeutic relationship, ensuring clients feel comfortable before exploring deeper concerns. Together, Ash and her clients co-create a supportive space to work through challenges and move toward meaningful change.

Outside of her professional role, Ash enjoys quality time with her young daughter, exploring op-shops, travelling, playing guitar, and doing some amateur painting. She loves a good thriller or drama series, with the occasional reality show as a light-hearted guilty pleasure. Known for her approachable nature and warm sense of humour, she creates a relaxed yet professional environment where clients feel comfortable and supported.

Ash is passionate about empowering individuals to work toward their goals and embrace their authentic selves.

See our clincians

See our clincians

See our clincians

Modalities

  • Schema therapy  

  • Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) 

  • Mindfulness 

  • Motivational interviewing

  • Gottman Couples Therapy Level 2

Areas of Specilisation

  • Couples therapy, including all sexualities and gender identities

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Working with men experiencing anger issues

  • Families or individuals who have a loved one with alcohol or drug issues

  • Childhood trauma and attachment wounds

  • Relationship issues

  • Perfectionism

  • Counselling for victim/survivors of family violence

  • Counselling for people who use family violence behaviours

  • Communication issues

  • Stress management

  • Life transitions

  • Alcohol and other drug support

  • Suicidal ideation and suicide crisis support

  • Neurodiversity-affirming practice

  • Conflict management

Qualifications and professional memberships

  • Bachelor (Hons) of Social Work

  • Cert IV in Alcohol and Other Drugs

  • Accredited Social Worker

Mold inspector working
Mold inspector working

Ready to Connect ?

Submit an enquiry, book a call, or phone us directly – Hannah, our friendly Admin and Client Support officer, will be the first to greet you.

Ashlee is currently full and not accepting new clients.

Ready to Connect ?

Submit an enquiry, book a call, or phone us directly – Hannah, our friendly Admin and Client Support officer, will be the first to greet you.

Ashlee is currently full and not accepting new clients.

Ready to Connect ?

Submit an enquiry, book a call, or phone us directly – Hannah, our friendly Admin and Client Support officer, will be the first to greet you.

Ashlee is currently full and not accepting new clients.

Centre Self Collective values the lived experience and contributions of people from all cultures, genders, sexualities, bodies, spiritualities, ages, abilities and backgrounds. We are committed to cultivating inclusive environments and are dedicated to building a sustainable and an environmentally aware practice. 

Acknowledgement and Commitment to First Nations Justice. Centre Self Collective acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, work, and offer care. We recognise their deep and enduring connection to land, waters, skies, and community - and we pay our respects to Elders past and present. We honour the wisdom, strength, and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across all communities. As social workers and mental health practitioners, we hold a deep awareness of the systemic harm our profession has contributed to, including the forced removal of children, policies of assimilation, and the ongoing disruption of families, cultures, and Country. These injustices continue to reverberate through intergenerational trauma and ongoing structural inequities. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded. Centre Self Collective stands in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We wholeheartedly support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the journey toward Treaty in Victoria, and the principle of Aboriginal self-determination. 

©

2026

Centre Self Collective, All rights reserved.

Centre Self Collective values the lived experience and contributions of people from all cultures, genders, sexualities, bodies, spiritualities, ages, abilities and backgrounds. We are committed to cultivating inclusive environments and are dedicated to building a sustainable and an environmentally aware practice. 

Acknowledgement and Commitment to First Nations Justice. Centre Self Collective acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, work, and offer care. We recognise their deep and enduring connection to land, waters, skies, and community - and we pay our respects to Elders past and present. We honour the wisdom, strength, and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across all communities. As social workers and mental health practitioners, we hold a deep awareness of the systemic harm our profession has contributed to, including the forced removal of children, policies of assimilation, and the ongoing disruption of families, cultures, and Country. These injustices continue to reverberate through intergenerational trauma and ongoing structural inequities. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded. Centre Self Collective stands in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We wholeheartedly support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the journey toward Treaty in Victoria, and the principle of Aboriginal self-determination. 

©

2026

Centre Self Collective, All rights reserved.

Centre Self Collective values the lived experience and contributions of people from all cultures, genders, sexualities, bodies, spiritualities, ages, abilities and backgrounds. We are committed to cultivating inclusive environments and are dedicated to building a sustainable and an environmentally aware practice. 

Acknowledgement and Commitment to First Nations Justice. Centre Self Collective acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live, work, and offer care. We recognise their deep and enduring connection to land, waters, skies, and community - and we pay our respects to Elders past and present. We honour the wisdom, strength, and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across all communities. As social workers and mental health practitioners, we hold a deep awareness of the systemic harm our profession has contributed to, including the forced removal of children, policies of assimilation, and the ongoing disruption of families, cultures, and Country. These injustices continue to reverberate through intergenerational trauma and ongoing structural inequities. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded. Centre Self Collective stands in solidarity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We wholeheartedly support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the journey toward Treaty in Victoria, and the principle of Aboriginal self-determination. 

©

2026

Centre Self Collective, All rights reserved.