Hi, I’m Janel.
I love working with adult individuals and couples to uncover what is keeping you stuck in suffering and how to move forward with long-lasting results. I believe every person can be empowered to define their idea of wellness and discover ways to feel peace, joy, and hope in their lives. I focus first on building safe and nurturing relationships with my clients. From this foundation, we will work on understanding your current coping styles to identify opportunities to shift painful patterns of reaction. I also incorporate mindfulness and body-based techniques to increase self-awareness and build emotional self-regulation skills.
Janel is a current Professional Counselor Associate under the supervision of Justin Little, LMFT and Katie Keck, LMFT.
Janel currently sees clients online throughout Oregon and in person in Bend, Oregon.
Janel Ruehl
Professional Counselor Associate, Qualified Mental Health Professional
Approach:
Individual, Couples, + Family Therapy
Individual Therapy is when a therapist helps one singular person through different areas of concern. Typically to address personal, professional, emotional, and psychological concerns.
Couples Therapy is when all partners in a committed relationship are treated at the same time by the same therapist. Typically to improve communication and build a stronger bond.
Family Therapy is when all members of a family involved in the conflict are treated at the same time by the same therapist. Typically to improve communication and strengthen the family unit.
Areas of Specialty:
Trauma, Depression, and Neurodivergence
Trauma is the lasting disruption to the nervous system caused by experiences that overwhelmed a person's ability to cope — like fight, flight, or freeze — that continue to affect emotions, relationships, and behavior long after the event is over.
Depression, a pervasive flattening of mood, motivation, and energy that makes even basic functioning feel effortful, often accompanied by hopelessness, withdrawal, disrupted sleep and appetite, and a loss of pleasure in things that once felt meaningful.
Neurodivergence is a term for brains that develop or function differently from what is considered neurotypical — including conditions like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and PDA — reframing these differences not as deficits to be fixed but as natural variations in how people think, process, communicate, and experience the world, which often come with both significant challenges and distinct strengths.
Certifications:
Restoration Therapy Level I
A Level I certified RT therapist has been trained in Restoration Therapy — Terry Hargrave's research-based model combining Attachment Theory, mindfulness, and emotional regulation to help clients identify painful relational patterns and move toward genuine, lasting restoration.
CPT for Trauma
CPT (Cognitive Processing Therapy) is a structured, evidence-based treatment for trauma and PTSD that focuses on identifying and challenging "stuck points" — unhelpful beliefs about oneself, others, and the world that formed as a result of the traumatic experience — and helping the person process and reframe those beliefs so the trauma loses its grip on their daily functioning.