Paola Soto-Ruiz , LCSW

Paola Soto-Ruiz is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. She supports adults navigating family tensions, grief, and major life changes. Paola works with a focus on women's issues and young adult concerns when relevant to the person seeking help. Sessions are offered in English and Spanish to fit client needs.

Paola uses practical, person-focused methods to guide conversations. She draws on cognitive behavioral ideas to help people notice and change unhelpful thoughts. She also uses attachment-based work to look at how past relationships affect current connections and self-worth.

For people carrying trauma or intense memories, she integrates trauma-focused methods and EMDR to reduce the hold those memories have on daily life. Solution-focused techniques are used to set manageable goals and find concrete steps forward. Paola adapts plans to the individual rather than following a fixed script.

She has eight years of experience in clinical settings across Florida and aims to treat everyone with respect and sensitivity. Her approach centers on collaboration - clients and therapist decide goals together and track progress over time.

Paola emphasizes practical tools alongside emotional support. Typical sessions include talking through current problems, practicing new coping strategies, and planning small experiments to change patterns. The goal is to build skills that people can use between sessions.

How Paola’s Approaches Work Online

Attachment-based work looks at how early relationships shape current patterns. Online sessions can use that lens to identify repeating dynamics and try new ways of relating. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions. In remote sessions, clients learn practical skills to challenge unhelpful thoughts and test small behavior changes between meetings.

Finding the right approach is part of the process. She collaborates with each person to choose methods that match their goals and comfort level, and adjusts plans as progress is tracked. That collaborative planning helps make sessions feel relevant and manageable from the start.

Online options include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls allow face-to-face dialogue and visual cues. Phone sessions need less bandwidth and can fit a break during a workday. Live chat and text messaging work well for quick check-ins, brief problem-solving, or continued support between longer sessions. These formats give flexibility so therapy can fit into different schedules and needs.