Ivy Ruths, PhD

Ivy Ruths, PhD Collaborating with patients to provide evidence-based treatment for anxiety, OCD, BFRBs, & parenting.

Reintroduction ✨If you’re new here, or if you’ve been following my professional work for a while, Hi 👋🏾🎉I’m Ivy. Clinica...
01/02/2026

Reintroduction ✨

If you’re new here, or if you’ve been following my professional work for a while, Hi 👋🏾🎉

I’m Ivy. Clinical psychologist, mom of two daughters, writer at heart, currently learning the rhythm of life with a new puppy and wearing a hat from my husband that says “make your own money and marry someone funny.” 😆

By day, I’m the founder of , where I help kids, teens, adults, and parents face the things they would rather avoid - and learn how to live fuller, braver lives.❤️ And I’m currently moonlighting as a substack author… I’m excited to see what I’m able to put in writing in 2026!

I believe the hardest parts of life, motherhood, anxiety, transitions, grief, uncertainty, deserve honesty, nuance, and a soft place to land.

This space is where those worlds meet.
Evidence based psychology.
Real life.
The messy middle.
The stuff I’ve previously been afraid to say out loud.

You’ll see some of my real life here including a brand new 9 week old puppy who is currently driving me bonkers with all the biting 😵‍💫

If you would like to read more of my personal writing, you can find me on Substack, where I write about motherhood and hard seasons with both heart and honesty.

And if you are looking for practical tools, parenting support, and evidence based guidance, you can join the monthly newsletter from Houston Anxiety and Wellness Center.

Thanks for being here. I’m really glad you are. 💛

She may be unrelatable in every single way except one: talks about the ups and downs of co-parenting with on - bigge...
11/30/2025

She may be unrelatable in every single way except one: talks about the ups and downs of co-parenting with on - biggest take away: “I will always take the high road when it comes to my kids.”

I know how much a gallon of milk costs and although Kim K and most single parents have *very* different lives, the emotional work is the same.

Read my newest essay, What Kim Kardashian Gets Right About Co-Parenting, about the psychology of co-parenting when things aren’t easy. Up on Substack now - link in bio.

The first Christmas without my daughter nearly broke me.But over time, I’ve learned something super important: joy doesn...
11/18/2025

The first Christmas without my daughter nearly broke me.

But over time, I’ve learned something super important: joy doesn’t live on the calendar. ✨

You can celebrate whenever you’re together.
You can volunteer, rest, skip traditions, or make new ones entirely.
You can still have meaning, even when it looks different.

Read my latest Substack essay — Any Day Can Be Thanksgiving — about letting go of the “right” date and finding light where you are. 💛

🔗 Link in bio to read + subscribe.

San Diego has always been my marker for change.Twenty-four, thirty, thirty-six, forty - each visit a different version o...
11/10/2025

San Diego has always been my marker for change.
Twenty-four, thirty, thirty-six, forty - each visit a different version of me, standing in the same golden light.

My new Substack essay, Gratitude is Gold, is the story of moving from heartbreak to hope and finally home - all through the power of gratitude.

Find it at ivyruthsrios.substack.com or DM for the direct link.


ThroughGratitude

I didn’t realize I was a perfectionist while I was in it.I just thought I was hardworking. Driven. Responsible.But under...
11/03/2025

I didn’t realize I was a perfectionist while I was in it.
I just thought I was hardworking. Driven. Responsible.
But underneath it all was the fear of falling short.

It wasn’t until my marriage ended while I had a toddler and was in graduate school that I started to see it clearly. I began to notice how much of my worth had been tied to performance, achievement, and getting it right.

My new Substack post, The Problem with Perfect, is about learning to let go of the illusion of control, quieting the “not enough” voice, and finding peace in good enough.

Read it here: ivyruthsrios.substack.com
(link in profile or DM me for the link)

When I went through a divorce at 30, I didn’t have a roadmap. I didn’t know what life would look like when all the dust ...
10/29/2025

When I went through a divorce at 30, I didn’t have a roadmap. I didn’t know what life would look like when all the dust settled. But I did know what I wanted my daughter to know.

This week’s Substack essay, The Five Things I Wanted My Young Daughter to Know About Her Parents’ Divorce, is about the love and lessons that carried us forward - and holding both heartbreak and hope at once.

If you’ve ever found yourself rebuilding while trying to stay strong for someone else, this one’s for you. 💚

You can read it on ivyruthsrios.substack.com — lor DM “Father Figure” for the link.

For most of my life, I’ve been chasing the next thing — the next degree, the next milestone, the next version of “better...
10/26/2025

For most of my life, I’ve been chasing the next thing — the next degree, the next milestone, the next version of “better.”

And then, at 30, life fell apart.

That season changed me. It taught me what it means to rebuild, to reimagine, and to keep going even when the story looks different than you thought it would.

My new Substack, On Writing Again, is where I’m putting words to that journey — to grief, motherhood, and growth — and sharing the tools that have helped me find steadiness again.

If you’ve ever wondered how to move forward after a hard chapter, this space is for you. 💚

Subscribe at ivyruthsrios.substack.com, through the link in my profile, or DM me for the link.

with .repost・・・Here’s to a week full of surprises, the good kind ✨If your mind’s anything like mine then it’s good at...
07/29/2025

with .repost
・・・
Here’s to a week full of surprises, the good kind ✨

If your mind’s anything like mine then it’s good at spinning up the worst-case scenarios… but what if we stretched our hope muscles a little this week?

Trading what if it doesn’t for what if it does 🙌

Good things are coming friend 🤍

🎧Listen in on my top three strategies for encouraging anxious kids to try new things on the newest episode of with ! In...
06/11/2025

🎧Listen in on my top three strategies for encouraging anxious kids to try new things on the newest episode of with !

In less than twenty minutes you’ll learn my tried and true, evidence-based strategies I use most with children, adolescents and parents:

1. How to be a realistic thinker 🧠
2. The importance of pairing validation your child’s experience to build confidence 🏅
3. How to help your child take the next step towards bravery 🎉

… and you’ll find out… could anxiety actually be *good* for you or your child?! 💡

If you’re a parent or caregiver whose head is swirling from all the parenting “advice” you get from influencers on social media, I HIGHLY recommend this episode and ALL of Dr. Clionsky’s episodes… become an !! 👩🏽‍🎓👨🏻‍🎓

Very excited for and honored to serve one more year on the HPA board alongside Dr. Katz and Dr. Charlotte Parrot ...
06/06/2025

Very excited for and honored to serve one more year on the HPA board alongside Dr. Katz and Dr. Charlotte Parrot - it’s going to be a GREAT year!!

with .repost
・・・
HPA is excited to announce our newly elected board of directors for the 2025-2026 programming year! We can’t wait to see what they have in store for the future of HPA!

https://psychologyhouston.org/Board

This is a great episode to listen to if you’re a parent or clincian and you’ve been wondering about SPACE (supportive pa...
05/20/2025

This is a great episode to listen to if you’re a parent or clincian and you’ve been wondering about SPACE (supportive parenting for anxious childhood emotions)! I had a lovely convo with Shaina and could talk about helping parents all day!

with .repost
・・・
🎧 New Episode Out Now!
How can parents become the change agents in treating childhood anxiety?

In this episode of The Affirming Minds Podcast, we dive into the SPACE model—Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions—with Dr. Ivy Ruths, licensed psychologist and nationally recognized expert in child and adolescent anxiety.

💬 We explore:
✨ How SPACE differs from traditional child-focused therapy
✨ Why parental accommodation can backfire
✨ What to do when a child resists therapy
✨ How to support diverse families with real-world strategies

Whether you’re a therapist, educator, or caregiver, this conversation is full of actionable insights to help anxious kids thrive—even when they’re not in the therapy room.
🎙️ Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!

with .repost・・・“You can do it like it’s a great weight on you, or you can do it like a dance.” ― Ram DassGrowth is wh...
04/13/2025

with .repost
・・・
“You can do it like it’s a great weight on you, or you can do it like a dance.” ― Ram Dass

Growth is what happens when the selves we once were reach a threshold where they can no longer carry us forward, and in their place, new and truer selves must emerge, and form. When the old parts of ourselves that were constructed in response to fear and trauma resist their own alchemy, what rises within us is this sense of panic and disarray, and if we are not careful, it is the very moment where we are most at risk of adopting the most limiting beliefs of all: that what is most familiar to us is most correct for us; that who we have been is who we will always be.

It is less important to ask “Who am I?” than it is to ask: “Who would I like to be?”

Who you think you are is very often just who you’ve had to be. In some ways, that’s the truth of all of us — a patchwork of everyone and everything we’ve known, and loved, seen, and done. But we are also amendable, and as much as the outside world has nurtured our sense of truth, so can our internal ones. We are, in larger ways than not, of our own making.

That is the most empowering notion, and also, the most terrifying. There is no more defaulting in this acceptance. There is no more looking around and blaming, or holding on. There is only the choice of whether we will hurt to stay as we’ve been, or hurt to become who we might be…”

Address

4306 Yoakum Boulevard Suite 510
Houston, TX
77006

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 4pm
Tuesday 8am - 4pm
Wednesday 8am - 4pm
Thursday 11am - 7pm
Friday 8am - 1pm

Telephone

+18324444749

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Dr. Ivy Ruths

I am a licensed psychologist and licensed specialist in school psychology specializing in treating anxiety, depressive, and OCD-related disorders. I provide cognitive-behavioral and solution-focused therapy, exposure and ritual prevention, and parenting management techniques individualized for your specific needs.

My goal is to help sufferers dramatically improve their outlook and quality of life by teaching them how to change their behavior and how to challenge habitual negative self-talk. Willingness and a commitment to living life in line with one's values, instead of with one's fears or in response to life's difficulties, is the key to coping with distressing emotions and uncertain situations.

The therapeutic relationship is of utmost importance to me and to the effectiveness of treatment.

I am looking forward to partnering with you.