About Eleanor
Eleanor Ruckman is a nationally registered art therapist and has been licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist since 2004.
Eleanor offers facilitated creative process to people of all ages as a tool for resiliency, restoration and transformation.
Her collaborative and strength-based approach blends art making with relaxation and awareness practices, communication skills, harm reduction, play and humor.
Eleanor has provided supervision, training and consultation to thousands of other mental health professionals, as well as to people supporting system-involved youth and families such as court-appointed special advocates and foster parents.
Her past experience includes serving as a community-based clinical case manager for FamilyPaths (formerly Parental Stress Service); supervising school-based mental health programs for Families First in Contra Costa County and Lincoln Child Center in Oakland; and supervising the intensive adolescent day treatment program at Stars Community Services in San Leandro.
She served as Director of the California Institute of Integral Studies’ Clinic Without Walls, where Community Mental Health counseling students offered psychotherapy free of charge at four different San Francisco public housing sites to residents and community members. She has also worked with transitional and emergency housing sites and programs including Raphael House, the Family Emergency Shelter Coalition, and Drawbridge.
Eleanor received a master’s degree in art therapy and counseling psychology from Notre Dame de Namur University; studied at L’Ecole de Beaux Arts in Bordeaux, France; and has a BA in Fine Art from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Go banana slugs!
Eleanor's art is collected and published internationally. She creates as a spiritual practice and knows the power of beauty to inspire and heal. Her recent art explores the use of organic materials in the landscape, and she regularly teaches other people ways to make art outdoors.