Dr. Rugless is a licensed clinical psychological who knows that every woman has the potential and power to be a positive force of change in her personal life, workplace, and community.  Helping women achieve this potential and power is Dr. Rugless’ passion.

By building a safe space for vulnerability, openness, and healing, Dr. Rugless empowers her clients to cultivate compassion for themselves and others while overcoming life’s challenges.  Dr. Rugless’ clients appreciate her sharp memory for detail, boundless hope, and warm and respectful nature.  Naturally giving, spiritually attuned, and an engaged listener, Dr. Rugless is committed to understanding her clients’ goals and providing pathways for growth.

As an experienced health psychologist, Dr. Rugless strives to increase her clients’ awareness of the mind’s power over the body and the body’s unique ability to calibrate itself to the mind’s needs – also known as the mind-body connection.  Dr. Rugless specializes in depression, anxiety, adjustment issues, the treatment of eating disorders (ARFID, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia, and Binge-Eating Disorder), and negative body image. She also helps women of color navigate the unique challenges that accompany being an ethnic minority in the United States.  Dr. Rugless is fluent in conversational Spanish and enjoys providing bilingual services as well.

Dr. Rugless uses several therapeutic modalities to help her clients reach their goals. They include Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).  As the former primary therapist in the outpatient clinic for feeding and eating disorder at UCLA, and its founding psychologist, Dr. Rugless is well-versed in using CBT-e, a specific form of CBT for the treatment of eating disorders, and Family-Based Therapy (FBT), a specific treatment geared towards adolescents and young adults with a strong network of support.

Diploma de Espanol como Lengua Extranjera

B.S. in Biopsychology, University of California, Santa Barbara

M.A. in Clinical Psychology, Loma Linda University

Psy.D. in Health Psychology, Loma Linda University