Ruchi Malhotra, MSW, LCSW, Youth and Family Therapist

Ruchi’s professional journey started in her native India with a variety of community and organizational development and training and research projects.  While there, she was able to work first hand with children, youth, women, seniors and marginalized families. These professional experiences ave her the opportunity to collaborate and coordinate with different stakeholders such as grass root, government, national and international organizations on diverse humanitarian issues. Coming from a humble middle class family, education was instilled as a virtue to succeed and prosper. Her passion and voluntary work with children and young adults lead her to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree in child development at one of the more prestigious universities in India, M.S University, in 1993. Knowledge of child development and the understanding of the importance of families in society motivated her to complete her Masters in Social Work in 1995. Her specific objective was to assist in empowering communities towards self-reliance and sustainability. She also completed her Professional Diploma in Educational Management in 2000.

Within various roles during the span of her career, Ruchi has enjoyed opportunities to mentor, train and coach professional associates and other.  When living and working in Canada, she developed a permanent project from a pilot in collaboration with Halton Women’s Place and Halton Children’s Aid Society.  She was able to facilitate professionals and community service users to join together to support others using from a strength based, anti-oppressive framework and feminist perspective.   Working in the U.S.A as a System of Care coordinator and Wraparound Facilitator for the CA-PRTF program, she initiated, coordinated and developed the Systems of Care in Hancock County. She had the opportunity to work, learn and collaborate with professionals on the core principles and values of Systems of Care and provided home based and outpatient counseling to children and their families.

Ruchi likes to spend her free time working in her garden, reading, biking, going for walks, meditation etc.  Ruchi’s life mantra “All too often we focus so intently on solving the problems, that we forget to zoom out and celebrate what is good in our life already”.