Benita Rubinett, LCSW

Benita Rubinett
Photograph by Virginia Raymond, June 22, 2009
Magnolia Café, Lake Austin Boulevard

Benita Rubinett, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker who has practiced in Austin for over twenty years. She works with adolescents, adults, couples and families. Her approach to therapy is to explore a wide range of factors that may contribute to a person's current or past difficulties. These factors often include psychological and health issues, family experiences, relationships, situational realities, belief systems, cultural differences, and personal coping strategies. Her intention is to facilitate the development of psychological well-being, emotional resilience, and possibilities for change.

Benita was the first social worker hired by the Austin Center for Battered Women, now SafePlace, in 1977, during the early phase of public acknowledgement and understanding of the traumatic impact of family abuse. She was employed in several social service organizations, and as a Counseling Specialist and Assistant Dean at the University of Texas at Austin for twelve years.

Benita has a special interest in issues relating to infertility, pregnancy loss and adoption. A profound sense of grief and loss typically accompany these experiences, resulting in significant consequences for those whose lives are affected. In addition to her therapy work, Benita prepares adoption home studies for prospective adoptive families. She also has done extensive public speaking, training and consultation of various adoption, family system and relationship topics.

Benita's specialized training and experience includes marriage and family counseling, relational-model and cognitive therapy, mindfulness techniques in healing trauma and depression, family systems, attachment models, and neurobiology and brain processes.

Benita Rubinett, like Carlos Loredo,
- consults with the Texas After Violence Project leadership,
- trains team members,
- provides regular debriefings and support to team members as a group on an ongoing basis,
- and is available for confidential one-on-one debriefings with individual team members on request.