After finding healing in her own life, a local mental health counselor is looking to help people in the community find healing themselves.
Ashley Fauber owns the practice Arukah Christian Counseling. She has been a mental health therapist for 12 years.
Originally from Albert Lea, Fauber earned a Master of Science in mental health counseling from Capella University. She then worked for several years as a suicide specialist in Wyoming. During that time, she said, she worked with actively suicidal clients, seeing them multiple times a week for therapy sessions. It was very intense work, she said.
Fauber moved her practice to Albert Lea in 2021 and has lived here ever since. Now she said she works mainly with adults and children age 10 and over who have anxiety and depression. She helps them process and overcome trauma in their lives.
Her practice, Arukah Christian Counseling, is named after the Hebrew word “arukah,” which means God’s restoration of the whole body, mind, soul and spirit. She said it is really a good representation of the work she does with her clients.
“I think a lot of times, especially when we’re kind of feeling chaotic … we’re quick to heal our bodies, right? Like if we’re hurting or we’re sick, we’re quick to take medicine and bring healing to that. We’re not as quick to heal our minds.”
Fauber continued by saying this can potentially lead people to wait until their mental health is in a chaotic spiral rather than seek help before it gets to that point.
She explained that while there is still stigma attached to mental health issues, it is getting better.
“The beauty of seeking therapy is that you’re going to go in and have somebody who comes with no judgment,” Fauber said. “When we go to friends, when we go to family, they have a bias when you talk to them, right? … Their help is a little different than going to a therapist who doesn’t know your background, who doesn’t come in with all of these preconceived notions.”
This, she said, provides a safe place where people can share what is going on in their lives while knowing the things they say will be confidential.
In June 2024, Fauber received a breast cancer diagnosis, which changed not only her personal life in a profound way, but also affected her therapy practice.