Keli Rugenstein

PhD, LCSW-R, LMFT

(518) 293-9046

Keli has worked in the mental health field for almost 30 years. For the past 15 years she has lived and worked in the Capital District. She works with individuals, families, and groups as a psychotherapist and marriage and family therapist. The psychotherapy she provides is integrated with the faith beliefs or spirituality perspectives of those who choose to have these included in their counseling. Keli works from an integrated perspective of Family Systems Theory and psychodynamics.

Keli is also the Director of Clergy and Congregation Consulting and works closely with clergy, their families, congregations, church boards, church staffs, and the judicatory level of church leadership. She provides assessment services for clergy candidates and fitness for duty assessments for clergy in the restoration process after a crisis. Keli’s consultant training is from the Samaritan Institute in Denver Colorado and the Lily Foundation collaboration. She is also trained by Holy Cow! Consulting in church assessments. She was trained at Minnesota University in the administration and interpretation for psychological assessment. Keli is also trained in Critical Incident Intervention.

Keli’s research includes clergy burnout, the effects of church size on clergy well-being, and personality as it affects pastoral leadership. Other research has looked at abuse within the clergy family and spiritual expression differences between age groups. Keli completed a meta-analysis of the effect that denominational hierarchy has on clergy satisfaction, and her work was published in the Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling.