Ruby Mathen, LMSW, is a licensed social worker and program director with 20+ years serving individuals experiencing housing instability and mental-health challenges in New York City. She leads ICL's Brooklyn Treatment Apartment Program while practicing as a therapist, bringing frontline experience and authentic storytelling to every presentation.
About Ruby
From a village in Kerala to the front lines of New York.
She came to this country at eight years old, not speaking the language. Two decades later, she's spent her career helping other people feel seen — and telling their stories in a way no one forgets.
Ruby Mathen was born in a small village in Kerala, in southern India — a barefoot, carefree childhood of rice paddies and cousins, where every neighbor was an auntie or an uncle. At eight, she and her brother were called to join their parents in New York, trading the village for a coat she'd never worn and a language she didn't yet speak.
Her mother, a nurse, insisted the children keep their mother tongue. Ruby grew up in what she calls a “dual-cultural fusion” — fluent in English and Malayalam, and able to understand some Hindi, in a household where money was tight, both parents worked multiple jobs, and emotions mostly went unspoken.
She never planned to do this work. Physics and chemistry closed the door on medicine; nursing felt crowded. But people told her their stories without being asked. So she enrolled in social work school — and on her first day at a Brooklyn mental-health facility, three trains and a sprint away, she walked in carrying every stereotype she'd been handed.
Within weeks, she'd fallen for all twenty-five people living there. They weren't “crazy.” They were funny, kind, complicated, and resilient — and they were the beginning of a single question that has guided her ever since: How are we connected?
Ruby Mathen, BSW, LMSW · Brooklyn, NY
Healing begins when we feel seen, heard, and understood — not just as individuals, but as whole beings shaped by culture, family, and lived experience.Ruby Mathen
What she does now
A program director and a therapist — at the same time.
Twenty years on, Ruby is Program Director of ICL's Brooklyn Treatment Apartment Program (BTAP III), where she leads multidisciplinary teams supporting individuals and families facing homelessness, mental illness, and substance use.
She's also a practicing therapist at ICL's Highland Park clinic, working with adults and adolescents through anxiety, depression, trauma, and adjustment — using CBT, DBT, and trauma-focused care. Leading programs and sitting with clients keeps her sharp on both sides of the work: the systems, and the human being inside them.
As a South Asian woman in social services, she's especially passionate about breaking mental-health stigma in Desi communities and about care that honors culture, family, and lived experience.
Expertise
Visit →
Keeping Balanced
Looking for therapy or individual support? That work lives at Ruby's practice.
For event organizers
Speaker bios, ready to use
Copy-and-paste bios for your program. Need a different length, a headshot, or a one-sheet? Just ask →
Ruby Mathen is a licensed social worker, program director, and professional speaker with over 20 years of experience in housing services and mental health. She leads ICL's Brooklyn Treatment Apartment Program (BTAP III), supporting individuals and families experiencing homelessness and mental-health challenges, while also practicing as a licensed therapist at ICL's Highland Park clinic. Her dual role — leading programs while maintaining clinical practice — gives her rare perspective on what actually works in high-stress, under-resourced environments. As a South Asian woman in social services, Ruby is passionate about culturally responsive care and breaking mental-health stigma in Desi communities. She brings authentic storytelling and evidence-based practice to every presentation.
Let's talk
Want Ruby to tell these stories to your audience?
Keynotes, workshops, and trainings — in New York, nationwide, or virtually.