Mark L. Ruffalo LCSW

Mark L. Ruffalo, L.C.S.W., is a psychotherapist in private practice in Tampa, Florida, and serves as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. He provides general psychodynamic psychotherapy with special interest in the treatment of schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. During his training at the University of Pittsburgh, Mark had the opportunity to work with severely ill patients in long-term psychotherapy, an area in which he has since developed recognized expertise. He has published previously in the American Journal of Psychotherapy, the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, and the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. He currently serves as Interim Director of Psychotherapy Training at the UCF/HCA Orlando psychiatry residency program and is Founding Editor of The Carlat Psychotherapy Report. His interests span psychoanalysis, phenomenological psychopathology, and psychiatric nosology, and he has attempted to bridge classic communication theory with object relations theory in understanding borderline personality disorder. He has advanced the hypothesis that borderline personality disorder is fundamentally a disorder of paradox or self-contradiction. He was the recipient of the 2023-2024 Excellence in Psychotherapy Supervision and Teaching Award from the UCF psychiatry residency program. In 2025, he was selected as Chair of the Special Report on Psychotherapy for Psychiatric Times. He has been an invited lecturer at Dartmouth, the Mayo Clinic, and the University of Pittsburgh.

What Drives Chronic Relationship Instability in Adults

Making Sense of Chronic Relationship Instability

January 19, 2026
Mark L. Ruffalo LCSW
The Debate Over Complex Trauma in Modern Psychiatry

The Trouble With Complex Trauma

January 13, 2026
Mark L. Ruffalo LCSW
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3 Rare Psychotic Syndromes You Might Not Have Heard Of

January 13, 2026
Mark L. Ruffalo LCSW

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