Maria DeRubeis, Passages - Pathway to Healing

So nice to meet you! First off, what’s your name? Tell our readers a bit about yourself—where you’re from originally and where you live now.

My name is Maria DeRubeis, and I'm a Registered Social Worker with a BSW and MSW, with over 40 years of experience in this field. I immigrated to Windsor, Ontario, when I was four years old, and it's where I built my whole life and career. I'm the founder of Passages - Pathway to Healing, an individual and relationship counselling practice in Windsor.

My office is located in Olde Walkerville in Windsor, ON.

I am also one of six founders of Extraordinary Women Ignite, a group built around helping women find their voice, their confidence, and their power, together.

Tell us one thing you love about where you live now?

I live in LaSalle now, just outside Windsor, and I love it. It's a small, tight-knit community, but what makes it really special is that we're a border town. Within minutes you can cross into Detroit, Michigan, which always gives it an interesting energy. And LaSalle itself has so many parks and trails, it's a beautiful place to slow down and just be.

Tell us a little bit more about what your company does and how it started? How does it help your customers?

Passages - Pathway to Healing is my individual and relationship counselling practice in Windsor. I decided I wanted to be a social worker back in high school, watching those social workers walk past our house on their way to the Children's Aid Society. I got my BSW in 1985 and went back to school in 2002 for my MSW, finishing in 2004. For years I built Passages on the side while working in grassroots organizations and the education system, and in 2022 I finally went all in and made it my full-time focus. I help people work through the hard stuff, relationship struggles, life transitions, moments where they've lost their footing, and find their way back to themselves. After 40 years in this field, what hasn't changed is that people just want to feel heard and to know they're not carrying it alone.

If someone wants to start a business, what advice would you give them?

Don't wait until everything lines up perfectly, because it won't. I built Passages alongside other jobs for over twenty years before I went solo. That wasn't a failure to commit, it was me giving myself the runway to build something solid without betting everything on it too soon. My advice is to start now, even small, and let the business grow at the pace your life can actually hold. And know your why, establish your niche. Mine never changed from the day I decided to do this work, and that's what carried me through the slow years.

What was one feedback from a happy customer/client that you won't forget about?

One that still stays with me is a wedding photo I received from a couple I'd supported through some really hard moments in their relationship. They sent it along with a note thanking me for helping them work through things and reach their goal of marriage. Seeing that photo, knowing I'd played a part in them getting there, meant the world to me. And honestly, there are so many stories like that one. Clients who came in barely holding it together and walked out having truly healed. Those are the moments that remind me why I do this work.

Where do you see your company in the future?

I want Passages to keep being a place people trust with the hardest parts of their lives, and I want to keep expanding how I show up for the community beyond the therapy room. One of my goals is to do more presentations and speaking, there's still so much I want to give back. Between the practice, my Sunday radio show, and my work with Extraordinary Women Ignite, I see all of it as one mission, helping people and in particular women find their voice and their footing, whether that's one on one in my office, in a room full of women learning to own their power, or on a stage sharing what I've learned.

What is the biggest misconception about your industry?

People still hear "social worker" and think of child apprehension, because that's the version most visible to the public. I grew up watching that version of the job myself. But social work is so much broader than that, and what I do at Passages is help people build healthier relationships and stronger senses of self. The other misconception is that therapy is for when something is "wrong" with you. Most of the people I sit with are just human beings going through something hard, and wanting a steady, honest space to work through it.

What has been one of your biggest struggle building your business and how did you deal with it?

Running a small business has its own rhythm, there are ebbs and flows, busy stretches and quiet ones, and learning to trust that rhythm instead of panicking through the quiet parts took time. Going solo in 2022 after decades of having the steadiness of other jobs alongside Passages was a real leap too. What's carried me through both is that so many of my clients come from personal referrals, people trusting me enough to send someone they care about my way. That means everything to me, and it speaks to something I've never been willing to compromise on, my integrity. In a field like this, standing out isn't about marketing, it's about being someone people know they can trust with the hardest parts of their lives.

What was your favorite music artist and athlete growing up?

Growing up it was Elvis and Prince for me, no contest. And if I think about who I admire most today, it's not an athlete at all, it's Mariska Hargitay. The advocacy work she's done for survivors means so much to me, both personally and in the work I do every day.

Any shoutouts you want to make?

Dan MacDonald, a radio host himself, who first believed in me enough to put me on the air. And my family and my children, who have always believed in me and supported every single one of my endeavours, even the ones that probably sounded a little wild at the start. I also have to shout out my group chat, we call ourselves Wonder Women, with my sister, my daughter, and my niece. We support each other through everything, and I couldn't do half of what I do without them in my corner.