Rachael Courtier by the lake supporting neurodivergent relationships and emotional healing

Meet RACHAEL COURTIER

Attachment Based & Trauma Informed Therapist in CA

On a mission to help women and those with attachment issues have healthier, richer relationships with themselves and with others.

15+

Years practicing as a licensed psychotherapist

11

Years working in community mental health

5

Years in
Private Practice

You Feel Deeply. You Think Deeply. You Care Deeply.

And yet relationships still feel like the hardest thing.

Perhaps you learned early that love came with conditions, that needing too much meant getting hurt, or that the people meant to be close weren't available, or even harmful to you. So a part of you learned to protect itself. To pull away before things got too close or to hold on in ways that never quite felt secure.

What shows up now, the depression, anxiety, and relationship patterns that repeat no matter how much you've tried, are simply echoes of early relational wounds, showing up in the present and asking to finally be met with something different.

That's what this work is here to offer.

Rachael Courtier, trauma therapist for EMDR and complex trauma, seated in her office

I spent years accumulating insight about my own relational patterns without being able to change them, until I stopped trying to think my way out.

I came to this work through my own early attachment wounds manifesting as depression as a teenager, anxiety and insomnia as a young adult, and years of relationship patterns I could describe precisely and still couldn't stop repeating. I tried hard to understand my way through. And while it helped, it wasn't enough. What actually shifted things was learning to trust what I now know as the inner healing intelligence. As I learned to follow that, my patterns started to move. Some friendships fell away, and some friendships deepened. Intimacy became possible in ways it hadn't been. And eventually, a fulfilling marriage.

Every modality I use I have found genuinely transformative in my own life. The support I offer my clients is not simply methods, but a path I know from the inside.

Trust Your Inner Healing Intelligence

This intelligence lives not in the mind but in the body, dreams, creative expression, and deep work that asks you to slow down and listen in a different way. 

Rachael Courtier, IFS therapist, seated among flowers in a warm outdoor setting

Hi, I'm Rachael—a holistic, IFS and somatic informed, trauma informed,  attachment-based therapist helping people move beyond the patterns that shape their relationships.

My work has unfolded across community health clinics and private practice in New York and California, with individuals and families navigating complex trauma, anxiety, depression, relational pain, and life transitions. Over time, my work has deepened into a specialty: attachment trauma, and the gap between understanding your relational patterns and actually shifting them.

I work specifically with women who have felt different or alone from a young age, and those who are highly sensitive, creative, neurodivergent, or who carry the particular challenges of ADHD in relationships.People whose families carried histories of immigration, displacement, or intergenerational pain, and people from the LGBTQ+ community. Those whose wounds have never felt safe enough to fully name.

Training & Credentials:

  • IFS-Informed Somatic Therapy — The Embody Lab, with Dr. Frank Anderson (60 hrs, completing June 2026)

  • Jungian-Oriented Psychotherapy Certificate — SF Jung Institute, 10-month program (completing June 2026)

  • IFS Foundations –Kendhal Hart, PH.D, 2024

  • IFS and EMDR — Kendhal Hart, PH.D,  2024

  • IFS Level 1 — The IFS Institute (completing Fall 2026)

  • Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Certificate (9-month program incl. Studies in Ketamine, Psilocybin & MDMA) — Integrative Psychiatric Institute, 2025

  • Additional 40-hour Psilocybin Specialization/Practicum–Integrative Psychiatric Institute, 2025

  • Additional Ketamine Practicum-Integrative Psychiatric Institute, 2024.

  • Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) Continuing Education & Consultation — Journey Clinical, 2024–present

  • Attachment-Focused EMDR, Level 1 — The Parnell Institute, 2022–2023

  • Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) — Yale University, 2011

  • Trauma-Informed CBT — Silberman School of Social Work, NY, 2011

  • Masters of Social Work (MSW), with focus in clinical mental health— Silberman School of Social Work, New York, NY

  • Bachelor of Arts — UC Berkeley, Berkeley CA

What I Believe, & What You Can Expect from Our Work Together

Embodied
Safety

Healing doesn't begin with insight. It begins with the body feeling safe enough to exhale. We move at the pace of your nervous system. Nothing is forced. Nothing is overridden. Your protectors are honored.

Relational Integrity

Healing happens in relationship. I value steadiness, honesty, and repair. You will not be pathologized, rushed, or emotionally abandoned here.

Self
Leadership

Every part of you makes sense, even the ones that feel confusing or self-sabotaging. I trust the wisdom within you: the steady, compassionate Self that already knows how to lead your healing.

Authentic Becoming

You are not here to be fixed. You are here to become more fully yourself, integrated, expressed, and at home in your own life.

Get to Know Rachael Beyond the Therapy Room

  • Rachael Courtier writing in her office, supporting ADHD women and relationships

    I'm an Enneagram 4, MBTI type INFP, and a Scorpio.

    Which is to say: I feel things deeply, I am passionate about what I do,  and I will always be curious about what lies beneath the surface.

  • Peaceful outdoor therapy setting with guitar, books, flowers, and a woven bag

    I am a genuine music nerd.

    My tastes range from folk, to soul, to alt-country, old time, the standards, dance, ambient, electronica, indie, classic rock, world music, hip hop,  —as long as it's excellent in its genre, I'm in. Music is one of my oldest companions and one of my deepest sources of healing.

  • Rachael Courtier by the water offering psychedelic assisted therapy in California

    Some of my favorite poets are …

    Ranier Maria Rilke, Mary Oliver, Rumi, and Pablo Neruda. I believe poetry does something prose cannot, it speaks directly to the part of us that lives beneath words.

  • Rachael Courtier seated at her desk, offering internal family systems for trauma support

    Some of my previous career incarnations include …

    Working as a junior high and high school Spanish & English teacher in SF and LA, as an Esthetician in Santa Monica, CA; as a travel writer in Mexico, and as an executive assistant on Park Avenue, NYC. My first work as a psychotherapist was in clinical social work , serving those living in the housing projects of East Harlem and the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and then working in public health clinics. I’ve had a wide range of lived, rich experience with life and people that I bring to my private practice work as a psychotherapist.

  • Outdoor therapy session supporting ADHD and attachment issues in relationships

    When I'm not working, you might find me ….

    Reading, writing, playing guitar, singing, art journaling, weight training, doing yoga and meditation, hiking, getting coffee/tea with friends, sitting in my flowerpot garden, and hanging out at home with my husband, our miniature poodle and two cats watching movies and cooking together.

Rachel’s Unique Approach

Most therapy works at the level of the mind. This work goes further.

What I offer is unusual in its combination. IFS-informed parts work, somatic-informed therapy, Attachment-focused EMDR, Jungian-oriented psychotherapy and dreamwork, creative expressive approaches, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, all woven together inside a genuinely relational therapeutic presence. My integration of all of them, inside the kind of relationship where you can finally be fully met, is where the deepest work tends to happen.

From Clients Who Were Ready for More Than Insight

  • "Rachael made it feel safe from the start, she answered all my questions, never rushed me, and helped me feel grounded going into it."

    “Trying ketamine-assisted therapy felt like a big leap for me, especially since I had zero experience with anything like that. Rachael made it feel safe from the start, she answered all my questions, never rushed me, and helped me feel grounded going into it.

    The experience itself opened up parts of me I hadn’t been able to access before. The biggest shift was in how I talk to myself, way less harsh, way more curious. And honestly, the integration sessions after were some of the most meaningful therapy I’ve ever had. Rachael has a way of guiding you through things without ever pushing, and it all carried back into our regular sessions in a really seamless way.”

  • "What I appreciate most about Rachael’s approach is that she blends a big-picture social work framework with deeper philosophical themes to explore both the inner and outer world."

    “I started seeing Rachael 4 years ago, after serendipitously selecting her from a list given by my insurance. I still can’t believe how lucky I was to find such a great match with so little effort.

    What I appreciate most about Rachael’s approach is that she blends a big-picture social work framework with deeper philosophical themes to explore both the inner and outer world. We incorporated some KAP sessions a year ago which gave me the ability to meet myself more deeply.

    This has been so profound for my inner work and left me with a sense of confident optimism for my future that I did not have before.”

  • "She is the first therapist I’ve ever felt genuinely connected to and the first provider I’ve been able to be completely honest with."

    “Working with Rachael has been truly life-changing. She is the first therapist I’ve ever felt genuinely connected to and the first provider I’ve been able to be completely honest with. She created a safe space where I felt understood and supported while helping me make sense of my trauma in ways I never had before.

    Because of her support, guidance, and expertise, I’ve grown tremendously—not only in my healing journey, but in my everyday life. I’ve become a better mother, wife, and coworker. Rachael has consistently shown up for me with professionalism, compassion, and unwavering support when I’ve needed her most. I’m incredibly grateful for the impact she has had on my life and would highly recommend her to anyone seeking meaningful healing and lasting change.”

  • "Working with Rachael has been such a powerful and positive experience."

    “What I appreciated most is her incredible witnessing presence. You can really feel how grounded and clear she is, like her own parts are out of the way, which allowed me to fully drop into my own process.

    She has a beautiful balance of guiding and allowing. I never felt pushed or directed in a way that took me out of my experience, but I did feel deeply attuned guidance and support when I needed it.

    I left sessions feeling deeply impacted and supported, and I’m genuinely looking forward to continuing this work with her. I highly recommend her to anyone considering KAP.”

Rachael Courtier, psychotherapist in CA, writing in her calm therapy office with books and natural light

If you're a self-aware woman who has tried to think your way out of relational patterns that won't budge, this is the work built for that.

You don’t have to keep navigating this alone. Reach out to schedule a free consultation and we'll explore whether working together is the right next step.

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