Rachel Bernstein is a Marriage and Family Therapist with a specialty in those leaving cults and high control groups. She has worked with victims of cults and emotional abusers for 27 years, and believes that given the right set of circumstances, anyone can fall prey to sociopaths and manipulators. Rachel feels honored when a client comes into her office, because she knows that client is entrusting her with information not usually shared with others. She respects her clients and the effort they make to improve their lives, or the lives of their loved ones. Rachel makes every effort to help people along the way who are looking to improve the sweetness of their lives, or to get some relief and feel less burdened by their past or a situation they are dealing with now.
“As an educator & therapist, I see the value in teaching and offering practical information along with listening. My job is not to judge. I want you to feel heard, and understood. People do what they do for a reason. It’s something you want to change, let’s look at it together so you understand why you’re doing it and how to start to change it. I want to help you get what you are hoping for, and where you want to go in your life.”
Rachel was trained in Structural Family Therapy, Humanistic Therapy, Psychodynamic, and Existential Therapy. She believes that while it is important to be aware of various styles of treatment that could be helpful for each client individually, a responsible clinician is flexible in his or her approach so that it fits the client’s wishes and needs rather than needing the client to adapt to and accept the clinician’s style of treatment. In addition, when one member of a family, or couple, is sent to her for help, she finds it most useful to meet with the couple or family as a whole on a number of occasions. Rachel sees issues in a systemic way, and finds it often serves everyone’s needs best when they can see how they trigger behaviors and reactions in each other instead of one person being sent to me as “the problem”.
IndoctriNation is Rachel’s weekly podcast covering cults, manipulators, and protecting yourself from systems of control.
Rachel wanted to start a show to give survivors a chance to tell their stories and for experts to teach us what they know. Her goal for IndoctriNation is to empower listeners to protect themselves and those they love from predators, toxic personalities, and destructive organizations.
Rachel can be reached via her website: rachelbernsteintherapy.com