I am a licensed marriage & family therapist with my doctorate in couple and marital therapy. My approach to therapy focuses on healing, connection, and emotional insight to allow individuals, kids, teenagers, and families to reach their goals and improve their lives. I work together with my clients to tailor treatment so that whatever may be affecting them and can be worked through in a safe, comfortable space. Besides being a therapist, I am an adjunct professor and I teach psychology master's students, and I also volunteer with my local library and local animal rescues whenever I can.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
First sessions will include a thorough intake and assessment process so I can learn more about what is bringing clients in, what they want to work on, what's worked in the past, and we can begin to create a collaborative treatment plan together. We will explore any troubling thoughts, feelings, or patterns that they are experiencing and we will find ways for thrm to move forward through any transition in life.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
I am compassionate, kind, empathetic, and open with my clients. I adhere to professional boundaries and ethics while still showing up as myself in sessions and connecting with my clients from a very real, honest place. I don't hide behind the mask of a professional and allow myself to be genuine with my clients, which helps foster a strong therapeutic alliance.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
I utilize different treatment modalities like EMDR, Emotionally Focused Therapy, attachment-based therapy, somatic therapy, and Bowen Family Systems Theory to bring clients the best treatment for their personalized needs. Some of my specialty areas include grief & loss, PTSD and trauma, child and adolescent therapy, family therapy, depression, and anxiety.
About Rachel Chistyakov
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VirtualMy treatment methods
EMDR
After experiencing EMDR myself and witnessing how transformative it can be, I got trained in this modality and am able to provide it virtually. EMDR is helpful in processing trauma, and also works with other mental health concerns like depression, anxiety, phobias, maladaptive habits, etc. It's said that EMDR is like fitting 10 talk therapy sessions into 1; the work can be intense, but clients can generally see relief from symptoms pretty quickly when done consistently.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
EFT is based in attachment theory, experiential therapy, humanistic therapy, and systemic therapy. It can be used with individuals, couples, families, and kids. Emotion is seen as the mechanism of change and it's the main focus of therapy. EFT focuses on how emotions can guide us in our interpersonal relationships, how our emotions impact how we view ourselves and the world around us, and how our emotions can spiral out of control. We will work on emotional regulation skills along with communication skills and interpersonal skills, with a heavy focus on attachment-related work.
Family Therapy
I have worked with families and with children and teenagers for my entire career. I use Bowen's multi-generational model of therapy to guide my work with families; with kids and teens, I use play therapy techniques and different types of art therapy to make sessions enjoyable for younger clients while also addressing the ongoing issues that have brought these clients into therapy. With families, I like to work with everyone in the family unit that is being affected by the problem. With kids and teens, I will work with the parents and the kids to bring healing to the entire family.
Grief Therapy
I am a Motherless Daughter and lost my mom when I was 15, and I have lost many other family members after her death as well. Because of my experiences with grief and loss, I've dedicated a large portion of my practice to helping others process and heal from losses that they've experienced. With grief therapy, we will create a safe and comforting space for you to talk about and process the loss that you've experienced. There will be no judgement as you go through the many different emotions that come up with grief.
Somatic
I am currently getting trained in somatic work, so while I cannot offer the entire modality fully, I use components from my training to tie in somatic work throughout our sessions and to help foster the mind-body connection.