About Rachel Rubenstein

Who I work with

• People struggling with sex addiction and compulsive sexual behavior
• Partners of sex addicts, and the betrayal trauma that comes with discovery
• Couples facing sex addiction, whether in the first weeks after discovery or further along in recovery
• High-conflict couples looking for a way through
• Adults living with PTSD and complex PTSD
• People working through religious and spiritual trauma, including clients from the Jewish community (among them the Chareidi community) and from conservative and evangelical Christian backgrounds, particularly where faith, sexuality, and shame have become entangled

Many of my clients are successful, driven professionals in high-pressure fields. Their competence, performance, and image in the world haven’t translated into ease in their closest relationships, and their success has made it harder to be honest about what isn’t working and to ask for help.

How I work

I don’t ask clients to chase an idea of “normal.” That pursuit usually keeps people stuck. Instead, I’ll help you look at what your behaviors and coping patterns have been protecting, respect the purpose they served, and build something that works better.

I’m also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner candidate. Somatic Experiencing is a body-based approach to trauma. Many clients arrive with years of therapy and good language for what happened to them, yet still get activated by the past. Working with the body helps them heal and spend less time caught in the stories they tell themselves.

Services

• Individual, couples, and group therapy, including a men’s group focused on intimacy and relationships
• Therapeutic intensives
• Facilitated disclosure for families, with children from middle school through adulthood, in Chicago or out of state
• Formal sex addiction assessments, including referrals from licensing boards and professional health programs

I see clients in person in Chicago and via telehealth in Illinois and New York.

Background

Rachel is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist Supervisor (CSAT-S) through the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals and a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP) candidate. She began her career in New York treating trauma and addiction, opened a private practice in Brooklyn in 2006, and founded Searching for Change in Chicago in 2014.

“Working with addiction and recovery forces me to learn, challenge myself, and grow every day. Some of the most honest, connected people I’ve met are addicts and partners in recovery.”