RACHEL KURAS, LMHCA
Washington State License: PY61500000
Works with: Individuals and families
Sees clients: 3 and up
Therapeutic Approach
Rachel provides psychotherapy and assessment services at Seattle Anxiety Specialists. She has extensive training and experience with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Existential Psychotherapy, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Systemic Therapy, Person-Centered Psychotherapy, and Attachment-Based Psychotherapy. Rachel pulls from many theoretical approaches in order to provide flexibility to her client population as an integrated therapist.
Her therapeutic approach fosters growth and healing via connection, compassion, and unwavering reverence for the human condition. Rachel believes that the only thing in life that is permanent is change, and that our reactions to change can be deeply impacted by early formative experiences and challenges throughout our lives. She seeks to support clients through processes of fostering psychological flexibility, building awareness of their patterns, and “deconstructing what we’ve learned that doesn’t serve us.” Rachel collaborates with clients to build a space that allows for moments of humility, mistake-making, and practice. She provides both brief and long-term therapy dependent upon each client’s expressed needs.
Rachel’s clinical work focuses on anxiety disorders and complex trauma. She is also skilled in providing therapeutic support for people experiencing obsessions and compulsions, grief and loss, life transitions, gender and sexual identity exploration, and neurodiversity. Rachel works with clients of all ages and has a broad range of experience working with members of the LGBTQIA+ community and individuals identifying as neurodiverse. Her early clinical experiences involved providing trauma-informed psychotherapy and comprehensive diagnostic assessment services to children and adolescents in rural and underserved communities.
More about Rachel
Before beginning graduate school for clinical psychology, Rachel completed her Bachelor’s in Psychology at the University of Washington Tacoma, graduating with Global Honors. She also obtained a minor in global engagement, which solidified her integrated and systemic approach to psychotherapy with emphasis on understanding systemic harm and specific interactions between individuals and larger systems in our lives. During her undergraduate experience, Rachel served as a volunteer sexual assault survivor advocate for Rebuilding Hope in Tacoma, handling a 24/7 crisis hotline for survivors of sexual assault, and providing in-action advocacy services to survivors in court, hospital, and forensic interview settings.
Rachel is also passionate about deconstructing societal mental health stigma via honest conversations, compassion, and practices of mindful awareness. Her undergraduate thesis focused on utilizing higher education to support practices in psychotherapy that reduce harm caused by institutional prejudice and discrimination. While earning her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Pacific University, Rachel worked on dissertation research related to trauma-informed care in public schools.
Having herself faced challenges navigating mental health and medical systems, Rachel strives to contribute to the accessibility and personalization of these services, and helps clients build systems and communities that encourage sustainable living. Her drive as a therapist comes from a place of compassion and wanting the best for her clients:
“[I am] inspired by people cultivating a loving relationship with life.”
Rachel also enjoys connecting with nature, and is intrigued by the concept of biomimicry. She also has a dog named Daisy, and a polydactyl cat named Pickle. In her free time she enjoys gardening, singing, hiking, live music, video games, practicing piano, and experimenting with polyphonic synthesizers.
If you are interested in signing up with Rachel, you can check her availability here.
Provides therapy in:
English