About Rachel Weiss, MSW, LCSW
Rachel Weiss, MSW, LCSW
“Working with victimized people requires a committed moral stance. The therapist is called upon to bear witness to a crime. She must affirm a position of solidarity with the victim. This does not mean a simplistic notion that the victim can do no wrong; rather, it involves an understanding of the fundamental injustice of the traumatic experience and the need for a resolution that restores some sense of justice.”
It is truly an honor to be trusted, invited in, allowed to bear witness, and partner with my clients in their most vulnerable, beautiful, amazing, profound, magical, courageous and often frightening journeys towards healing. My clients and I partner in this journey collaboratively and emotionally, learning from one another. I am so grateful for the experiences I've had in my life's work as a Clinical Social Worker. I am extremely passionate about this work and I get very excited about it; an avid learner and student, constantly evolving as a clinician, and a human being.
I was born and raised in Washington, DC. I come from a background of activism in my family, community, and schooling. I can remember very few times when I was not speaking up for injustice- those times were always when I myself felt silenced and traumatized- those times that even the strongest of us collapse into ourselves and need someone else to speak up loudly on our behalf. However, aside from those moments, and even throughout most of them, I have been speaking up and standing beside others who suffer, who need help, who need to be heard. I was taught, and to this day hold the belief, that to stay silent or inactive in the face of injustice is to contribute to the problem, rather than the solution.
This history, along with my own personal struggles with trauma, lead me to the field of Clinical Social Work; Social Workers believe in making change on more than an individual level, and it is our ethical duty to involve ourselves in community organizing and activism. We also believe that it is not just our parents, or immediate family members who shape us, understanding that the world around us contributes as well, and that this needs to be invited into the sacred space of psychotherapy. Thus, Social Work, was the obvious path for me; I never imagined how much it would change my life!
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional in the State of North Carolina, with over 20 years of clinical experience as a psychotherapist. I earned my Bachelor's Degree in 1999 in New York, NY at the New School for Social Research, where I earned a B.A., majoring in Cultural Studies with a focus on African-American and Latin-American Studies in the U.S.
After many years of living and working as a teacher, musician and dancer in Mexico, I decided to go to Smith College: School for Social Work, knowing this work was my true calling. With a heavy heart, I left the country most beloved to me in order to pursue this calling. In graduate school, much like my college experience, my life and worldview changed again. In 2006, after 2.5 years of full-time internships as a Psychotherapist, and 3 jam-packed summers of "clinical social work boot-camp," along with a completed Master's Thesis, I earned my Masters in Social Work (MSW).
I later earned my LCSW, and my LCAS, with extensive work in the field of addiction, trauma, and dual-diagnosis. I am a trauma and addiction specialist who believes that the majority of the issues people struggle with stem from unresolved trauma, or "toxic" experiences, along with attachment wounds. I believe everyone deserves empathy and compassion; everyone has the capacity to heal and recover. I believe that we are ultimately the experts regarding both our struggles and our healing.
I have been in private practice for several years now; prior to this I worked in a multitude of systems and agencies, from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, to The D.C. Rape Crisis Center, as well as working for years in several roles with the NC State and Federal Probation Systems, assessing, running groups, coordinating care and doing individual therapy with people in and out of the Criminal Justice System, with a consistent mindset of practicing from a trauma-informed and attachment-based perspective. I ran a program for the Bureau of Prison System as well, working with "inmates," and helping them during their re-entry back into society. I have supervised, lead teams, and trained other clinicians in trauma-informed care, addiction work and cultural competency.
My theoretical orientation is an integrative and individualized approach, using a variety of practices including Psychodynamic Modalities, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Attachment-Focused Psychotherapy, The Hakomi Method: Mindfulness-Based Body-Centered Psychotherapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Ego State Work (“Parts Work”), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and Somatic Experiencing (SE), among others.
“Underlying the attack on psychotherapy, I believe, is a recognition of the potential power of any relationship of witnessing. The consulting room is a privileged space dedicated to memory. Within that space, survivors gain the freedom to know and tell their stories. Even the most private and confidential disclosure of past abuses increases the likelihood of eventual public disclosure. And public disclosure is something that perpetrators are determined to prevent. As in the case of more overtly political crimes, perpetrators will fight tenaciously to ensure that their abuses remain unseen, unacknowledged, and consigned to oblivion.
We, the bystanders, have had to look within ourselves to find some small portion of the courage that victims of violence must muster every day.
Though frightening, these attacks are an implicit tribute to the power of the healing relationship. They remind us that creating a protected space where survivors can speak their truth is an act of liberation. They remind us that bearing witness, even within the confines of that sanctuary, is an act of solidarity. They remind us also that moral neutrality in the conflict between victim and perpetrator is not an option. Like all other bystanders, therapists are sometimes forced to take sides. Those who stand with the victim will inevitably have to face the perpetrator’s unmasked fury. For many of us, there can be no greater honor. ”