About Dr. Rebecca Rabin, PsyD
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21+ years of clinical experience helping individuals navigate healing, growth, and meaningful change.
In order to face the future, you have to face the past.
I had discovered this by the time I graduated college and set out for my first job, living and working as a mental health counselor at Gould Farm—a nationally recognized therapeutic community in the Berkshires that serves adults with severe mental health challenges. I then worked as a residential counselor at the Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago—a long-term psychoanalytic residential treatment center for children with severe trauma and mental disturbance.
Working there, I learned valuable lessons that inform how I work as a psychologist today: We are first and foremost human beings, not human doers; hope can emerge from even the darkest of times; we are all more similar than we are different; human connection is the basis of recovery; recovery and growth are sometimes invisible and often not linear processes; and we all need to feel seen, heard, and valued.
As a therapist, this has inspired me to want to help you, on your unique journey of healing and growth.
True personal growth requires more than short-term symptom management. In my practice, I work with individuals who feel stuck in recurring patterns, high-functioning anxiety, or a sense of disconnection despite their external success. Together, we look beneath the surface to understand the underlying emotional dynamics shaping your life, career, and relationships.
My approach is deeply relational, collaborative, and psychoanalytically informed. By examining the root causes of your distress, we work to foster profound self-awareness, authentic self-expression, and lasting psychological freedom. I approach each client with warmth, respect, and non-judgmental acceptance, fostering a safe space for exploration and healing.
With a genuine passion for helping others lead fulfilling lives, I am dedicated to helping clients develop greater self-understanding, strengthen their relationships, and cultivate meaningful and lasting change. Through my compassionate, contemporary psychodynamic, and relationship-centered approach, I strive to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those I serve.
- Rebecca Rabin, PsyD
BA — Hampshire College (1990–1994)
Doctor of Psychology degree (PsyD) from Rutgers University
Clinical Internship (2001–2002) and Advanced Clinical Fellowship (2002–2003) — Massachusetts Mental Health Center / Harvard Medical School.
Clinical Fellowship (2001–2003), Post-Graduate Fellowship in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2007–2008), and Psychoanalytic Training (2008–2010) — Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis.
Completed The Power of Awareness — a mindfulness-based training program with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield
Post-Doctorate work at the MIT and Boston College counseling centers
Clinical Psychologist — Boston College Counseling Center, 2003–2004
Staff Psychologist — Brookline Community Mental Health Center, 2004–2007
Staff Psychologist — The Trauma Center (led by Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score), 2005–2007
Private Practice — Brookline, MA (2004–Present)
Supervised psychology interns at The Brookline Community Mental Health Center and Harvard Medical School/Mass Mental Health Center
Contemporary Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Relational Therapy
Attachment-Based Therapy
Trauma-Informed Therapy
Mindfulness-Based Practices
Co-taught Clinical Implications of Self Psychology with Anna Ornstein, MD at the Psychoanalytic Educational Forum of Boston (2008)
Workshop on Clinical Implications of Medication Non-Compliance
Taught Contemporary Psychodynamic Approaches at Emerson College Counseling Center (2012)
Supervised trainees at Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Brookline Community Health Center (2004–2008)
Guest lecturer at MIT Counseling Center, Harvard Medical School, and Emerson College Counseling Center
Anxiety disorders
Mood disorders
Trauma
Relationship issues
Identity development
Navigating complex interpersonal and relational patterns
Processing identity transitions and existential impasses
Managing the unique pressures of highly competitive academic and professional environments
Resolving chronic self-doubt, burnout, or unfulfilled potential
I work with college and graduate students, young professionals, working professionals, couples, parents, trauma survivors, people navigating stress and burnout, family issues, grief and loss, professionals transitioning into retirement, and retired adults.
What Clients Say
"Dr. Rabin created a space where I felt truly heard and understood. Through our work together, I gained insight, confidence, and new ways of approaching life's challenges."
"Working with Dr. Rabin helped me better understand myself and recognize patterns that were holding me back. Her warmth, insight, and guidance supported me in creating meaningful and lasting change."
"Rebecca's compassionate and thoughtful approach helped me navigate a difficult period with greater clarity and resilience."
Principles of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (adapted from Jonathan Shedler, PhD)
The goal of meaningful therapy is for you to live a more whole and free life. People come to therapy because they feel bad (often anxious and/or depressed) which is the surface manifestation of underlying issues. Psychoanalytic psychotherapy provides an emotional, lived experience aimed at psychological discovery in the therapy relationship via:
1. Focus on emotion: Attend to and put words to your emotional experience
2. Study of the avoidance: Discover the ways you avoid things that are emotionally distressing
3. Identification of recurrent themes: Your life is filled with recurring themes which are the context of the particular problems that you are coming in to therapy to get help with.
4. Understanding relationship patterns: Who you are as a psychological being was forged in your earliest relationships and plays out in the context of current relationships (or avoidance of them). Learn from the past to shed light on the present and gain freedom from painful, self-defeating patterns.
5. Focus on the therapy relationship itself: We will attend to your relational patterns as they unfold in therapy, using the therapy relationship as a window into your inner life
6. Therapeutic Alliance: The most important determinant of therapy is the therapeutic relationship. As your therapist, I will pay attention to your experience in therapy, in order to learn how to be responsive and helpful to you, as a unique individual with a particular set of problems.
I'm here for you.
Do you want to feel understood and discover a pathway forward?
Reach out today and let's get you started.