Rachel Sikorski, LCAT, ATR-BC, RPT-S is a NYS Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT), a registered and board-certified art therapist (ATR-BC), as well as a registered play therapist and supervisor (RPT-S). She is a long-time professional member of The American Art Therapy Association (AATA) and its New York chapter (NYATA), The EMDR International Association (EMDRIA), as well as The Association for Play Therapy (APT) and its New York chapter (NYAPT).

Rachel specializes in the creative integration of the visual arts and therapeutic play into traditional "talk-based" psychotherapy approaches, to adapt treatment to the unique needs of individuals of all ages; and, in particular, the treatment of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress in children as well as adults with complex childhood and relational trauma. Rachel has extensive professional training and a wealth of experience utilizing trauma-informed, solution-focused, somatic, and mindfulness-based approaches to psychotherapy in her clinical practice. She was fully-trained in the trauma resolution methods of PC (Progressive Counting) and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) in 2013; and, she continues to engage in regular, ongoing professional development to stay up to date on the latest research and clinical adaptations of trauma work to meet the developmental needs of children, in particular.

Rachel has been providing mental health treatment to children, adolescents, adults, and families for over 17 years.  Her professional experience includes several years of work supporting adolescents with intellectual and neurodevelopmental disorders in the community; adolescent youth experiencing emotional-behavioral disturbance and related conditions in residential treatment; as well as children, adults, and families in outpatient mental health clinics and school-based settings.  Rachel has experience working with a variety of client populations, including those with trauma, attachment, and adjustment-related disorders; anxiety, mood, and dissociative disorders; oppositional and conduct-related behavioral disorders; self-harm and suicidal ideation; as well as neurodevelopmental disorders associated with executive functioning impairment such as ADHD/ADD and ASD.

Rachel served, for several years, as a part-time adjunct lecturer and Art Therapy Minor Program Coordinator at Buffalo State University.  Her goal therein, as an advocate for increased access to mental healthcare, was to educate the public and work to expand the reach of art therapy to communities in need. Rachel firmly believes that increasing affordable access to graduate-level training in art therapy will serve to increase representation from and accessibility to more culturally and racially diverse art therapy professionals within the underserved communities of Buffalo as well as in the field as a whole. Rachel continues to advise the department and educators within the art therapy curriculum courses, despite recently stepping back from teaching and advising roles there; she continues to hope the program can continue towards expansion despite pandemic-related changes that affected the ability to realize a local graduate-level training program there, a major focus of her work during her tenure at Buffalo State. Rachel has and will continue to prioritize advocacy efforts for art therapy accessibility and insurance coverage on local, state, and national levels. For more information about how you can help support related advocacy efforts in New York State, please contact your state representatives about the need for their support of NY Senate Bills S6362 (Assembly Bill A6173) and S8715(Assembly Bill A9018); or, visit www.lcatcoalition.org.