Rachael Jelnicky, MFT

My goal is to help you broaden your view of yourself, your relationships, and your struggles, so you can move through them differently. I specialize in working with anxiety, emotional avoidance, life transitions, and difficult family relationships.

I’ll help you pause and notice what you’re actually feeling, encouraging you to get to know yourself in a new way. We’ll explore patterns showing up in your life with curiosity rather than judgement. These behaviors are likely there for a reason.

I’m here to ask questions, offer observations, share impressions, and help brainstorm ways you might approach your struggles. Don’t be surprised if I hit you with a kooky metaphor or visual to accompany the story you just told. When working with clients, I’m always considering the world you exist in, including your family, religion, culture, relationships, profession, hobbies, and how they inform your larger sense of self.

How I Work With Anxiety and Avoidance

Sometimes, anxiety is an umbrella that arises to shield you from feeling a multitude of other things like sadness, doubt, anger, joy, contentedness, or rejection. Together, we’ll begin to unravel the tangled ball of anxiety to reveal the thoughts and feelings at the heart of it. We’ll work to reinforce self-trust and confidence in your decisions, in order to quiet your racing thoughts.

How I Work With Couples

You’re not just two people in a relationship, you’re two entire ecosystems smashing together. Two perspectives on the same interactions, each with their own assumptions and truths. In couples work, we’ll uncover the emotions at the heart of your conflicts and bridge the gap toward understanding and connection.

Tools I Draw From

My style is influenced by Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), which really means we’re getting to the emotions and beliefs at the heart of your experiences. I also use IFS and “parts” language to help you make sense of the many different ways you likely feel. This can sound like “part of me feels angry, part of me feels guilty, and honestly part of me feels relieved.” We’ll work to make room for all of them to exist without canceling each other out.

After growing up in Florida and moving to Colorado after college, I’ve been in Philly for the last 8 years. Becoming a therapist was a career change for me in my 30s. After a previous career in Account Management where life was feeling pretty meaningless, I sought out a big change.

Luckily, Philly has some incredible universities and opportunities to change your life. I enrolled in the Marriage and Family Therapy program at Thomas Jefferson University, and nothing’s been the same since.

As a therapist, I love getting to connect with people every day and help them understand themselves better.