Dr. Rachel Lacks
Staff Clinical Psychologist, Washington Anxiety Center of Capitol Hill

Dr. Rachel Lacks is a licensed child and adolescent psychologist. She earned her PhD in Counseling Psychology at New York University, her Master's in Education at Harvard University, and her Bachelor's of Science in Human Development at Cornell University. Dr. Lacks completed a predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Center for Anxiety in New York, where she specialized in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety and related disorders.

Dr. Lacks has trained extensively in many areas, employing evidence-based treatments for a variety of presenting concerns. As a post-doctoral fellow and predoctoral intern at Center for Anxiety, Dr. Lacks worked with children, adolescents, and adults using CBT for generalized anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic, specific phobias, social anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, parent training, trichotillomania and depression. Dr. Lacks also provided Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to promote mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance skills.

During her pre-doctoral training years, she trained at Mt. Sinai Hospital in the department of OCD, Tic Disorders, and Tourette's Disorder, treating both children and adults with OCD and/or tic disorders. She utilized Exposure and Response Prevention (ExRP) to teach individuals to systematically approach anxiety-provoking thoughts and situations while effectively managing maladaptive and/or compulsive responses, as well as Habit Reversal Training (HRT) to teach individuals to engage in competing responses to counteract motor and vocal tics. She also received extensive training in working with children with selective mutism during her time at Child Mind Institute and Kurtz Psychology. Dr. Lacks provided both individual and intensive group services to children struggling with selective mutism, using behavioral techniques and collaborative efforts to provide intervention both at home and in schools. While at Kurtz Psychology, Dr. Lacks also received training in Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) to help parents manage child externalizing behavior and improve the parent-child relationship. Additionally, Dr. Lacks worked at the New York University Center for Counseling and Community Wellbeing as a student pre-doctoral clinician conducting psychological assessments for children and adolescents and preparing comprehensive integrated testing reports.

Dr. Lacks strives to teach children and adolescents about the thoughts, emotions, and body sensations they are experiencing, and couples this with cognitive interventions to identify and challenge maladaptive thoughts, behavioral strategies to alter behavioral patterns, and coping/relaxation techniques. Dr. Lacks makes sessions fun, engaging, and appropriately challenging, and works collaboratively with parents/family members, school personnel, medical professionals, and anyone else involved in patient care.

Dr. Lacks will see children and adolescents at the Washington Anxiety Center of Capitol hill via teletherapy. She is currently licensed in Washington,DC, New York, and New Jersey.

To contact Dr. Lacks, please call her at (202) 768-6494 or email her at admin@washingtonanxietycenter.com

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