Dr. Rae Mazzei

Feeling anxious, overwhelmed, stuck, or unlike yourself can begin to affect every part of your life. You may understand what is happening intellectually, yet still struggle to quiet the worry, stop avoiding situations, move beyond painful experiences, or feel confident in yourself again. Therapy can help you better understand these patterns and learn how to change them.

I am a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 15 years of experience helping adolescents and adults manage anxiety, panic, phobias, depression, trauma, addiction, health-related concerns, and major life transitions. I especially enjoy working with individuals who feel caught in cycles of worry, fear, avoidance, self-doubt, or behaviors that are interfering with their relationships, health, work, or quality of life.

My background includes private practice, psychiatric settings, substance use treatment, functional medicine clinics, and college counseling. This broad experience allows me to work effectively with concerns that may be complex, long-standing, or closely connected to physical health and stress.

My approach is warm, collaborative, and nonjudgmental, while also being practical and goal-oriented. I use evidence-based approaches including CBT, ACT, EMDR, exposure-based therapy, mindfulness, and Positive Psychology. As a health psychologist, I also consider the important connection between emotional and physical well-being.

I earned my bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and my master’s and doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology from the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. I also teach graduate-level psychology courses.

My goal is to help you feel understood and supported while giving you practical tools to create meaningful change, build confidence, and move toward a life that feels healthier, more manageable, and more aligned with what matters most to you.

My approach to therapy is collaborative, compassionate, and grounded in evidence-based care. I view therapy as a space where you can feel safe, understood, and supported while also being gently challenged to grow. I work from a biopsychosocial perspective, which means we look at the full picture of your experience; your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, physical health, relationships, and life context. I integrate approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), EMDR, and Positive Psychology, depending on your needs and goals. Together, we identify patterns that may be keeping you stuck and develop practical, personalized strategies to help you move forward.

In sessions, I aim to be warm, engaged, and active, offering both insight and tools you can apply in your daily life. I specialize in working with anxiety, overthinking, trauma, health-related concerns, and relationship challenges. I also bring a health psychology lens, helping you understand how stress affects the body and overall well-being, including sleep, habits, and lifestyle factors. My focus is not on “fixing” you, but on helping you build awareness, strengthen resilience, and create meaningful, lasting change, so you can feel more grounded, confident, and aligned with the life you want to live.

You can expect your first session to feel welcoming, supportive, and focused on understanding your unique story. We’ll begin by talking through what brings you to therapy, any current challenges you’re facing, and what you hope to gain from the process. I’ll ask thoughtful questions to get a sense of your background, patterns, strengths, and goals, while also giving you space to share at your own pace. Many clients find that even this first conversation brings a sense of relief, simply having a place to feel heard, understood, and not judged can be a powerful starting point.

By the end of the session, we will begin to identify initial goals and a direction for our work together. This may include clarifying what you would like to change, exploring patterns that may be keeping you stuck, and discussing practical next steps. I also like to introduce a few tools or perspectives early on, so you can begin to feel some momentum right away. My goal is for you to leave the first session feeling more hopeful, with a clearer understanding of how therapy can support you, and with the sense that you have a partner in the process of creating meaningful, lasting change.