Rachel Altstein, LP, JD
111 John Street / Suite 2400
New York, NY. 10038
I once heard someone say that an ideal job is one where you can make a living doing something you’d be doing anyway. Since I was little, I’ve thought a lot about the mind: such a complex and mysterious galaxy. And I’ve always been extremely at home in the listening mode, and so very interested in the people in my life: all of them so strange and varied and incredible. How did their minds get to be the way they are? When psychoanalysis crossed my path - a system bursting with ways to understand the mind - I got lucky. I found a way to make work out of something I loved to do anyway.
My style is interactive, interpersonal, and engaged. I am authentically curious about the people I work with: how did they get to be the people they are? I listen closely for how one’s past affects one’s present in ways that might be inhibiting, or might be creating patterns that seem to get in the way of contentment or creativity, and generate a feeling of being stuck.
I take language seriously: words matter. Why a person puts something this way or that isn’t random, it’s meaningful. I don’t always make a big deal out of this, but it’s on my mind as I work with my patients. The way we phrase the things that occur to us when we're in session, including the feeling we have when we talk, all of this is potential data.
I understand that some people seek out therapy to address a discrete, well-defined issue, while others come out of a more abstract, gnawing sense that something in their lives could be different and better, even if they can't say exactly how. In all cases, I invite collaboration in the process of reflecting on whatever issues are brought to bear in the treatment.
This is a second career for me; for many years I worked as a public defender. Certainly, I carry with me a deep sense of advocacy for the individual from my legal background in criminal defense into my work as a therapist.
My training and licensure is grounded in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis, to me, simply means a particular way of listening deeply with another person. It does not necessarily mean having to go to therapy multiple times a week, or having to lay on a couch facing away from a therapist. I welcome issues relating to career and career-change, writer's block, relationship challenges, curiosity about identity, parenting, and of course the standards: anxiety, depression, and trauma.
I see adults and young adults. My practice is a hybrid of in-person and remote; many people I see mix and match. Nothing beats face to face, but I understand that sometimes Zoom is the only logistically realistic way for some people to be able to talk about their lives meaningfully, therapeutically and confidentially. In any event, I have found remote work to have a closeness of its own within which real connection can be established.
I am an out-of-network provider, but most people I work with submit my bills to their insurance carriers for substantial reimbursement compensation.
Feel free to call (347.581.7449) or email me at: rachelaltstein.therapy@gmail.com to discuss a consultation for therapy. No charge for consultations unless you and I decide to work together.
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more about me:
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:
Co-Editor in Chief, Psychoanalytic Perspectives
Board Member, Beatrice Beebe Infant Research Board
Member, International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychology (IARPP)
Member, American Psychological Association Division 39 (Psychoanalysis)
Member, National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP)
EDUCATION
The National Institute for the Psychotherapies; License Qualifying Program: Certification in Adult Psychoanalysis, 2013
Brooklyn Law School, JD, 1996 (Sparer Fellowship)
University of Wisconsin-Madison: BA (Linguistics) 1989
PUBLICATIONS
Altstein, R. (2016a). Finding words: how the process and products of psychoanalytic writing can channel the therapeutic action of the very treatment it sets out to describe. Psychoanal. Perspect., 13.1: 51-70.
Altstein, R. (2016b). Ghosts and growth: reply to commentaries by anthony bass and steven kuchuck. Psychoanal. Perspect., 13.1: 89-95.
Dougherty, K., Beebe, B., Margolis, A., Altstein, R., Berman, J. & Mathieson, G. (2016) Mother-Infant Communication: The Research of Dr. Beatrice Beebe. PEP Video Grants 1:11
Altstein, R. (2017). The dice popper: How we describe what we remember. In Chayes, L.H. & Rosenblatt, T. (Eds.), Becoming a psychoanalyst: A Lifelong Pursuit: Finding One’s Analytic voice and Identity. New York: Routledge.
Altstein, R. (2017). The possibility and impossibility of teaching psychoanalytic writing: A review of Structure and Spontaneity in Clinical Prose: A Writer's Guide for Psychoanalysts and Psychotherapists: by Suzi Naiburg. New York, NY: Routledge, 2015. 273 pp. Contemp. Psychoanal., 53(1): 164-172.
Altstein, R. (2019). Life and death in loose threads: A tribute to my teacher, Lew Aron. Psychoanal. Perspect., 16(3):240-248.
Altstein, R. (2020). The art and urgency of psychoanalytic writing and writing psychoanalytically. Psychoanal. Perspect., 17(2): 129-137.
Altstein, R. (2021). The Dice Popper. Psychoanalytic Perspectives 18:296-313. (A paper re-imagined).
Altstein, R. (2023). The Key Factory: Metaphor as Communication (in process).
Altstein, R. & Perlman, K. (2023). Recognizable Vessels: A Note from the Editors of Psychoanalytic Perspectives on its 20th Anniversary. Psychoanalytic Perspectives 20:277-290.
Altstein, R. (2024). To Read Loewald - Together: An Afterward to Papers Considering Temporality. Psychoanalytic Perspectives 21:208-212.
Altstein, R. & Perlman, K. (2025) The Art of Choices: Translation and Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Perspectives 22:1-5.
Altstein, R. (2025). An Animal Among Animals: On Being Human. Psychoanalytic Perspectives 22:459-460
Altstein, R. (2025). Reflections on Vivian Gornick, Re-reading, and Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Perspectives 23
PRESENTATIONS
IARPP 2022 Presentation: The small of it: An argument for dwelling in the tiniest corners of psychoanalytic work even (and especially) in the midst of peril: Creative dissociation in times of trouble.
NIP Case Presentation Series (October 2014). Paper Presented: Internal Advocacy: Drawing on Themes from the Law and Legal Defense to Illuminate the Psychoanalytic Position.
IFPE “Necessary Fictions” Annual Conference (October 2014). Paper presented: Rethinking Process Notes: How We Tend To Make It Up As We Go Along And Why It Shouldn’t Be Any Other Way.
NIP Fall Colloquium (September 2013). Paper presented: Finding words: How Psychoanalytic Writing Inevitably Channels the Therapeutic Action of the Very Treatment it Sets Out to Describe.
TEACHING
How to Read and Write Psychoanalytically
National Institute for the Psychotherapies, 2017 - present
Master Class in Supervision
National Institute for the Psychotherapies, 2021 - present
Preparing for the New York State Licensing Test for Psychoanalysts (focus on writing required narratives)
National Institute for the Psychotherapies, 2014 - present
Via private consultation, 2014 - present
AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Educators’ Award. National Institute for the Psychotherapies, 2013
Awarded to outstanding psychoanalytic scholarly paper entered by an NIP community member.
NIP Fall Colloquium Awardee. National Institute for the Psychotherapies, 2013
Granted to the author of a psychoanalytic scholarly work conducive to colloquium presentation.
Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship, Brooklyn Law School, 1994 - 1996
Grant awarded for purposes of supporting travel to and work for the Equal Justice Initiative, Montgomery, AL, to assist with defense litigation on behalf of death row inmates in the State of Alabama.
Judge Edward and Doris Thompson Award for Outstanding Performance in a Law School Clinic, Brooklyn Law School, 1996. Award earned for law student’s work in legal clinic designated to challenge New York’s then-imminent death penalty statute.
Kriendler Prize for Academic Excellence and Commitment to Public Interest Law, Brooklyn Law School, 1996
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Private Practice, 2013 - present
Psychoanalyst; Psychotherapist. Ongoing psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy for individuals and couples.
National Institute for the Psychotherapies, 2008 - 2013
Psychoanalyst; Psychotherapist; Candidate. Worked in treatment center associated with NIP’s Adult Training Program in Psychoanalysis and Comprehensive Psychotherapy; completed NYS mandated supervision hours requirement.
Beatrice Beebe Mother Infant Communication Lab, 2008-2010
Appellate Advocates, 1998 - 2004
Staff Attorney. Represented indigent criminal defendants in their appeals from state felony convictions, argued before the Appellate Division Court, Second Department; continued the defense to the New York Court of Appeals and to Federal Court via habeas corpus.
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1996 - 1998
Pro Se Law Clerk. Drafted legal memoranda for all the Judges of the Court on matters in which one party was proceeding without counsel because of economic status or choice; provided advice to pro se litigants needing help navigating the Federal Court system.
Equal Justice Initiative, 1995
Legal Intern. Supported EJI staff preparing appeals from death sentences with legal research, contact with incarcerated clients and their families, and investigatory matters.
New Visions for Public Schools, 1990 - 1993
Program Assistant. Assisted the director of a library-renewal initiative designed to create and renovate libraries in over 100 New York City public elementary schools.
CREDENTIALS
Licensure in Psychoanalysis, University of the State of New York (2013)
NY Licence No. 000908
Bar Membership. New York State, admitted 1997
INTERESTS
Art (9th Street Women and related mid-century abstractionists)
Music (Mekons; Merge Records; DC Dischord Label; Vivaldi; Ravel)
Houseplants
Ceramics
Linguistics
Animals
Outer space