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Individualized Psychological Treatment –
Depth Psychotherapy in the Berkshires:
Rain Mason Olbert, PhD

Rain

Many people come to work with me because they have tried therapy before—even name-brand therapies like CBT and DBT—and not achieved the results they hoped for. Past treatments have failed to get at the root of the problem.

With advanced training in intensive psychotherapy for treatment resistant psychological problems, I am equipped to work effectively with a range of psychological issues including anxiety, depression, personality disorders, relationship problems, and trauma.

I am a licensed clinical psychologist providing individualized psychotherapy in person in Great Barrington, MA and remotely to people located anywhere in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Prior to this, I served as a staff psychologist, faculty member, admissions officer, and the Coordinator of Substance Use Services at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA.

I respond promptly to all inquiries: please reach out via email (rainmasonphd@gmail.com) or leave me a phone message (919-259-1793) to set up a free 15-minute phone consultation. Please note that I tend to have limited space for new patients in my psychotherapy practice.

Integrative Depth Psychotherapy in the Berkshires

If you are interested in working with me or setting up a free 15-minute phone consultation, please get in touch via email (rainmasonphd@gmail.com) or phone (919-259-1793).

Coming to understand our psychological troubles within a healing relationship can help us live our lives with greater fulfillment, intention, and integrity. As a psychotherapist, I work creatively with patients to understand and address internal conflicts and patterns of thought, feeling, and action that reliably generate suffering and prevent flourishing.

My values flow from my understanding that we are fundamentally defined by our relationships. As such, I attend closely to here-and-now interpersonal patterns and concerns (including those that unfold between me and my patients) while also bearing in mind how systems, institutions, and structures constrain a person’s identity and autonomy. I am committed to providing patient-centered, humane, non-judgmental care that recognizes the complexities of today’s political climate and world, and that does not erase the profound extent to which our culture, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, class, and other intersectional identities shape our experience and set limits on our opportunities.

My work with individuals is rooted in a trauma-informed, contemporary psychodynamic perspective. My default stance is to view people’s struggles as learned adaptations to survive in an imperfect world, rather than personal weakness or sickness. People who work with me appreciate my willingness to share what’s on my mind, collaboratively reflect on the unfolding therapy process, and position myself as an open and non-judgmental co-investigator rather than the authority in the room. Rather, I see myself as helping people to discover and cultivate their own authority, empowering them to take up their lives with renewed confidence and vigor.

I have specific experience and and interests are in the following areas:

  • Anxiety;
  • College mental health;
  • Depression;
  • Divorce & separation;
  • Emotional disturbances;
  • Grief & bereavement;
  • Identity & life purpose;
  • LGBTQ identity & development (including transgender, genderqueer, & non-binary identities);
  • Life adjustments;
  • Personal & creative growth;
  • Personality disorders (e.g., borderline personality disorder);
  • Psychosis & thinking problems;
  • Relationship problems & complexities (including ethical non-monogamy & polyamory);
  • Spirituality (including mindfulness), religion, & belief;
  • Substance use, addiction, harm reduction, & recovery;
  • Suicidality & suicidal ideation;
  • Trauma (especially of a complex & developmental nature).

I also have some experience with and knowledge about though less professional specialization regarding chronic illness, eating disorders, and neurodiversity.

My Approach

There is no one way that I practice psychotherapy. Each person is different and so each treatment must dynamically and creatively adapt to and evolve with these differences. A genuine meeting of the minds requires individual adaptation to your particular circumstances, needs, identities, and desires.

Although I have training or background in various modalities with popular name recognition such as CBT, DBT, mindfulness, and internal family systems, most people who come to me have received limited benefits from popular therapeutic approaches. If you are interested in a certain approach I am happy to accommodate to your interests, though as a rule I do not formulaically apply by-the-book techniques to anyone I work with. Instead, we will collaboratively develop and adapt an individualized treatment to address your current and evolving needs.

Entering psychotherapy with me will involve a personalized exploratory process aimed at discovering together and beginning to untangle what is sustaining your suffering and standing in the way of your healing. In general, such exploration will involve slowing down to examine the assumptions, bodily sensations, feelings, and thoughts that come up, using these experiences in the here and now to elaborate, deepen, and nourish your relationship to yourself. Typically, psychotherapy also involves investigating how our own habits of thought, action, and relating lead to familiar patterns of frustration and disappointment, and our aim will be to understand how these habits operate rather than to assign blame. Greater freedom and ease in life can flow from achieving greater understanding, self-connection, and a deepening capacity to identify, tolerate, and reflect on emotionally charged experiences.

If you are curious to learn more or interested in potentially starting therapy, please reach out to me via phone at 919-259-1793 or via email at rainmasonphd@gmail.com to set up a free 15-minute phone consultation.

I am located in the Berkshires and available for in-person psychotherapy sessions in Great Barrington, MA. I also offer remote psychotherapy via Zoom for individuals who live in Maine (license #PS2589), Massachusetts (#11490), New York (#023893), North Carolina (#6339), or Rhode Island (#PS02032).

Insurance & Fees

I do not participate in insurance networks or file insurance claims. If your insurance covers out-of-network services and you plan to file claims for partial reimbursement, my bills contain the necessary information for submitting to your insurer. I can also produce a Medicare opt-out letter if needed.

My standard fee for psychotherapy is $240. I frequently negotiate sliding-scale fees, especially for patients seeking intensive (> 1x/week) psychotherapy.

Note that all psychotherapy patients have the right to a Good Faith Estimate of the costs of psychotherapy.

My Training

I completed my PhD in clinical psychology at Fordham University in 2018, and trained as a psychotherapist in New York City, seeing patients with a wide range of identities and troubles in community mental health, college counseling, and hospital inpatient and outpatient settings. I completed my predoctoral internship in health services psychology at the University of Virginia’s Counseling and Psychological Services in 2018. While in graduate school, I also completed a Fellowship in Psychoanalysis at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education in 2013-2014, received the APA Division 39 Graduate Student Scholar award in 2014, was awarded a GSAS Summer Research Fellowship by Fordham University in 2015, and was appointed as a Senior Teaching Fellow in the 2016-2017 academic year. Before enrolling at Fordham, I was a research coordinator in David Penn’s social cognition lab at UNC Chapel Hill.

In 2022, I graduated from the Fellowship in Hospital-Based Psychotherapy and Adult Psychoanalysis at the Austen Riggs Center, an intensive four year psychoanalytic program providing advanced, specialized training in intensive psychotherapy for complex and treatment-resistant psychological problems. After my Fellowship, I was hired as a staff psychologist and the Coordinator of Substance Use Services at the Austen Riggs Center, where I also taught postgraduate seminars on addictions and transgender identities as a member of the ARC faculty.

As a researcher, I have published academic journal articles in Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Journal of Affective Disorders, Journal of Mental Health, Psychiatry Research, Journal of Theoretical & Philosophical Psychology, and (if you can believe it) Astrophysical Journal Letters. Most recently, in February of 2024 I gave a talk entitled “Decolonizing Cognition: Magical Thinking, Psychoanalysis, & the Spectrum of Rationality” at the Alonso Center For Psychodynamic Studies of Fielding Graduate University.

Accreditation and Licensing: My clinical psychology doctoral training, capstone internship training, and postdoctoral training experience were attained in programs accredited by the American Psychological Association. The Austen Riggs Center is also accredited by the Accreditation Council for Psychoanalytic Education as a psychoanalytic training institute. I am licensed as a clinical psychologist in the states of Massachusetts, Maine, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.

Our struggle to survive in and make sense of an imperfect world becomes agonizing when we become lost in and alone with our suffering. Exploring our minds and lives in the context of a healing relationship can help us find our way out of confusion and misery and put us on the path to a vital, meaningful life.

I have limited space for new patients in my psychotherapy practice. I respond promptly to all inquiries: please reach out via email (rainmasonphd@gmail.com) or leave me a phone message (919-259-1793) to set up a free 15-minute phone consultation.