Meet Rachel Steele, MA, MSW, LSW, PhD in Glen Ellyn, IL

Serving the Chicagoland and Glen Ellyn Area

Rachel

Educated and Experienced

Rachel Steele, MA, MSW, LSW, PhD (social policy), is a licensed social worker who received her master’s in social work (2011) from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. She began her career in international development before transitioning to a position coaching administration and support staff at struggling CPS high schools.

About Rachel

Rachel spent many years avoiding the call to clinical work, focusing instead on accruing academic credentials. Yet, with each diversion she found herself circling back on the same wondering: how do we understand and make meaning of human suffering? Her circuitous path took her through degrees in political science and theology before landing in social work—a field she sees as sitting at the intersection of macro and micro practice, where advocacy for broader systemic change is met with care for the individual and their unique experiences. 

Nevertheless, still motivated by a love for research and a passion for getting at the root of social problems, Rachel most recently pursued a PhD (2022) at Brandeis University in social policy. Through her dissertation she carried out ethnographic case studies, embedding herself in rural, working-class communities and conducting in-depth interviews to better understand the problems facing individuals living there. Rachel has always been naturally inquisitive and a prolific question-asker, characteristics that have guided her well as an academic and now, too, as a clinician. Never one to be out of the classroom for too long, Rachel also has begun training with the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute.

Rachel has roots in the rural Midwest with many childhood days devoted to doing chores on her grandparents’ farm. As an adult, she has spent time on both coasts as well as overseas, having lived for a short time in 12 different countries. The diversity of these experiences has impressed upon her the necessity of cultural humility as well as the universal importance human connection. Rachel finds she often straddles different worlds in terms of class, education, and geography.

Rachel enjoys both reading and writing, is an active athlete and an enthusiastic trivia night participant but admits she is mostly dead weight when it comes to pop culture. She enjoys cycling and traveling with her husband.

Rachel’s Approach to Therapy

Rachel’s goal in therapy is to provide clients with a strong, stable sense of self as well as the tools and confidence to live more honestly in relationship with others. Rachel is a strengths-based, client-centered therapist: she believes in letting each person set their own goals and is committed to working with them in the ways that best fit their unique gifts and personality. 

As a therapist, Rachel draws heavily on her psychoanalytic training, helping clients access previously unconscious thoughts and processes that may be affecting day to day life and relationships with the belief that insight itself can be liberating. Once those unconscious beliefs and narratives become conscious, they can be challenged and reconstructed. In this process, Rachel’s approach extends beyond the psychoanalytic and is integrative, pulling from behavioralist models as well as family systems and attachment theory when and where appropriate.

Rachel works primarily with adolescents, adults, and couples in both the Oak Park and Glen Ellyn offices. She has a passion for working with male-identifying clients around emotional vulnerability, life transitions, and relationship challenges.

Share by: