“I approached Rachel with goals of working through inner child conflicts compounded with life struggles in motherhood, personal health issues and unresolved grief all leading to a chaotic and overrun mindset and compromised emotional wellbeing. My goals were connecting with self in the aftermath of these events and strengthening relationships with my husband, son and other close family and friends. Rachel led me to start focusing on daily disciplines and practices to help with calming and centering my mind and body, which then allowed me to connect and be more present with myself and those I loved. I was able to start identifying the underlying triggers for certain emotional responses, which gave me choice to pause, feel and then make conscious decisions thereafter. The breathing and journaling methods alone, have laid a foundation for my mental health practice going forward and continue to have tremendous impact on my clarity of mind and focus, with decreased anxiety when approaching life on a daily basis. I am a better mother and wife, as well as caregiver to myself, because of these practices.” - Mother of one, partner, woman, former doctor, human being

Mental Hygiene — a cloth cut from evidence-based cognitive behavior therapy, founded by licensed clinician Rachel Mariotti

Mental hygiene is like physical hygiene and strength - it requires discipline. Through short and repetitive writing drills, variations of meditative practices, and connecting with your body and physiology, MH emphasizes the adaptability from a narrow vision to an expanded one while not losing sight of your strengths. Through assigning measurements on feelings and the associated words with those feelings you will begin to develop a navigation that is meant to keep you more calm during lower seasons of life while remaining strong.

Mental Hygiene is based on Cognitive Behavior Therapy — a therapeutic approach where the fundamental principles are centered around present moment thoughts that are causing negative thinking and working with the underlying belief systems that are tied to them. MH builds on this foundation while highlighting strengths and wins, and building on writing and exposure repetitions in order to shift the belief system to one that ameliorates the old belief. It is very much like physical training, you have to show up to get strong and do the reps to adapt the body.

Rachel is currently enrolled at the Beck Institute to further her expertise in CBT principles, specifically in anxiety and depression.

FAQs

  • MH is for someone who wants to increase tolerance and grace for challenging life situations in order to optimize health for the mind, body and nervous system. MH is for someone who knows therapy is valuable, but looks at it as a strength and is inspired by a growth mindset. More times than not, cases where MH applies looks like the following:

    • Relationship and life adjustments

    • Inner critic noise

    • People pleasing

    • Overthinking, rumination

    • Unstable equilibrium in high stress or overwhelming environments

  • Some reasons may be obvious. Working with the body has many parallels to the mind. Rachel has experience coaching people through higher intensity strength and cardiovascular efforts in order to adapt the body to become ready and resilient. In order to change mental healthcare from a fragile mindset to a growth mindset, Rachel uses the coaching strategies from strength and conditioning. In this process is building on trust with compassion, humor, and exposure to new challenges to make the mind stronger and more resilient to change.

  • For some it’s 12 weeks, for others it’s longer. The priority is to be efficient with your time and add as much value as possible. If you value training the mind, you’ll learn in these sessions that this will be a lifelong effort. And one that you can do on your own. The goal is to teach you the skills you need based on your language and be the coach (or therapist) that guides you to action. It’s different for everyone depending on the person and the goal.

    It is suggested for everyone to start with at least 10 sessions in order to identify the depth of your values and reinforce new habits that will apply to the future. The goal is readiness.

Testimonials

"I finally acknowledged that I wanted someone to listen and hold me accountable for my mental health. I knew Rachel would be good for this." —Matt

“Rachel creates the environment for you to figure things out on your own.” —Vanesh

“Social interactions used to seem exhausting to me before these sessions. I haven't felt that anxiety in a while and now I look forward to work and friends.” —Maleta

“I came to Rachel because I was at a point in my life where I wanted to proactively take care of my mental health but didn’t want it to feel like ‘therapy’. Rachel treats me like a person and is very thoughtful with her questions. I highly recommend her.” —Kara

“Early on I was able to identify negative thought patterns and ways that I could turn them around on their head to become less regressive and more constructive.” —Drew

“I found myself spiraling into a very negative mindset and becoming very bitter. And just somebody who I didn't recognize. Rachel helped me turn my thinking around.” —Amy

In the first session of MRT, a Six Pillar assessment is filled out which zooms out and looks at overall health and behaviors. This is revisited and measured every five to ten weeks. MRT encourages mindfulness meditation practices, writing drills, increasing emotional vocabulary, and exposure to socialization.

re·sil·ient /rəˈzilēənt/ - adjective (of a person or animal) able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions.