Rachel Pray has MA in Clinical Psychology/LGBTQ-Affirmative Psychotherapy from Antioch University, Los Angeles and MA in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She gained clinical experience in community mental health and residential therapy programs in Los Angeles and the SF Bay Area. Rachel taught and facilitated groups in outdoor education, creative writing, self-defense, Buddhist meditation and nervous system regulation/somatic practices for three decades. Rachel has loved, trained and cared for horses since 1985 and has created equine healing programs and facilitated equine assisted learning sessions for individuals, groups and therapy clients since 2002.

Rachel brings exceptional clinical skills to her Reiki Energy Healing and Counseling work, with an emphasis on supporting her LGBTQI+ community.  Rachel spent more than a decade working with at-risk populations and with LGBTQIA+ clients in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Los Angeles.  Rachel has advocated for more inclusive and affirmative mental health practices for the LGBTQIA+ community.  Ethical practice and client-centered approach is at the heart of her work. Her current practice of Reiki and counseling is firmly rooted in these values.

In 1995, Rachel began to attend Zen Buddhist retreats at Green Gulch, SF Zen Center and Tassajara. By 1997, she had taken the Buddhist Precepts of ethical conduct with Thich Nhat Hahn, a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist Teacher, author and social activist. Rachel has deepened her study and practice of Mahayana and Vipassana Buddhist meditation for more than twenty-five years, learning from the Dharma and striving to embody the Noble Eightfold Path of ethical conduct in her life and work. Rachel brings many years of expertise in facilitating mindfulness meditation groups and attending retreats to her work as Reiki Healer and Wisdom Counselor.