Rachel Cohen, Ph.D. is the founder and Executive Director of Common Threads Project, which provides psychological support to survivors of sexual violence, war, and displacement. Specializing in trauma treatment, Dr. Cohen is a clinical psychologist who has been in practice for over 35 years. In 2012, she began to develop an integrative intervention for trauma recovery that finds its inspiration in the ancient practice of women sewing story cloths together. This tradition, practiced in many cultures, is validated by current neurobiological understandings of the impact of traumatic experience. CommonThreads Project has trained local clinicians to adapt and implement the program in Ecuador, Bosnia, Nepal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Recently, Common Threads Project has begun work with refugee and immigrant communities in Seattle and New York. Dr. Cohen earned her doctorate from the University of Michigan, and has a certificate in global mental health from the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma.
