Rachael Stern is a late-diagnosed AuDHD psychotherapist, parent and bonus parent to four wonderfully non-neuronormative kids (two of whom are PDA), and the owner of Break The Frame Psychotherapy—a practice serving DC, Virginia, and Maryland focused on trauma, neurocomplexity, chronic illness, and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Rachael’s work is grounded in lived experience, deep clinical expertise, and a belief that people deserve to be understood on their own terms. Her practice centers those whose bodies, brains, and identities are too often misunderstood or underserved by traditional systems.
Before and alongside her clinical work, Rachael built a career in nonprofit leadership, advocacy, and politics—creating and winning campaigns that transformed policy and protected vulnerable communities. From founding an LGBTQ center in the most diverse city in the United States to helping secure the first-ever ballot-box win for marriage equality in world history, her efforts have repeatedly shifted what is possible. She has raised critical funds to drive mental health parity law reform in California, defended Planned Parenthood through fraudulent video attacks and a high-profile congressional investigation, and—during the COVID pandemic—created and ran a preschool designed specifically for children with unique and complex needs.
Rachael brings this same tenacity, creativity, and values-driven leadership to every space she enters and is proud to be able to do so on behalf of PDA North America.
If you ever play two truths and a lie with her, you’ll hear that:
She’ll let you figure out which ones are real.
