My name is Rachael and I am a pre-licensed therapist in residency, with a prior background as a professional writer, editor, and freelancer of fifteen years experience.

The Practical Therapist strives to talk about topics that are relevant to how the current age impacts our quality of life, ask questions about the way we perceive the world, and understand how we operate ourselves in it, through cultural critique and an assessment of those values that insidiously bleed into our lives. I am a practicing Catholic, convert from agnosticism, atheism, and Wicca, so I know a few things about how those differing worldviews shape an understanding of the world.

Approaching from a blend of philosophical, Christian theological, and formerly humanist, this work focuses on how the ideas we consume from tech, media, and culture, psychologically shape our view of how we interpret — or how we are expected to interpret — the way the world is.

2024 Goal:


My goal is to reach 500 subscribers by December of this year, with 100 paid subscribers, the cost of slightly over-priced cup of coffee, or a tasty sandwich from your favorite fast food joint.

To help this work be a success, please subscribe, restack, share and recommend my work, and help me reach my goal to help others help themselves out of darkness.


To reach that goal, my intention is to be a living psychopomp — spirits who guided new souls to the afterlife. When we experience the usual and unusual circumstances of human existence — birth, marriage, breakups, death, divorce, employment highs, lows, and firings — when we come out on the other side, we remain partially who we were, but also a part of has been changed or left behind, the new soul we have become and must now contend with.

As a provider, my job is to help others improve their quality of life, to help people think about the hard uncomfortable topics we all like to hide from, and the science of how and why our brains do what they do. There is a dearth of meaning in the all-purpose commentary of psych, self-help, and wellness sites offering healing or advice that doesn’t unearth the underlying issues around our increasing anxiety, depression, and general unhappiness as a society.

It won’t solve your troubles, but it will engage you to think a little more deeply that what you consume or let in may be touching you in ways you aren’t comfortable with, and once the rug has been pulled aside, consider the questions that help you to determine how to sort the wheat from the chaff.

The Practical Therapist publishes approximately every two weeks, twice per month, to not clog your inbox, with well-thought out essays pulling from literature, headlines, other writers on Substack, and even pop culture — to distill knowledge and help you to critically consider both the forest and the trees.

For a free subscription each month, you have access to all posts.

Paid subscribers have access to the archives. All articles go behind a paywall after one year, to be widely available to help the most people they can.


A word of note:

I do not respond to requests for therapy or consultation related to that field; communication does not imply a therapeutic relationship, and what is discussed here are the opinions of one professional and should not be taken as representative of the field.

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To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.


To see more of her work, visit Inking Out Loud, a collection of essays, poems, and home of the serialized novel, Heart of Stone. Find her on Instagram.

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Commentary on mental health trends, considerations for the field, and concerns for work, culture, and living well from a humanist to Catholic convert.

People

Rachael Varca is a pre-licensed therapist and writer with a penchant for the thoughtful and a healer with a desire to do good in the everyday. She can often be found reading, sipping tea, and being all-around quietly sassy.