Rebecca Alexander

Position: LCSW-R, MPH
Advisory Board

Rebecca Alexander is an author, psychotherapist, disability rights advocate, group fitness instructor, and extreme athlete. Born with a rare genetic disorder called Usher syndrome type III, Rebecca has been simultaneously losing both her sight and hearing since she was a teenager. She was told that by age 30, she’d be completely blind. Then, at 19, one year after a fall from a second-story window left her athletic body completely shattered, she discovered she would lose her hearing as well. Despite these difficulties, Rebecca refused to lose her drive and zest for life and rose above and beyond every challenge she has faced.

Now, with only 10 degrees of vision and significantly deteriorated hearing, Rebecca is a flourishing full-time psychotherapist with two master’s degrees from Columbia University in Clinical Social Work and Public Health. Rebecca received her post-graduate training at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and her psychodynamic psychotherapy training from the American Institute for Psychoanalysis. Rebecca is certified in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) and is fluent in American Sign Language and Tactile Sign Language. Rebecca works with individuals, couples, and families, specializing in the treatment of anxiety, depression, addiction, grief, loss, and disability.

She has served as a Lululemon Athletica Ambassador and she is a group fitness instructor who teaches indoor cycling, core strength, and HIIT (high intensity interval training) metabolic conditioning classes. Most notably, she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, swam from Alcatraz to shore in the San Francisco Bay, participated in the 600-mile San Francisco to Los Angeles AIDS Lifecycle ride, and regularly competes in the Civilian Military Combine (CMC) for extreme athletes.

Additionally, Rebecca travels on a regular basis, speaking at hospitals, health care facilities, recovery programs, corporate, and nonprofit events across the globe. Rebecca has been honored with numerous awards including the American Foundation for the Blind Helen Keller Achievement Award (2016), Jewish Women International Woman To Watch (2016), The Disability Rights Advocates’ Eagle Award (2017), NO LIMITS for Deaf Children Spirit of Leadership award (2017), and the University of Michigan’s Bicentennial Award (2017).

Rebecca has been featured in an array of media outlets including The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Morning Joe, The Daily Rundown, One-On-One with Steve Adubato, Megyn Kelly TODAY, The Dr Oz Show, The Meredith Vieira Show, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, New York Post, The Boston Globe, USA Today, ABC News, NBC News, Fox News, ESPN, People, Shape Magazine, Fitness Magazine, Women’s Health Magazine, Marie Claire, Glamour magazine, Glamour UK, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Mail, Mercury News and various others.
For more information, visit www.rebalexander.com.

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