Rachel Henes, LSW

Rachel Henes, LSW is a mindful parenting coach and educator and an expert consultant to independent schools.  For over 20 years, Rachel has worked with school communities to address the key risk factors impacting student mental health and help grow the capacity of parents and educators to show up with young people in more intentional and affirming ways.  

Currently, Rachel offers groups, individual coaching and workshops for parents, as well as professional development training for educators.  In all her work, Rachel focuses on helping clients to identify and shift habitual patterns and beliefs that don't serve them, in service of creating environments where connection, calm, and care can thrive. Rachel is passionate about helping adults learn new ways to see the communication behind behaviors and to respond to stress - both in themselves and in the children in their care.

Rachel offers highly sought-after workshops for schools and organizations committed to turning the research on achievement culture into action. Her clients include Brearley School, Grace Church School, The Packer-Collegiate Institute, The Washington Market School, Horace Mann School, Avenues: The World School, & The Masters School. Rachel is the former director of Hallways, an evidence-based prevention and social-emotional wellness program that served thousands of students, faculty and parents in New York City’s independent schools.

Rachel has received extensive anti-racist and gender-based violence prevention training from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, the Center for Racial Justice in Education, and A CALL TO MEN. She has also received training and/or certifications in:

• Mindful Parenting

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

• The Whole Brain Child Approach

• Beyond Behaviors (with Dr. Mona Delahooke)

• Foundations Course: The Coach Training Program For Helping Professionals

• Collaborative & Proactive Solutions, Lives in the Balance Training

Rachel holds a Masters in Social Work from Hunter College in New York City and lives in South Orange, New Jersey with her husband and her two young children.

Check out Rachel’s podcast called the Parenting Breakdown! Rachel and her husband Matt discuss the ins and outs of parenting mindfully in a non-stop, reactive world. Join Rachel & Matt each week as they explore the research about what helps kids thrive, the triggers that set us off, and practices that can help us breathe in the midst of it all. Through humor and candor, they discuss their own and listeners’ real-world parenting moments and journey to the heart of what parents care about most: helping our kids to become their best selves. Turns out, the journey can help us become our best selves too.