Bambi Rattner, Psy.D.

Specialties

PTSD

Trauma

Anxiety

Sexual Abuse / Intimate Partner Violence

LGBTQ+

Modalities

EMDR

IFS

ART

The Flash Technique

What is Intensive Therapy?

How an Intensive Works

What a Successful Retreat Looks Like

What is EMDR?

How I Practice EMDR

What is IFS?

Working With Parts

IFS for Relationships

What This Work Means to Me

Location: Northampton, MA

Please note that all intakes for Bambi are conducted by our retreat specialist April Gaoiran, MSW.

When I started writing my bio and read the opening to my 12-year-old daughter she said “Mom – that sounds like any other psychologist! You should write about what makes you special! What sets you apart?” So I will try…

I have been in the field for a long time! Jokingly I say, “since the dinosaurs roamed the earth.” (Yes, I know they actually died out about 65 million years before humans appeared on Earth!) But I got my master’s degree in 1987 and my doctorate degree in 1997 and have been in practice ever since. I have worked in pretty much every setting, with every age, and every population. I started in residential, inpatient psychiatric units, and sheltered workshops. I have worked in the schools and in nursing homes, seen clients outpatient and in-home. My clients have ranged in age from 3–103.

Each of these experiences was meaningful and growth promoting, but I felt dissatisfied. I was using my clinical skills to the best of my ability, but just felt that there had to be a better, more effective way to help people to heal.

Then I was trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Finally there was a way of working with people to help them heal not only quickly, but efficiently. I have always felt that clients are experts in themselves, and with EMDR I could effectively tap into their innate drives not only to survive, but to flourish. Learning Progressive Counting (PC) furthered my abilities to get to my clients’ core issues and allow them to heal. I was hungry to learn more and became certified in both EMDR and PC and became an EMDRIA (EMDR International Association) Approved Consultant.

Using the Intensive Model, conducting Intensive Trauma Retreats, enabled me to have a way to bring all my clinical skills together to treat clients in what I honestly believe is the best way possible. Working with someone over the course of an eight hour day, multiple days in a row, allows the time and space to progress chronologically through a client’s worst things list, providing lasting change, growth, and emotional health.

So much has changed in my life! I feel free from so much trauma. I have more time In the day as I’m not bogged down with negative, self destructive thoughts. I am so grateful!

The best part of my 5-day retreat with Dr. Bambi Rattner is that she was able to reach my trauma in such a gentle way. Bambi is compassionate, healing, gracious, sensitive, honest and funny. My retreat went by so quickly, even while spending 7+ hours with Bambi every day. I loved how kindly she brings

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Judy G

When your ego is breaking apart you can feel stuck with trauma and a lot of blocked emotions you collect through your life. You need to let all those emotions go to become your new self. Bambi with her kindness, love and knowledge was the person that helped me to become my new version of

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Pablo G.

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At the very beginning of my intensive retreat with Bambi she told me that the process would open up my life to all the universe had to offer. That was a very nice thought but I had no idea that it would completely change my life. After struggling with chronic Lyme disease for 13 years and struggling to care for my disabled adult son I had lost my career, profession, and family. I believed that I would never be able to work again or be able to contribute to the world in any way. I had completely given up on my childhood dreams even before I reached adolescence.
After the first session I experienced a strange tingling sensation running from my brain all the way down through my legs to my feet. It felt as if my brain was reconnecting to parts of my body that had been disconnected all my life. I then had a series of quite severe Lyme die-offs and I lost a great deal of my anxiety and depression and I thought this is what she meant by “opening up my life”. It was wonderful but the best was yet to come. Just after the beginning of Covid and before our last retreat I received a phone call from the sister of a woman that I had worked for over twenty years ago which resulted in me acquiring my absolute dream job, the one I had abandoned in childhood.
I believe that the therapy removed the trauma-induced blockages in my brain so that its immune system could deal with the Lyme and I now have more energy than I have ever had in my life. I am not as anxious as I was and the depression has gone completely. My ADD is very much better and I regained my ability to count! Changes are still occurring as I deal with life’s usual challenges in different and more productive ways. Most importantly I am present in my own body, in my life and in my son’s life. Bambi is a highly skilled therapist and a warm, caring, sensitive and empathic person who has brought such incredible joy into my life. I highly recommend this process to anyone who has experienced trauma and especially to people who are struggling with chronic Lyme disease.

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Josephine Burnett, PhD

Dr Bambi Rattner worked with me doing intensive EMDR after my mother had passed. I was experiencing a reactivation of my PTSD from the sudden death of my father when I was a kid, that got reactivated from my mother’s recent death. It would have been a much longer road of healing without Dr Bambi’s

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Dr Kate Klemer, DC, RCST

It seems impossible to describe the extent of the positive impact that Bambi’s intensive therapy brought to me. The first night after about 5-6 hours of her intensive trauma therapy, I experienced a new sense of serenity that I had not felt for close to 15 years. Physically and mentally, it felt similar to when

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C.T.

As someone who has struggled with suicidal depression since childhood, I have done important work with many therapists, counselors, and healers. But Bambi Rattner is the first to help me recognize, name, and face my deepest wounds, and to compassionately embrace the parts into which I broke myself to survive. Bambi has not only shown

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Joy Ladin

I have participated in intensive therapy with Dr. Bambi Rattner on three different occasions. I had not done a therapy intensive before and was hesitant, but Bambi made me feel comfortable right from the start. She is warm, accepting, non-judgmental, and deeply kind. As a trauma survivor, it is hard for me to feel safe with people and

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Jessica B.

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My life had become like ashes in my mouth. I felt nothing but fear, and maybe shame, but not even much of those because I was so shut down by a lifetime of “sucking it up” and “pulling myself up by my bootstraps” until, one day, those bootstraps ripped off in my hands. I was irritable, underemployed, joyless, easily startled, didn’t sleep much (and had nightmares when I did), deeply unsatisfied, lonely (despite work, family, and friends), and more often than not looking forward to the end of my miserable life. All this came to pass despite 22 years of continuous sobriety as an active member of a 12-step program, plus years of talk therapy. And then a trusted person suggested I contact someone who could help me make the changes I needed to make. Bambi Rattner, Psy. D., engaged me in six solid days of a memory reconsolidation therapy called Progressive Counting (same principles as EMDR, but a different method, which she also knows well) and I put a past behind me that I barely knew I had. I slept a lot the next two weeks, then woke up a different person. At 56, I was finally myself. Late, yes, but so much better than never. I was free of my intrusive memories from childhood and those gleaned from the dubious adventures that those awful childhood experiences caused me to seek as an adult. That’s what trauma really is: memories that won’t leave you in peace. In the years following treatment my marriage rekindled, my career changed (starting with a master’s degree at age 60!), my children forgave me for being so checked out for so many years, and I finally got to be a full participant in my life. I know joy now. And love. And sorrow—even anger and a useful amount of fear. I can’t guarantee the same for you because this is my story. But I have since witnessed many people come through this treatment in far better shape than they went in. That much I can promise you. And Bambi knows how to get it done quickly, professionally, and discretely. I’d pick her again in a heartbeat for myself or anyone else I love.

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Don Cuerdon

I sought out Bambi’s help for my son when he was 5 years old and suffering from behavioral outbursts and PTSD from early childhood trauma. I was impressed with Bambi’s abilities. She was always very calming and engaging. She was able to guide him through past traumatic memories in a way that allowed him to

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G. O.

Bambi was an integral part to overcoming issues I was still dealing with from my past. She is very kind, open, listens, and provides positive direction to her clients. I felt extremely comfortable working with her and had no trouble opening up and talking. She really helped improve my depression and anxiety in a short

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Heather Clifford Moros

I knew I was in good hands… Bambi demonstrated just the right balance of abiding kindness and exceptional knowledge in her craft as a trauma therapist. She brought me through a week-long intensive EMDR retreat in a way that felt safe and productive. She genuinely cared and responded with attunement and warmth to the varied

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Traccie Hilton, LMHC