Rachel Alexander, Esq.
Divorce Mediator,
Attorney at Law
Summary & Contact
Rachel Alexander, Esq., Certified Focusing Professional (CFP), is a Divorce Mediator and Family Law Attorney admitted to the Bar in New York (License #4600110) and New Jersey (License #021272007). She specializes in helping families navigate transition with clarity and compassion.
Phone: (908) 310-3397
Schedule: Complimentory initial consultation
Background & Education
A summary of Rachel Alexander, Esq.'s academic history and the specialized legal and clinical training that informs her professional practice and her multidisciplinary approach to conflict resolution:
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, Juris Doctor (2002).
Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution, competitively selected (2001).
Co-founded the Alternative Dispute Resolution Society.
Co-created "Introduction to Conflict Resolution" program for children.
Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville, TN (Visiting Student, 2001-2002).
Columbia University School of Social Work, coursework and field placement (1997-1998).
The Actors Studio, Master of Fine Arts (MFA) (1994-1997).
Barnard College of Columbia University, Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English Literature, magna cum laude (1994).
International Focusing Institute, Certification as Focusing-Oriented Professional and Focusing-Oriented Trainer.
Memberships & Accomplishments
An overview of Rachel Alexander, Esq.’s professional affiliations, legal certifications, and career milestones she has achieved through her leadership and service in the legal and mediation communities:
Member of the Bar: Judiciary of New York (#4600110) and Judiciary of New Jersey (#021272007).
New York Certified Mediator.
New Jersey Court-approved Family Mediator and Mentor.
Director, The Center for Mediation Solutions (beginning 2011).
Planning Committee Member, Felt Sense Conference (2019) and International Focusing Institute.
Founding Member, Academy of Professional Family Mediators.
Member, Safe Horizon.
Past Member, New York State Council on Divorce Mediation.
Past Member, Nominating Committee of the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators.
More than Divorce Mediation
Rachel’s extensive training in mediation and related disciplines, as well as her own experience of divorce, inspires her compassion for others. Her approach is shaped by humility, warmth, and a commitment to humanizing the legal process. She is truly on the side of her clients.
Concentrating on mediation from the beginning of her legal career, Rachel participated in the highly acclaimed Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Her mediation training commenced with a year-long clinic and continued with multiple mediation certification training in New York and New Jersey, advanced studies, workshops, and conferences.
Informed by her studies at the Columbia University School of Social Work, Rachel brings her knowledge of subjects including family systems, early childhood development, personality formation and disorders, and the effects of crisis and trauma to her practice.
The therapeutic and psychological elements of mediation are integral in working with families. As such, Rachel is an avid student of these complementary disciplines, completing a two-year certification training as a Focusing-Oriented Professional and Trainer from the International Focusing Institute.
Unique Approach to Mediation & Divorce
Founding the Alexander Mediation Group in 2008, Rachel approaches divorce by prioritizing the integrity and well-being of the individuals and families she serves.
Even today, divorce requires overcoming societal preferences for staying married. Not only does it take tremendous courage, but it also evidences tremendous suffering. Divorce usually comes only after exhausting all other options. Divorcing people are in pain, and deserving of friendliness and support.
Clients are treated like invited guests. Being the expert does not relieve the professional of humanity and humility. Replacing formality with hospitality, Rachel’s goal is to restore participants’ integrity and control.
The legal procedure can feel threatening and overwhelming — this is another area that is simplified and right-sized. Rachel’s approach is transparent and egalitarian. While conforming to legal requirements, she removes the rough edges and frightening bits, reducing legalities to the administrative necessities, and making that digestible as well.
Divorce is treated as a reorganization of a family, not a destruction of it. The family is supported in redefining itself in order to become a healthier unit. The rights of the children, their developmental needs, and the unending obligations of parenting are all held in the highest regard.Listening fully to clients and honoring what is occurring with them, both externally and internally, is central to how Rachel practices mediation. By respecting her clients’ experiences, priorities and values, she helps them tailor solutions that work for them.
Commit to Your Wellness: Free Monthly Support Group
"Isolation is one of the most painful aspects of divorce. Its antidote is in the coming together with others, where you can identify and belong. Support is fundamental. Alexander Mediation Group encourages people to explore and ultimately secure a variety of resources. For its part, AMG offers a free support group that has run monthly for over 12 years. Unable to locate such a group during her own divorce, she wished to spare others the experience of this dearth by forming this support group.
I‘m not preoccupied with the facts. I‘m in service to the truth. What I mean by “truth” is the experience that has affected the person – what moved or hurt or healed him – what happened to and for him. I don’t care about revisiting history to get to a version that is scrubbed clean, corrected, pounded out or stretched across a board for examination – warring versions of the past are unnecessary and uninteresting to me.
Each of us has her own version of whatever occurred because she has processed it through herself. Her Self. That’s what happened, or that’s not what happened, is secondary to what happened for the one. The specific and authentic experience of the one belongs to the realm of humanity and eternity, the place of love and possibility – the place where we are really alive and maybe the place where we are always alive in some form." – Rachel Alexander, Esq.
Focusing: An Exciting Therapeutic Modality
This therapeutic modality was developed through collaboration between psychologists Carl Rogers and Eugene Gendlin. It began through researching extensive data on talk therapy patients, asking the question of "Why did certain individuals get better from talk therapy while others failed to benefit after years of consistent treatment?"
What they learned was that the clients who improved had something in common. A process. This process was analyzed and broken into teachable steps, making them available to anyone who wanted to learn. Practitioners are trained in comprehensive and profound listening, relating, and keeping company with clients in a new way. All of this enables practitioners to avail themselves to clients and process in a way that encourages healing change can occur. And it can occur in the present moment.
Learn more about Focusing and the International Focusing Institute.
Sources & External Validation
We value transparency. Below, you’ll find trusted, third-party references verifying our background, education, memberships, and professional accomplishments:
Attorney at Law:
Bachelor of Arts (BA):
Barnard College:
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law:
Columbia University School of Social Work:
Esquire (Esq.):
Felt Sense Conference Planning Committee:
Judiciary of New Jersey:
Judiciary of New York:
Master of Fine Arts (MFA):
Safe Horizon:
The Actors Studio:
Vanderbilt University Law School: