Rachel Heller

Rachel S. F. Heller holds a master's degree in social-organizational psychology from Columbia University. She began her career as a corporate consultant and worked for firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG Consulting and Towers Perrin.

With the psychiatrist Amir Levine she wrote Attached (2010). The book takes attachment theory, first developed to explain how infants bond with caregivers, and applies it to adult romance. It describes three styles. Anxious people want closeness and worry about losing it. Avoidant people protect their independence and pull away. Secure people are comfortable with closeness and respond to a partner's needs. The authors argue that a person's needs for closeness are real and not a weakness, and that the best choice is a secure partner. The book has sold millions of copies in dozens of languages.

Heller now works as a psychologist in the public sector and in private practice. She combines attachment-based ideas with cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy, and she works with children and adults.