Rachel Hayden
Currently has availability
Provides services in CCS
Counties served: All RWC counties, WRIC, Clark, Pepin, Trempealeau
Ages 14+
LGBTQIA+
Chronic Illness
Mental Health and Substance Use Challenges
Rachel has been practicing peer support for nine years, and is a founding member of Milkweed Connections. She has spoken across the state on topics of peer support in chronic pain, psychosis, and LGBT populations, and in 2025 she was selected for the Wisconsin Emerging Leaders program.
Rachel believes strongly in the power of mind-body practices and creative arts as paths of recovery and freedom. Before becoming a peer support specialist, she was a massage and bodywork therapist, and holds a black belt in karate. She also uses her background in tai chi and meditation to help people explore their inner awareness and calm, and how their emotions and body intertwine. As a guitarist and songwriter who has toured and recorded, she helps people connect to their own creative process to open gateways to healing.
Rachel’s lived experience includes addiction, paranoia, gender dysphoria, altered perceptions and states, and chronic illness. She recovered through a combination of mind-body practices, music, philosophy, and the support of others. She knows that having someone in your corner is so important, and hard if you are misunderstood. She loves waking alongside people as they wind their way toward their unique forms of healing and growth. She enjoys working with people who have experienced extreme states such as psychosis, and people coming from marginalized perspectives.
In her current life, Rachel has taken up trail running and hiking, and learning Spanish and German. She enjoys armchair philosophy, and has recorded several videos with internationally-known philosophers and psychologists. She grew up as a punk and a metalhead, and now enjoys a huge diversity of music, writing, and art. But the most meaningful part of her life is friendship – walking, having coffee, making meals, and being there for each other.