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Somatic Marriage & Family Therapy

Live Your Best Life

Carolyn B. Cooper, MS, LMFT, SEP, SAP, EMDR

Psychotherapist, Supervisor & Consultant

Somatic Experiencing Practitioner,

Substance Abuse Professional,

Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing Practitioner

Carolyn B Cooper Image

My Core Gift Statement

"The Gift I bring is helping others
become more fully who they are.
I do this by fostering connections,
by transforming obstacles into opportunities,
and through humor & stories."


Core Gift Training, with Bruce Anderson,
Co-creator of Community Activators and
Author of The Teacher's Gift. (2007)

 

On Social Justice

As a descendent of European Americans, I benefit from the inheritance of privilege derived at immeasurable expense to Black and Indigenous Persons of Color (BIPOC) and their enslaved & exploited ancestors. 

Prioritizing marginalized groups for pro bono or sliding scale fees is my contribution to balancing such inequities. These include BIPOC, LGBTQI-A, disabled veterans, Somatic Experiencing trainees, Master's level interns & associates, and clinicians who serve disadvantaged populations. 

It is my honor to engage in therapy, supervision or consultation pro bono or at a reduced fee when I am able. Currently I am only able to offer services at the higher end of my sliding scale.

 

Please click for Low Fee Options.

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom... 

Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live."


-Anais Nin

About Somatic Psychotherapy

Somatic Psychotherapy is a deeply personal journey in an attuned, interactive relationship. Whether we aim for peak performance, seek relief from anxiety or depression, need to address compulsions or addictions, or are ready to resolve long-standing, untreated trauma, it's important to find a practitioner we can trust who helps us build and balance our existing strengths as we navigate through challenges to reach our goals.

 

Along with traditional talk therapy tools, somatic psychotherapy also enlists cues from body language to mindfully engage and release pent emotions and to resolve incomplete threat responses. At carefully timed moments, we pause to engage impulses or allow emotion to move. We savor relief in order to help primal parts of the brain discharge distress physiology. The process enables primal parts of the brain discharge stress, and that frees us from effects of the past.

Ignoring somatic experiences while recounting overhwelming events spirals into reliving without satisfaction. As stories awaken emotional responses & protective physiology ignites, intellectual processing centers shut down. Session time burns. Clients leave feeling incomplete, agitated or exhausted. Insight may be gleaned, and experiencing compassionate witnessing is important, but sometimes isn't enough to shift dysfunctional patterns. Catharisis may be short-lived.

 

Somatic Experiencing (SE)-informed sessions ride the edge of the warble. We avoid flooding or numbing by pendulating between pleasant and unpleasant experiences. The side effect is improved self-regulation skills and increased emotional balance. We gain physical & emotional coherence, improved cognitive function and stress resilience. The seductive  pull of compulsions & addictions lessens. Rather than reactively, we respond to events in our lives. Relationships improve noticeably. Work, educational and athletic functioning also shift for the better. Often, people are surprised by how much happens when doing what seems like less, and by how much easier it is to return to daily life after sessions. The key is consistent practice in and out of sessions.

Healing Influences

Vacation

"When you bring mindfulness into your body, mindfulness becomes the body. Mindfulness is not an outside observer. It is the body. The body becomes the object and the subject of mindfulness at the same time."

​~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Transformation and Healing

"These days, I get angry only when I think of the stolen years of my life. I'm learning to turn my anger into compassion and to see the anger of others as suffering."

  - Mel Ash, The Zen of Recovery

"Crisis and suffering provide opportunities to awaken extraordinary capacities that otherwise might lie dormant, unknown and untapped."  
                  ~DIANA FOSHA, PhD, AEDP Developer

"Perhaps together, we can teach each other how to bear the beams of love, persons becoming persons, right before our eyes. Returned to ourselves."​

- Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart

About Somatic Psychotherapy
Social Justice
Specializations & Proficiencies

While I specialize in the treatment of trauma and substance use disorders,

I am highly skilled and prefer also working with a wide range of human experience.

Trauma

Complex PTSD

Addiction

Sleep Issues/Insomnia

Anxiety Disorders

Life Transitions

"If I change my mind, will I change my choices? If I change my choices, will my life change?

~ Dr. Joseph Dispenza, "What the Bleep Do We Know!?"

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