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Lauren Taub Cohen,

M.S. Ed., SEP

Founder of MetaMinds® &
Creator of Mindfulness Aloud
®

I’m a Certified Inner Relationship Focusing Professional/ Trainer as well as a Certified Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. 

 

For most of my life, I had a chronic tendency to appease and please… no matter where I was or what job I was doing. After graduating from Boston University with a degree in English Literature, I began working at “60 Minutes.” It was both a dream come true and… impossible to stay true to myself amidst the demanding pace, pressures and shifting schedules. So, after a few years, I left the newsroom for the classroom.

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As an elementary school teacher, I was passionate about helping students cultivate self-awareness and resilience through the everyday stressors, conflicts and delights that come with learning. These were skills I wish I had learned, so I didn’t attack myself for making mistakes and chase after praise as a way of building confidence.

In the classroom, I was giving, over-giving, and then … burning out. I ignored my body’s whispers of “this is too much.” The health issues began piling up; my body’s whispers became shouts. 

So, I began working with a Somatic Experiencing (SE) Practitioner to help my body heal. During that time, I also explored this persistent pattern of meeting every request with a friendly, reflexive “yes,” even when I knew something didn’t fit or feel right. The desire to be liked and stay connected often came at a great price… abandoning myself. SE helped me realize how this pattern was just one of many adaptive strategies I developed in childhood as a way of trying to keep the peace, stay safe and receive affection. Yet knowing that didn’t shift my behavior one bit…I still kept doing it! And, I beat myself up for doing so.

 

Since SE had helped my thyroid heal, I was able to avoid an invasive surgical procedure. My hair stopped falling out, my digestive system began functioning, and I finally felt more energized. The heavy fog had lifted, and that fun-spirited vitality returned! So, I enrolled in the Somatic Experiencing Practitioner training. During that time, I was introduced to Inner Relationship Focusing (IRF). IRF’s gentle and empowering process helped me untangle that people-pleasing pattern. What once seemed un-shiftable had finally begun to shift. And, that was only the beginning!

 

I went from being highly self-critical to more on my side…from reactive and anxious to more steady and resilient. These invigorating, beyond-what-I-thought-possible shifts inspired me to study directly with Ann Weiser Cornell and Barbara McGavin so I could become a Certified IRF Professional and Trainer. No more career changes! 

 

I continue leaning into the steadying support of SE and IRF because, as a friend recently put it, "Life keeps life-ing." It's not about getting rid of how we feel, fixing it, changing it, or hushing it but rather being with with our experience, just as it is, so it can shift naturally and we can move forward. 

Over the years, I’ve discovered this amazing truth and that is, What's in the way, guides the way.

The experience of having a problem is actually your body’s way of communicating something is missing and something is needed so you can live more fully and be more YOU. 

Life is predictably unpredictable but it is possible to meet what comes your way without getting knocked over or pulled under…to have your feelings without being them. To fully trust yourself so you can act on your inner knowing ... what fits and feels right ... regardless of what's happening around you. 

 

If you’re curious to learn more CLICK HERE to contact me for a free, no obligation 20-minute consultation where we can talk more to see if we’d be a good fit.

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