Laura Carr, LMFT, Center for Mindful Relationships

02/09/2026

THIS! Is the work! Powerful!

https://www.facebook.com/reel/846604455005255?mibextid=wwXIfr&fs=e&s=m

01/26/2026

A painful myth about healing is the belief that feeling worse means something has gone wrong.

Increased distress, emotional intensity, or instability are often interpreted as failure, regression, or a wrong turn.

This belief makes sense in a culture that equates healing with symptom reduction and visible improvement.

But trauma work rarely unfolds in a straight line.

As awareness grows, what was once managed through dissociation, numbing, or adaptation begins to come into contact with consciousness and compassion.

There is a rawness that begins to receive the witnessing that healing requires.

This isn’t because healing has failed, but because the system is no longer working as hard to keep these experiences out of view.

There comes a time in the healing where hiding is no longer possible. Old defense mechanisms stop working.

This can be experienced as “things are worse!”

And yes, without compassionate witnessing, we return to survival strategies.

With compassionate witnessing, something new becomes possible.

It doens’t feel “better” in the early or even middle stages. But there is a wisdom that helps us stay.

Blessings,
Laura

01/26/2026

01/23/2026

We’re delighted to officially welcome Amy Freeman, AMFT, to the Center for Mindful Relationships ✨ 🌿

Amy completed her year-long training with us, and her presence, thoughtfulness, and embodied way of working made the decision to invite her to stay an easy one. Her values and approach are deeply aligned with how we practice therapy at CFMR.

Amy will soon be expanding her work to include somatically integrated offerings, bringing body-based practices into both individual therapy and group spaces. We’re grateful for the care and depth she brings to our community, and we’re excited for what’s ahead.

Welcome, Amy. 💜

01/21/2026

Two new blog reflections are now live:

• Awareness, Compassion, and Mindfulness in Anger Management — written by Alex Adomaitis
• Myth: “Healing Will Make My Relationships Better” — written by Laura Carr

These pieces are offered as psychoeducation through a compassion-based awareness perspective, exploring how we suffer, how survival patterns organize us, and how attention and language shape our relationships.

Available on the blog (link in bio).

Blessings,
Laura

01/19/2026

When we stop filling in the gaps and pretzeling ourselves,
over-adapting, appeasing, reacting, staying silent, fixing,
the relational field shifts.

Often, what begins to fall away is the false hope we’ve been living in. We didn’t know that hope was a sham. 

That if we heal enough,
understand enough,
try hard enough,
or choose differently enough,
someone else will finally meet us there.

We will return to this again and agin until we are able to see through this next layer that needs to be seen.

And this loss hurts,
Deeply.

The world as you have known it can begin to fall apart here.
Compassion has to become the safety net we fall into.
Not correction.
Not guilt.
Not shoulds.

No regret.
This is what healing is, seeing through what once kept us organized, until we are free from it, bit by bit.

Blessings,
Laura

01/17/2026

The truth of these words often takes time to see. And it can be painful.

We want to believe that our commitment to healing will inspire others to heal too.
That as we become more aware, more honest, more present, we will finally be loved in the ways we’ve always longed for.

It can feel so believable.
What we are seeing becomes so clear to us, the patterns, the trauma, the cost of staying the same, that it seems obvious others would want to see it too.

And yet, no amount of wanting, prodding, pleading, chasing, or changing ourselves can inspire another to do their work unless and until they want it for themselves.

Coming into contact with this reality often becomes the next layer of healing.

It isn’t wrong to want connection or reciprocity.
But we continue to suffer when we organize our transformation around someone else becoming different.

Blessings,
Laura

01/03/2026

Where is real rest available, not distraction?
What feels regenerative?
What feels depleting?

An encouragement, invite curiosity as you explore what rest and regeneration actually mean for you.

Blessings,
Laura

01/01/2026

As the year turns, there’s a lot of pressure, spoken and unspoken, to leave things behind.

To resolve. Improve. Become someone new.

But healing doesn’t work that way.

I just published a new reflection on the fantasy of “getting past it,” and how trauma doesn’t live in the past, it lives in the present until it’s met with awareness and compassion.

This isn’t about resolutions.

It’s about staying.

If you’re feeling the pull to start over, this may offer a different way to enter the year.

Link is in the bio.

Blessings,
Laura

12/25/2025

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! 🎄✨

May you have many moments of presence, genuine smiles, kindness towards yourself and others. May your day hold lightness, warmth, and small acts of compassion that quietly brighten the moment.
Blessings
All of us at CFMR

12/22/2025

The Winter Solstice marks the longest night of the year, a natural pause.

It invites a shift from doing to paying attention, from efforting to noticing what is already here.

In Compassion Based Awareness Therapy, this kind of orientation allows things to settle naturally. Nature is inherently wise, as is intuitive healing.

Slowing down, or simply being with ourselves, especially at the beginning of healing, can be unsettling.

Take your time with taking your time. Slowing down is part of how healing happens.

From this point forward, the days begin to get longer, even if we don’t feel it right away.

Light returns gradually, without effort. We do not have to force change.

We can trust the process and meet what’s here with compassion. You will come to know this through practice.

In lovingkindness,
Laura