Kirtan Coan

For 35+ years I have worked as a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor (LCMHC) and Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC), and also hold certificates in Somatic Experiencing (SEP), Dynamic Attachment Reprocessing Experience (DARE), Eye-Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR), Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and Person-Centered Expressive Arts Therapy (EXA). In 2000 I completed course work for a doctoral Certificate in Advanced Graduate Studies in expressive arts therapies from The International Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland. Then I had a lot of fun teaching expressive arts courses at Omega Institute, Wake Forest University, Appalachian State University, and the University of San Simon in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Recently, I worked for 12 years as an attachment-based, body-centered, trauma therapist at The Mood Treatment Center and now use the many skills learned to offer sessions in my private practice office here in Winston Salem, NC. Besides using evidence-based approaches to therapy, I am a decades-long meditator in the mindfulness traditions and have completed Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) as well as four three-year programs at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. The community of Soulmaking Dharma teachers and practitioners have also ignited my practice of sensing self, other, and world with soulful ways of looking. It is my honor to facilitate gentle recovery from wounds to early childhood, addiction, anxiety, unipolar and bipolar depression. My underlying intention is to be grounded and present in my own heart so as to open the space for my patients to taste and learn to dwell in the compassionate self-acceptance and well-being that can empower their journey to wholeness. To that end, I have had the joy to assist all levels of Diane Poole Heller's DARE Attachment trainings and have attended all levels of Brainspotting trainings, many with originator David Grand. For the past 28+ years I've taught Mindfulness and Heartfulness practices along with Hatha Yoga – as a 200hr yoga instructor - to a beautiful and diverse community of drama students at The University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where I foster creativity and belonging. My marriage of 27 years, enduring friendships, devotion to my anti-racist community and goddess circle, a blessed life-with-cats and delight in the wildlife in my backyard, plus spiritually engaging in living interdependence with earth and cosmos ~ all these, sustain me day by day.