Supervision

Deep healing can happen through psychotherapy.

But first, we need to.

heal therapy.

If you love your clients, you want to work towards a world where they can be free.

Yes, I said it. Love.

I've heard multiple stories lately about providers needing to stay ‘professional’—therapists who aren't allowed to get ‘too comfortable’ with their clients; nurses who get in trouble if they share anything personal.

When—and why—did we forget that we’re all just humans together?

For me, the most healing exchanges have been where love was out in front—not professionalism.

(LOVE. I said it again!)

It’s time to repair the rift between showing up as a ‘professional’ or a ‘clinician,’ and showing up as a human.

It’s time to stop treating those qualities as mutually exclusive, and remember that relationships are where healing happens.

Therapy is due for a reckoning.

The good news is, the old patriarchal paradigms are (finally) changing. Therapists are becoming increasingly unsatisfied with the existing clinical framework.

If you don’t feel aligned with how you’ve been trained in traditional therapy programs, I want you to know two things:

You are not alone. In fact, you’re really onto something.
There is a way to bring love and justice into the conversation together with therapy, and to leverage your privilege and power to impact the systems that harm your clients.

Contact me to set up in-person supervision or virtual mentorship

“You must see your wholeness and humanity as inextricably linked to the wholeness and humanity of each person you encounter. The purpose of your work is not to save anyone, but to be part of the restoration of your own humanity by being in service toward the restoration of all of humanity. And this is a goal that cannot be achieved without the destruction of systems of oppression that impinge on the autonomy, efficacy and dignity of marginalized people everyday.”

- SONYA RENEE TAYLOR,
THE BODY IS NOT AN APOLOGY

“Few professionals have had this great of an impact on my work and worldview.”

“There hasn’t been a day in my professional and personal life that I haven’t been grateful for Carmen’s supervision group. Her perspective, lived experience, empathy, and validation shifted my own activism into thoughtful action, meaningful language, and personal healing. If you’re looking to disrupt the status quo in a personal and tender way, Carmen Cool is one of the best guides I could recommend. Her magic is embedded in vulnerability, outrage, humor and consistent steadiness.”

Lindsay Marie Birchfield, MS, RD, LDN, CD

Health and Body Activist

I offer clinical supervision in Colorado (as well as mentorship & consultation across the country) for therapists who want to become more culturally responsive, relationally engaged, and healing centered.

If you…

feel constrained by the existing medical model of psychotherapy
long to bring more of yourself into your work but feel like you’re supposed to be ‘neutral’
wonder if you have to whisper your ideas that feel subversive
want to stop acting as a professional enforcer of the status quo
want to center your work in anti-oppression
want something more radical and healing to offer than "body image" work

… and your intuition is telling you that the current paradigm isn’t really helping your clients (and might even be hurting them)...

I’m offering you an opportunity to unlearn what you learned in school, and to envision a way of working that allows and encourages your humanity.

I’m advocating for the kind of professionalism that allows for us to be human beings.

Who I work with:

Recent graduates (in Colorado) who need clinical supervision hours to obtain their LPC, but don’t feel aligned or in agreement with the current mainstream / patriarchal practices.
Therapists interested in deepening their understanding of Health At Every Size (HAES), and how to work with clients in a weight-inclusive way.
Therapists who seek a courageous place of open dialogue to reflect on and address the influences of oppressive forces in the ways that we work.
Therapists who want to integrate activism into their work - because change needs to happen at the individual and collective level.
Therapists who need a truly safe place to address their own mental health.

“Carmen is someone I trust completely."

"Carmen is an honest, deeply caring, and extremely dedicated human. She is breaking down barriers, advocating for people, willing to get messy, leaning into the challenges, speaking truth, open to feedback, and constantly learning. She is someone I trust to support people fully — to look at all of the aspects of what is impacting their lives from individual, relational, systemic and ideological perspectives. It has been an absolute honor to be supervised by Carmen. Watch out for her — in the best way possible."

Griffin Jensen, MA, LPC

Psychotherapist

We’ll talk together about your work and we will celebrate and strengthen your skills. We’ll also attend to who you are as much as we attend to what you do. I will be at your back the whole time.

Here are some topics we might explore together:

Letting go of the myth of neutrality
How to make our commitments visible
How systemic oppression impacts the lives and bodies of our clients
Harm reduction in eating disorders
Building a practice that feels satisfying and honors the way you want to work
How to interact with colleagues who are firmly entrenched in diet culture
Your own relationship with your body
Anything that you need to feel cared for and supported in doing this work.

About Me

I believe therapists need to center their work in anti-oppression because we have a role to play in larger social healing. White supremacy, homophobia, classism, transphobia, weight stigma, ableism – these can’t be healed inside of our offices.

My training as a therapist, and my experiences as a client, have all been outside of the mainstream. I’ve had a successful practice for over 20 years, run a nonprofit focused on eating disorder prevention, and worked both in private practice and in eating disorder treatment centers. I offer trainings for eating disorder professionals and speak internationally on weight inclusive care, eliminating anti-fat bias in our work, and HAES. I’m interested in bridging therapy and activism and in reclaiming the magic and heart of psychotherapy that got lost when it got subsumed under the medical model.

The mental health system can be so constrictive—so our work together will be demystifying and permissive. It is not a top-down model; nothing I do fits within that frame. I am often the voice of asking more questions than giving answers.

This will be a place where you can receive care and solidarity. I will honor what you already know, already intuit, already lived though. I want to hear about all your perspectives and preferences.

I will protect your dignity and the dignity of your clients at all times.

I will show up with you the same way I do with my clients—in real relationship, with wicked observational skills, care and attention to your experiences, humor, and a whole lot of love.

“I vividly remember eating cupcakes with Carmen in San Francisco about a year and a half after I first met her. I wanted to talk through some things that I'd been thinking about in my own HAES® work. It was during that talk that I truly saw what makes Carmen so special.

She held space for my vulnerability. As I sat there, sharing, I realized that she was not going to judge me. She was going to listen and take it all in. She was going to allow me to be seen.

My conversations with Carmen have helped change me as a provider, as a clinician, and as a person. Every time we talk, I feel 100% heard, more confident in my body's inherent wisdom, and open to learning more.

When you consult with Carmen, you are treated as a full person, an equal, and invited to to show up as authentically you. I will be forever grateful for her caring attention and how she is able to mentor those of us who are newer to this work.”

Aaron Flores, R.D.

Certified Body Trust ® Provider

We CAN create more options for how we practice. We CAN think together about how to do this work differently and more powerfully—in a way that includes our whole, human selves.

It’s an honor to witness and accompany you as you find a way to dance with this work without feeling like you have to do it inside the lines.

Meetings can happen in Boulder, or virtually.

Set up a free consultation here