Bayeshan Wang Cooper, MS, LMHC in Washington State
Individual counseling for complex trauma, relationship issues, and grief from an embodied and liberatory approach.
Trauma is a relational injury.
Trauma occurs in interpersonal relationships, and it also occurs in our relationships with community, culture, social/institutional systems, ecology, history, and oneself. Deep down we know that in relationships, we deserve safety, belonging, and dignity, but traumatic events, whether acute or chronic, have necessitated survival strategies that over time become patterns that get in the way of authentic connection, joy, and desire.
These emotional and behavioral patterns seem unshakeable; even if you can logically explain why these patterns occur, in the heat of the moment, it’s as if your body goes on autopilot and you find yourself repeating the cycle once again. These patterns might be labeled as a diagnosis such as depression, anxiety, personality disorders, or PTSD; whether they have a name or not, they have been creating stagnation, frustration, and isolation that are getting too painful and exhausting to endure and fight through anymore.
“Trauma decontextualized in a person over time can look like personality. Trauma decontextualized in a family over time can look like family traits. Trauma decontextualized in a people over time can look like culture.”
- Resmaa Menakem
As a therapist,
I am committed to supporting the transformation of these patterns from the core so that you can experience a greater sense of authenticity, agency, fulfillment, and ease.
I believe that healing is inherently political and spiritual and cannot occur in a vacuum devoid of social context, environmental context, and the physical bodies that we live in.
While the harms of the past cannot be changed, I believe that we can heal the emotional wounds that are still being carried around in the present. Elements of healing that I strive to foster in our work together include:
gradually increasing the ability to be with feeling, discomfort, grief, and pain
relating to emotions, patterns, and past trauma from a place of non-judgemental witnessing instead of control and power-over strategies
exploration of new ways of being that are rooted in your authenticity and creativity
I believe that ultimately, healing is all about having the choice to show up differently than what the trauma pattern has previously dictated and move toward the future you truly desire.
Hello!
I am a mixed-race, multicultural, queer, able-bodied, cisgender woman, and I am a healer. Mental health counseling is my primary tool to facilitate healing, but I do not think it is (nor should it be) the only path toward transformation. To me, healing is inherently political and spiritual, and it cannot occur in a vacuum devoid of social context, environmental context, and the physical bodies we live in. I believe that healing, growth, and transformation is one of the most valuable and important things we can do in this life, and it is an absolute honor for me to be able to support this process with people.
I’m Bayeshan (she/her pronouns),
“In truth, we have to integrate our wounds into our understanding of who we are and what we are really capable of so that we can be whole beings. Only from there can we begin the process of healing the brokenness, the broken-heartedness within ourselves that is then the foundation for beginning to heal that in our larger society.”