Meet Jeff Cook, PhD
Welcome to my counseling practice. My name is Jeff Cook and I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (CO, OR) and Licensed Mental Health Counselor (WA). I hope you will find encouragement as you read about my practice, and your movement toward healing and relational repair. I work with individuals and couples who are hurting, to find peace and intimacy with themselves and those closest to them. I work from a strongly relational platform that believes behavior makes sense, and that affect is a primary component in healing. It is my belief that each of us is looking for a ‘relational home’ for our pain, and in this, we find healing.
Specializations.
Trauma & Shame.
Trauma-Focused Therapy is a specific approach to therapy that acknowledges the impact of traumatic experience on one’s mental, behavioral, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. The purpose of trauma-focused therapy is to offer skills and strategies to assist a person to better understand, cope, and process emotions and memories tied to traumatic experience. The end goal enabling a person to create healthier and more adaptive meaning in life and relationship.
Shame is often a bi-product of traumatic experience and is a felt sense that one is ‘broken’, ‘damaged’, etc., and has a way of disconnecting the person from themselves and from others. The experience of shame is never the root of the problem, and healing and a felt sense connectedness with self and others is a goal in therapy.
Couples Counseling.
Relationship Issues are always situated within a particular context, and often lead to mistrust, jealousy, and destructive decisions. Good relationships can be a source of love, fulfillment, and support. I work with couples from an emotionally focused perspective. Even the best relationships will face challenges, and it takes effort to keep the bonds of intimacy strong.
As long as each partner is willing to address the issue at hand and work together toward a solution, most relationship problems are manageable. When challenges are left unaddressed, tension mounts, poor habits develop, and the longevity of the relationship falls into jeopardy. A couples counselor can help romantic partners communicate their needs and rebuild their bond.
Sexual Compulsivity.
Problematic sexual behavior often runs counter to a person’s values, may be an attempt to avoid stressful elements of life, and can have devastating consequences. It is also known as sexual compulsion or sexual dependency. Estimates suggest between 12 to 30 million Americans experience some kind of sexual compulsion.
Problematic sexual behavior can interfere with one’s social life, physical health, and emotional well-being. It generally does not improve until the person receives treatment. A compassionate therapist can help individuals develop a healthier relationship with sex and intimacy.
Religion & Spirituality.
Religious trauma and faith development has been a pronounced part of my work in recent years. It is my belief that we are meaning makers and that we are created for a purpose. Faith development is not an easy journey, but it is an extremely important one that is riddled with cultural nuances, family history, and in some cases, institutional harm. .
Relational spirituality explores religious, theological, spiritual, and existential themes that are closely tied to a person’s attachment style, ability to differentiate, and intersubjective experience (relational experience). In addition to my clinical work and education, I hold a Master of Divinity and have enjoyed teaching graduate courses in faith development and religious abuse.
Sports Counseling.
Working with athletes as they deal with mental health issues, injury, and retirement has long been a passion of mine. Performance issues can often be linked to identity, perfectionism, and self-esteem. Any one of these three is often linked to feelings of shame, self-doubt, depression, or anxiety, and has a way of deeply impacting athletic performance.
As a collegiate athlete and coach of 20 plus years, I have enjoyed working with athletes, and seeing them grow in their love for self, and in the establishment of a strong identity that goes beyond being an athlete. Naturally, this growth positively impacts the different parts of the self - including athletic performance.
