Laura Carr, LMFT, Center for Mindful Relationships

Laura Carr, LMFT, Center for Mindful Relationships Center for Mindful Relationships offers affordable & skilled counseling services for Individuals, Families, Couples.

All individuals long for similar things: to feel loved, to be connected, to contribute to life and to receive acknowledgement for those contributions. At CFMR, we work with you to reach a place where you are able to identify what you truly want from life, recognize what obstacles stand in your way and see an opportunity to make different choices in the future. This process can take many forms, som

e of which are best suited for individual, couples, family and group therapy. In an effort to provide an integrated approach to therapy, we also offer additional resources and/or referrals based on the specific needs of the client.

In healing we are introduced to listening for what is available to us all. This includes the process of discernment; lea...
04/22/2026

In healing we are introduced to listening for what is available to us all. This includes the process of discernment; learning to discern what is and what is not the still small voice.

What we are programmed to be run by is survival, conditioning, egocentricity. Other language for this is habit energy, beliefs, shoulds, “right/wrong,” all of which constitute unconsciousness.

Instead of regulating ourselves, which is a popular concept these days, I suggest attunement. Attunement is relationally based. It implies listening, curiosity, care and allows for intimacy.

Connection and intimacy is what we all crave. We are conditioned to look for that externally and tend to have resistance to meeting that need internally. Yet until we can reconnect with the essence that we are, even when we get connection externally, it won’t satiate that desire.

We must go through the many layers of resistance created in the process of socialization and survival to work our way back to the essence that we are.

A place to practice
In my experience, the still small voice doesn’t come in the form of full sentences. It might be a word, a sense of being pulled toward or away from something, or a feeling that quietly surfaces. Allow curiosity to guide you.

In lovingkindness,
Laura

Laura Carr, LMFT | Center for Mindful Relationships

You are not the thoughts in your head.You are the awareness that notices the thoughts.This distinction is CRITICAL. That...
04/16/2026

You are not the thoughts in your head.

You are the awareness that notices the thoughts.

This distinction is CRITICAL. That voice in the head is NOT you. It is the Socialization you have been exposed to your entire life, now internalized. Because it sounds like you, you think it is you. But it is NOT. It is programming. Until you learn to dis-identify with it, you will be controlled by it.

I call the practice Notice and Name. Notice the thought and name it: “The mind is saying I’m stupid and will never learn.” When you stop owning those thoughts, space is created, and you can begin to explore who you actually are, underneath the conditioned survival system. Then we layer in awareness of the body and emotions. One step at a time.

Try it and let me know what you notice.

In lovingkindness,
Laura

Laura Carr, LMFT | Center for Mindful Relationships

We are not the thinking mind. Not the stories it creates. Not the sensations the body feels. We are what notices. That a...
04/16/2026

We are not the thinking mind. Not the stories it creates. Not the sensations the body feels. We are what notices. That awareness is what we call Self.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

What if the most healing thing you could do today (and always) was practice curiousity?Not the faux curiosity where we’r...
03/24/2026

What if the most healing thing you could do today (and always) was practice curiousity?

Not the faux curiosity where we’re taught to analyze or fix, but genuine curiosity in the way a child notices a bug on a leaf. Open. Unhurried. Without judgment.

The science tells us that curiosity activates the brain’s reward system, releasing dopamine and priming us to learn, connect, and grow. It literally shifts our neurological state, moving us out of threat and into exploration.

Curiosity can also help with:
* Reducing anxiety, making room for openness
* Promoting emotional resilience
* Deeper, less reactive listening
* A more flexible, adaptive brain
* Decreasing spiraling thoughts, allowing more presence

And here’s what curiosity does for emotional safety.

When we approach our inner world with curiosity instead of criticism, a profound shift occurs. We stop being at war with our experience. We start to witness it. In Compassion Based Awareness (CBAT), we understand that suffering comes from the ways socialization has taught us to judge, suppress, or override what we feel.

Curiosity is the antidote. It’s how the Self (essence) begins to turn toward what has been repressed, not to fix it, but to finally see it. That seeing is the beginning of Unconditional Love.

Curiosity doesn’t ask “what’s wrong with me?” It asks “what’s here, and what is needed?”
Shifting to curiosity can change everything.

Enjoying practicing !

Blessings,
Laura ✨

It’s here…Spring! Enjoying the budding flowers and longer days.
03/21/2026

It’s here…Spring! Enjoying the budding flowers and longer days.

Enlightenment is an accident. Meditation makes you more accident-prone.- Shunryn Suzuki So let’s all be more accident-pr...
03/16/2026

Enlightenment is an accident.
Meditation makes you more accident-prone.
- Shunryn Suzuki

So let’s all be more accident-prone!
✨ Laura

03/14/2026

How we get on the other side of fear is to do something that activates the fear. Not the biggest thing! Pick something that feels doable. And then approach it, not to conquer the fear, but to see what is there.

What sensations do you feel in the body? What thoughts and beliefs are activated in the mind? What emotions are stirred up? What are these tied to in your history?

It’s imperative to have the Compassionate witness with you as you observe and learn and question these old associations that feel real and true in the moment.

While there was a real experience that happened in the past, it still feels true today (hence all those sensations) and healing is in being able to assist yourself, your human, now, to getting present to the moment with the attunement, the compassion they needed back then and you need now.

This is the work! It’s courageous and, eventually transformative, even though it doesn’t feel like that in the moment. You got this!
💜 Laura

There are no quick fixes in healing nor is it a solo journey. At Center for Mindful Relationships, this is the heart of ...
03/10/2026

There are no quick fixes in healing nor is it a solo journey. At Center for Mindful Relationships, this is the heart of what we offer through Compassion-Based Awareness Therapy (CBAT), a relational, somatic approach to healing that honors your unique path. If any of this resonates, we’d love to hear from you. Laura

2 New Blogs! Check them out! Listening to the Wisdom of The body, by Amy Freeman, AMFTHumor as a Tool for Survival and H...
03/07/2026

2 New Blogs! Check them out!
Listening to the Wisdom of The body, by Amy Freeman, AMFT

Humor as a Tool for Survival and Healing, by Alex Adomaitis, AMFT


Enjoy!
✨Link in bio ✨

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

Address

2333 1st Avenue, Ste 203
San Diego, CA
92101

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 7pm
Tuesday 8am - 7pm
Wednesday 8am - 7pm
Thursday 8am - 7pm
Friday 8am - 3pm
Saturday 9am - 1pm

Telephone

+16193541005

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All individuals long for similar things: to feel loved, to be connected, to contribute to life and to receive acknowledgement for those contributions. At CFMR, we work to help you identify what is blocking you from the experience of joy, compassion, freedom, excitement, wisdom. This process can take many forms, some of which are best suited for individual, couples, family and group therapy. In an effort to provide an integrated approach to therapy, we also offer additional resources and/or referrals based on the specific needs of the client.