Laura Carr, LMFT, Center for Mindful Relationships

Laura Carr, LMFT, Center for Mindful Relationships Center for Mindful Relationships offers counseling services for Individuals, Families, Couples, and

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.

These celebration days are complicated as no one post can speak to every person’s experience. Mothering and being mother...
05/11/2025

These celebration days are complicated as no one post can speak to every person’s experience. Mothering and being mothered…ask 100 people about their experience with either and you will very likely get a response that is somewhere on the continuum of horrid —— to —— beautiful. Given that it would be impossible to reflect each of your experiences I offer you this cartoon. I find that humor is healing and I wish for you some humor in your day today, regardless of your mothering experience. If in your mothering experience you are currently having more joy than pain, Happy Mother’s Day. If in your mothering experience you are currently having more pain than joy, maybe you can push some sh*t off some counters and laugh. Offer yourself some safe, humorous & loving mothering.








An INVITATION...In honor of the International Day of No Self-Hate, you too have had your Inner Critic surgically removed...
04/19/2025

An INVITATION...

In honor of the International Day of No Self-Hate, you too have had your Inner Critic surgically removed.
You no longer have the ability to:
🚫Feel bad
🚫 Think that there is something wrong with you
🚫 See yourself as less than
🚫 Imagine you are not enough
🚫 Dislike some aspect of yourself
🚫 Assess whether you’re spending your day/time/life the way you “should” be
🚫 See things that happen as “mistakes”
🚫 Critique, judge, regret....
Pay attention to what it’s like to have NO INNER CRITIC!
____________________
A word from the Surgeon! It is possible for flashes of “phantom self-hate” to appear as you heal from The Surgery. Your doctor’s Rx: If you notice any form of self-hate, just repeat to yourself, “That is not real!”

⭐️This INVITATION is an offering from Living Compassion in honor of Zen teacher, Cheri Huber’s birthday⭐️










Be kinder to yourself than you think you should be.Cheri Huber
03/06/2025

Be kinder to yourself than you think you should be.
Cheri Huber

Life is as good as your relationship with yourself. - Cheri HuberOy, this is a truth bomb. Valentine’s Day: a dreaded “h...
02/14/2025

Life is as good as your relationship with yourself. - Cheri Huber

Oy, this is a truth bomb.

Valentine’s Day: a dreaded “holiday” for many. I’ll admit, I am not a fan. I’ve always called it a “Hallmark” holiday given socialization which creates unrealistic expectations and therefore is a set up for disappointments. And it’s costly. Like bottled water at a rave, the cost of anything “romantic” triples.

Irrespective of your relationship status, can you bring compassion to yourself? If this is a day that is challenging, can you offer kindness to yourself throughout the day? Get yourself your favorite tea, buy yourself your favorite treat or watch your favorite show. Maybe spend time in nature or see if a friend wants to spend some time together. Talk with your partner about what you’d like. Ask them what they’d like? Don’t compromise…explore. Is there room for both, even on different days? Explore possibilities.

On this Valentines’ Day, regardless of your relationship status, you can learn a lot about yourself and practice bringing compassion to it all. And that is worth celebrating! Because,

“Life is as good as your relationship with yourself.” - Cheri Huber
Laura





Alex brings a unique blend of calm enthusiasm and warmth to sessions that create space for clients to feel safe, support...
02/13/2025

Alex brings a unique blend of calm enthusiasm and warmth to sessions that create space for clients to feel safe, supported and heard. Offering concrete tools, she skillfully assists clients in navigating the challenging terrain of healing from trauma and learning new ways to operate in their life.

Alex is accepting new clients. Visit cfmrsandiego.com or call 626-515-4878 to schedule an appt or set up a free 20-minute consultation.



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Stephen brings a rare blend of military experience and therapeutic wisdom to CFMR. As a retired service member turned ps...
02/13/2025

Stephen brings a rare blend of military experience and therapeutic wisdom to CFMR. As a retired service member turned psychotherapist, he offers a grounded, steady presence that assists clients feeling witnessed, heard and supported. Stephen brings both compassion and practical insights to his sessions.

Stephen is accepting new clients. Visit cfmrsandiego.com or call (858) 333-4123 to schedule an appt or set up a free 20-minute consultation.



Holly connects easily with people through her engaging and warm presence. Holly brings curiosity, compassion, insight, a...
02/13/2025

Holly connects easily with people through her engaging and warm presence. Holly brings curiosity, compassion, insight, and practical tools to each session.

She thrives on collaboration in offering perspective and skills to assist clients in their healing journey.

Holly is accepting new clients. Visit cfmrsandiego.com or call 619-928-2892 to schedule an appt or set up a free 20-minute consultation.




Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you don’t want to suffer, don’t go to sleep.NISARGADATTA MAHARAJPle...
02/09/2025

Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you don’t want to suffer, don’t go to sleep.
NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ

Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you don’t want to suffer, don’t go to sleep. 
Nisargadatta Maharaj

A sobering reminder that it is up to us to end our suffering. Compassion Based Awareness offers a way to do just this…wake up and end our suffering. It is simple but not easy. It is clear but gets muddied quickly muddied by our socialization…aka trauma.
Gasshō
laura





























The root of all suffering is some form of self hate; conscious or unconscious beliefs that something is wrong with you. ...
02/07/2025

The root of all suffering is some form of self hate; conscious or unconscious beliefs that something is wrong with you. When I stumbled upon the the book, There’s Nothing Wrong with You it stirred a knowing that we all have but many lose sight of very early early in life due to the need to survive our environments. This stirring led me to the work of Cheri Huber, student and teacher of Zen, and changed the direction of my life and my work. I have been training with her ever since that day in 2002.

Compassion Based Awareness Therapy is an integration of that training into my world of psychotherapy. And while compassion is becoming more popular these days, it is very easy for the true meaning of compassion to get lost and watered down. And without awareness, the heart gets easily hijacked and pulled back into our socialized and conditioned patterns and compassion is nowhere to be seen, felt, experienced or offered.

Compassion based Awareness offers a way to get back into alignment with the heart, with wisdom, unconditional love, curiosity. From that space we can face and transcend what we survived so we can truly learn to live from the heart.
Gasshō
laura





























Everything starts with developing and strengthening the skill of noticing. Noticing is everything! What is noticing? We ...
01/24/2025

Everything starts with developing and strengthening the skill of noticing. Noticing is everything! What is noticing? We can learn what something is by discovering what it is not.

Some places to explore…. Noticing isn’t thinking or intellectualizing or figuring it out. It isn’t having an opinion or believing something.

While noticing isn’t of these, we can notice all of them. Give yourself the gift of learning what noticing is so you can experiencing the power of noticing that Maharaj is pointing at.

Enjoy your exploration.
laura




















There is no Disney version of life. The Disney version creates disillusionment, disappointment and perpetuates perfectio...
01/20/2025

There is no Disney version of life. The Disney version creates disillusionment, disappointment and perpetuates perfectionism. Earth, the body, the heart, each has an amazing capacity to heal. It knows intuitively how to heal. It is our socialization that interferes. Fear, addictions, shame, what ifs, yeah..buts, figuring it out…these are just a few of the impediments to healing.

Pausing, listening and learning to hear are our first steps. Listen to what? For what? I heard this once talked about by Zen student and teacher, Cheri Huber as the “intelligence that animates.” Those words resonate deeply. Life takes many forms and that “intelligence that animates” is available to each of us.

We must learn to listen, to discern intelligence from conditioning. It is only then that we can respond to the “intelligence that animates” us to care for the body, the heart, the earth.









Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of th...
11/30/2024

Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.
- Deepak Chopra

One of the reasons I love quotes is that the ones I’m ready to hear strike a cord within me. Everything stops for just a moment as the wisdom within the quote touches wisdom within me. And if I can stay in the stillness and out of the mind that wisdom moves me.

It can awaken me when I’ve slipped into unconsciousness. It can fuel compassionate awareness. It can spark joy. Quotes are magical like that.

This quote supports me in looking at what is informing my choices. If I am unconscious, suffering is what will be reinforced. It’s not about making a “right“ decision. It is about practicing awareness, compassionate awareness moment to moment to moment, which increases my odds of “not being a prisoner of my past.”

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

Website

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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.