Lectures/CE Events
Upcoming Presentations by Christina Cowger, LMFT Marin CAMFT Friday CE SeriesTopic: Food, Mood & the Brain: How Nutrition, Cravings, and Early Trauma Shape HealthDate: Friday, September 12, 2025CEs: 2 Continuing Education credits available CNDA Naturopathic Webinar #65Topic: The Neuroimmune Link: Chronic Illness and Mood DisordersDate: Tuesday, November 18, 2025Time: 6:30–8:30 PM PDT
Read MoreThe Little Amygdala and the Big Pandemic; Considerations in Post Traumatic Resilience
Although small in size, the little amygdala is an amazingly powerful alarm center in the brain. It stores data to warn us of future threats. When the amygdala neurons fire intensely, a physical stress response is triggered system wide. The little amygdala “sounds the alarm”, activating the nervous system. As nation and a world, we…
Read MoreCouples Communication – Hygiene For Stressful Times
Currently we are all living very different daily lives with Covid-19 and for couples this stress can start to take a toll. Maybe the first few weeks of shelter-in-place you were a team and had an in-this-together perspective. But now, as the stress wears on, the differences between you can begin to feel more pronounced.…
Read MorePTSD and the Resilient Brain: A Symphony of Neurotransmitters and Hormones
Traumatic stressors are defined by the direct experience, witnessing of, or confrontation by an event involving actual or threatened danger, and they evoke responses that include intense fear, helplessness or horror. On a national and global level 2017 was peppered with one disaster after another. There has been a palpable sort of post-traumatic stress permeating…
Read MoreParental Boundaries
Parental Boundaries: Using Your “Mother-Ears” One of the fine arts of parenting in how we uphold and model appropriate boundaries with our children and young adults. It is not uncommon to know parents that want to be friends with their kids. While this is the flip side of a (gladly) gone era of “children should…
Read MoreSecond Stage Recovery and Biological Considerations
For years the treatment of addiction relied heavily on behavior modification, abstinence and changing old behaviors to begin to live an addiction-free life. Second Stage Recovery is an opportunity to find deeper meaning and purpose in life and in the recovery process. It offers tools and support that enhances one’s ability to face the future…
Read MoreA Mind-Body Perspective on Anxiety, Depression and Attachment
Undeniably the mind and body are connected and are more and more being understood as one bidirectional system. Therefore when anxiety, stress and trauma impact the mind they also directly influence a cascade of biological systems within the body. Our bodies are adaptive and responsive to the messages that we receive, interpret and respond to.…
Read MoreBoost Positive Communication With Your Partner
Are you in a relationship and struggling with the same fight, the same frustration or the same hurt feelings over and over again? Or, do you know someone who is in a high-conflict partnership? Couples can easily become stuck in cycles of unhealthy communication. Often if we continue in a relationship where there are unresolved…
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