Heart and Meaning Psychotherapy & Coaching
Dr. Sasha Raskin, LPC. Couples Therapy and Family Therapy & Coaching in Boulder, CO and Online
Hello! I’m Dr. Sasha Raskin and I provide psychotherapy services to individuals, couples, and families, to help them find clarity and healing to create significant positive lasting change. I believe that our lives are filled with major decisions and significant life changes. During these periods you might be creating goals and aspirations but also facing great challenges like social uncertainties, family issues, and lack of life direction. Together we can find clarity on the path you want to take. Uncover and transform negative belief structures and habit patterns that might be keeping you from fulfilling your full potential.
Do you need clarity on the decisions that need to be made? Do you need support on how to set goals and how to move yourself forward? Do you need an environment where your difficulties and wounds will be honored and accepted? Do you need an environment that will support your desire to take action and utilize your strengths?
You’ve come the right place. My combination of training in Contemplative Therapy, Mindfulness Practices, Coaching and Marriage and Family Therapy, as well as researching these areas on a deeper level at my current PhD program, allow me to combine all four in service of greater growth potential. I believe that these are paths to healing and transformation. I believe that these practices serve to heal the past, engage the present, and create the future. I've also spent a few years training the next generation of psychotherapists as an Adjunct Faculty at Naropa University.
I pull from and utilize depth of theory and practices including:
Psychology & Coaching Theory: Contemplative Psychotherapy, Motivational Interviewing, Systems Theory, Marriage and Family Therapy, Narrative therapy, strengths-based models, Existential Psychology, Individual Psychology, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Attachment Theory, Executive Coaching, and Adlerian Life Coaching.
Mindfulness and movement Practices: Tibetan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Insight Meditation, Qigong, Kundalini Yoga.
Artistic & Creative Practices: Music composition and performance. Songwriting, producing, participating in and creating contemplative musical communities.
I am committed to helping clients find resources; explore difficulties and successes and the underlying emotions and issues in a supportive and inclusive environment; and look at their lives in larger contexts. I understand that human connection shapes our lives and without healthy relationships it is difficult to thrive. I bring my background in using a strengths-based perspective and humanistic approach allowing me to support clients in creating better communication with others and becoming more resilient, empowered and resourceful.
My Journey
My own journey was deeply impacted by a combination of guidance during crucial transition points and support from my own therapist that moved me from a sense of being stuck into movement and growth.
I immigrated with my family from Russia to Israel when I was seven, and moved to the US in my adult life, so I am no stranger to big life transitions. I had many struggles throughout the years: two periods of depression, difficulty adjusting to new environments, loneliness as a teen, school overload, family issues, and discerning my career path. I chose to be a therapist with the aspiration to make a difference in my clients’ lives through empowering and supporting them and seeing their creativity and unique talents.
My personal journey is a story of a transition from unhealthy life choices to a more meaningful, healthy, and creative life committed to the service of others. This journey led me to a total transformation of the relationships with my family, friends, romantic partners, and most importantly with myself. It also lead to the profession of psychotherapy; life coach training; mind-body practices including meditation, yoga, and martial arts; and a successful career as a musician and a music producer.
Motivated by my desire to help others, I've completed at a PhD in counseling education and supervision and taught at the Contemplative Counseling masters' program at Naropa University. For more than ten years I strived to help many different populations: I've worked with hundreds of individuals, couples and families in my private practice; I worked for two years in a juvenile mental health ward; started music programs for youth at risk and people who struggled with mental health issues; and was staff at one of the most innovative drug recovery centers for youth in Israel, where I initiated and lead a mindfulness stress reduction program. My latest project is Natural Highs Records, a record label I started in Boulder to produce music for area teens, empowering them to run the record label and make a living from their art. I was trained as a marriage and family psychotherapist at Denver Family Institute. I have a counseling private practice in Boulder, Colorado as well as an international life coaching center.
My combination of training at the PhD in Counseling Education and Supervision from Lindsey Wilson College, PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy program at Argosy University (coursework), Contemplative Counseling Psychology program at Naropa University, Marriage and Family training at the Denver Family Institute, Life Coaching program at Adler Institute, Gottman Couple Therapy, Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, PACT Couples therapy, as well as various training in ADD/ADHD, Motivational Interviewing and more, allow me to straddle the worlds of coaching and counseling. I bring more than two decades of contemplative mind and body practices to my role as a coach and counselor. These include meditation, yoga, Qi Gong, and martial arts, all practices that allow me to bring a present moment awareness to each session, as well as help my clients utilize advanced mindfulness techniques. These approaches honor the inherent wisdom and strengths in their healing processes and also emphasize how someone might live a more fulfilling life from their passions and talents.
