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About Shonnie Brown
Shonnie Brown, M.A., M.F.T.
shonnie@coparentempowerment.com
I have been in private practice as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 1993. I work primarily with individuals and couples, many of whom are going through separation and divorce or other life transitions. In 1994 I began facilitating co-ed and women's support
groups for separation and divorce and this work has been ongoing. In
1997 I started working with divorcing parents' groups — first through Kids' Turn of Sonoma County for about five years and then through
Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa for the past five years. I designed and
updated the Kaiser Parenting thru Divorce class curriculum and am co-creator of the Co-Parent Empowerment Group. I am also a member of a diverse group of counselors at the Chinn Street Counseling Center in Santa Rosa.
One of the passions in my work is teaching parents the skills to successfully navigate the "roller coaster ride" of feelings in their own divorce and to learn to separate out their feelings from the
business of co-parenting. "Divorce sucks" pretty much for everyone.
It's nothing one could prepare for. The requirement to co-parent with
someone you may despise or fear is, at best, a contradiction; at worst,
the toughest challenge you will ever face.
The many challenges that life has brought me, including divorce, have helped me become more accepting of transition and begin to view change as part of life. I value relationship and aloneness, adventure and security, humor, creativity and spirituality.
What has been rewarding in my years of work in this field is to see change over time. Many clients come with such deep emptiness and despair after separation that they don't believe they will survive. But they do! My job is to encourage hope, inspire self-confidence, support risk taking and acceptance of change.
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