Kara Bowman

Kara Bowman is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who specializes in grief and trauma. She has a part-time private practice in Santa Cruz, California. Kara traveled a long, winding road to arrive at her current profession. She began with an MBA and a career in finance, opened a large, award-winning child development center, worked in non-profit administration, and homeschooled her three children before becoming an NVC Compassionate Communication Trainer. Just as Kara’s children were leaving home and she was settling into her life, her family was hit with a nearly unbelievable wave of illnesses and deaths over a five-year period. Once Kara found her feet again, she knew she was driven to help others who were experiencing grief, loss and trauma. Kara returned to school to earn a Masters in Counseling Psychology, and interned primarily in hospice grief counseling. Kara is a Certified Grief Counselor (AAGC), a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (IATP), and a Certified Thanatologist (the study of death and dying; ADEC). Kara is passionate research-based learning in the fields of grief and trauma, including developmental trauma. Kara is dedicated to her career and community through her practice and volunteer work. Although she always uses empathy as a foundation for her grief work, she tries to individualize her approach in order to give each client what they most need at that moment in time. This includes ritual, poetry, meditations and visualizations, along with talking. Kara loves sharing her knowledge of how to grieve, and how to support grievers, by volunteering at Hospice, giving talks to public groups, writing, and training therapists. In the summer of 2020, the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists honored Kara’s practice with a Spotlight in The Therapist magazine.

Articles:

How Developmental Trauma Can Impact Grief

As a Marriage and Family Therapist who specializes in grief and trauma, I come across many more clients who don’t realize they have experienced developmental trauma than those who recognize […]

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