As executive clinical director and founder of Embodied Mind Mental Health, a private mental health practice and training program in New York City, Daniel Cook (MA Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, 2011) draws on his Naropa education in both his personal and professional life. “The experiential learning deepened my commitment to self-care and inquiry, compassion-based practices cultivated my heart in a way that allows my work in the world to be sustainable… These qualities not only extend to my clinical and teaching work, though also to my approach as a business owner and organizational leader.”
As a licensed mental health counselor and psychotherapist, Cook specializes in men’s mental and relational health, “an overwhelmed and underserved demographic.” In addition to working with clients, he supervises early-career psychotherapists and students and consults with diverse institutions regarding integrative and trauma-informed practice. He is also a certified psychedelic-assisted psychotherapist, offering services to those seeking alternative paths to mental wellness.
“My heart is ignited by humanity’s courage in the face of suffering. To witness our drive for meaning, creativity, connection, beauty, and play in the midst of the inevitability of pain is truly igniting.” Not only does he find this in his work, but also in his “two amazing, hilarious, passionate, and loving kiddos who, not to sound cliche, but it’s true, are my greatest teachers (along with my students and clients)… The way they smile to each other touches something so deep.”
For Cook, everything comes back to curiosity and compassion—“both cornerstones to Naropa’s education and my life in general.” He explains, “It’s apparent that the way we humans are wired for safety perpetuates binaries within ourselves (good/bad, right/wrong, body/mind, pain/pleasure, subject/ object, man/woman) and thus how we see and relate to the world. Unfortunately, these dualities perpetuate so much of our suffering as well as how we objectify and thus exploit each other and our home, Earth. Not to sound woo woo, though I truly believe Naropa’s mission is to equip humanity with the tools to elevate our consciousness by cutting through dualistic thought and behavior through the emotional technologies of curiosity and compassion.”
