Sonny Rose

My undergraduate degree from Boston University is a Bachelors of Science in Secondary Education. Psychology was a second Major. I attended La Sorbonne, in Paris, as French was the language I wanted to teach, so where better to learn more of the language, than in Paris!

After graduating, I moved to Iran and taught English and French. My interest in spirituality deepened while living there. I developed and led small groups for Iranian women. (This was at the time the Shah of Iran was in power) From Iran, I traveled extensively, spent time in Nepal studying with Tibetan teachers and meditating and living at a Buddhist Temple. This was life changing and had a huge impact in the way I have lived, taught, and practiced psychotherapy.

After leaving Nepal, I spent years in India studying and meditating with my Spiritual Master.  The events and time in India, continued to shape and deepen my awareness. I experienced the effects from many meditative techniques, which I have integrated into the mind/body/spirit programs I have taught and led.

I returned to the States and attended Graduate School earning a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Lesley University, Cambridge, MA. It was the perfect graduate program for me, combining a spiritual perspective with a psychological foundation.

While attending graduate school, I had a great experience working at Boston University School of Medicine, in the medical rehabilitation department. I was able to bring my wealth of knowledge and spiritual understanding to my job, counseling individuals who were para and quadriplegic.

After finishing my studies, I taught at Lesley University, as an adjunct faculty member, while building my private practice. In my practice, I worked mostly with adults who were going through major life transitions and who presented with depression, anxiety, and issues related to loss. My therapeutic approach of mind/body/spirit was an integration of cognitive behavioral, gestalt, psychodynamic, and transpersonal psychotherapy.

As a result of working with people in transition, I developed a method to help empower people to use their own experience as a stepping-stone towards creating a greater life of authenticity. It became clear to me, that many people were in need of having a proven process with concrete tools to help engender life changes. This became a natural evolution of my therapy practice to a coaching practice. I applied my knowledge, experience, and education, and I focused on helping people learn how to coach themselves. The process of coaching is dynamic, co-creative, and empowering. I have worked with hundreds of people in the last 20 years, many who have either experienced cancer, or who have been close to someone recovering from cancer.

My personal experience with cancer has given me insight into the many issues and the need for support. At the time I was diagnosed with cancer, I was working long hours, building my private practice, raising a teenage daughter, and coping with a very difficult marriage. The cancer journey was a roller coaster of fears and hopes, loneliness and connection. There was the ever present and unmistakable nudge, beckoning me to take an inventory of my life and look inside. I knew I was living in ways that did not serve me. I was not in true alignment with what I really wanted and needed in order to have a life of ease and harmony. Having cancer was a big wake up call for me to get my life in order, not to prepare to die, but to live more fully and heal beyond the cancer.

Only after intense focus on my cancer treatment, was I fully available to comprehend the many challenges ahead. I was dealing with the emotional and physical aftermath of my cancer experience. How was I going to change my life so that I was living more fully and in harmony? How was I going to deepen my healing on an inner and outer level?

I couldn’t find a cancer support system to help me with these issues AFTER treatment. I knew I needed to make some big changes. I needed to find a way to integrate my cancer experience and all the issues I was dealing with, so that I could begin to recover and heal beyond cancer.

Cancer gave me the strength and the confidence to do whatever was necessary in order to implement the steps toward my healing beyond cancer. I made huge changes. I divorced my husband, moved to a new town, transferred my daughter to a new school, bought my own home, and continued to build a highly successful business. I began to live from my true Spirit and created a life of happiness, success, balance, and joy. I am more than a cancer survivor!

My intention is to assist you in moving into a state of joy and enhance your self-knowing. The Healing Beyond Cancer Program is available to help you process and integrate the beauty of your wholeness with respect and honor.

“Sonny’s gifts of strength, wisdom, and her dedication to service are the reasons why she is my coach. Her guidance and support have been a tremendous help during my cancer recovery. Every time I felt scared, defeated, or helpless, Sonny reminded me to connect to my inner knowing. Sonny helped me find the meaning in my life, and today I feel more complete than ever.”

K.S.