Dr. Sandra E. Cohen

You’ve been hurt by love. Maybe many times. Here’s what can happen: You criticize yourself for wanting anything. Feel stupid if you try to date. Believe it won’t work out before you even try. Wonder how anyone could love you because of “the way you are.” Tell yourself that you’re OK alone, it’s better that…

You were sexually abused and violated by someone you needed to trust. Now, you struggle with whether or not to keep your childhood sexual abuse a secret and who is safe to tell. Secrets leave you much too alone. But is anyone safe? Your trust is fragile and you’re wary of people. Understandably. The question…

Anger after childhood abuse is normal. Yet, you probably struggle to express it. Either you stuff it down, feel guilty about it, or are (or were) told your anger is wrong or “bad,” so that’s how you think about it. Or you can’t control it when your anger does come out. Here’s the reality: Anger…

The Los Angeles Wildfires have devasted our city with sudden loss and PTSD. Many of you have been shattered more than others, displaced, and faced with the loss of your homes and precious belongings. The heartbreak and shock is enormous. Numbing, anxiety, depression, and fear are part of any loss. How do you deal with…

Who will hurt you the most? That’s the hidden question in Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour.  And, as a woman, how do you tell? It’s by seeing (or not seeing) red flags. Sometimes, you can’t see them when you’re lonely or hungry for attention and love. Other times, when you have reasons not to…

When you’ve already lost too much and live in fear of more loss, that can make you disconnect. This is where we find the three sisters in Azazel Jacobs’s His Three Daughters. Disconnected. They each have a method of disconnection and each has her reasons. But disconnection is lonely and creates more loss, even if…

If you’ve experienced past trauma, an old trauma trigger will bring on Anxiety. And, for Riley Anderson in Kelsey Mann’s Inside Out 2, it’s her fear of being alone. So, it isn’t just the new emotions of puberty that make Anxiety now take center stage and push away Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust into…

Man Versus Bear went viral. Even though a controversy rages, let’s be clear about why the Bear wins. The Bear gets the vote because of the past traumas and shattered trust of too many women. Those women have experienced childhood trauma, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and later sexual traumas, mostly perpetrated by a man that…

Do you have FOMO? FOMO can drive you crazy. Likely you have low self-esteem and “social comparison” anxiety. So, if you want to cure your FOMO, just quitting scrolling on social media isn’t enough. You wouldn’t be caught up comparing yourself (and always falling short), and maybe then buying things to try to make yourself…