When I peel back the layers on any child that has made great emotional strides there you are, Dr. Cooper. Some of my friends have seen three or four other therapists before I get them to you. I tell them that if you don’t want to work hard, take a look at yourself and grow – don’t go see Dr. Cooper. But by taking my son to you, not only did he get better but so did my parenting, my marriage and even my relationship with my own mother! I live a happy life and I credit you. I want to hug your mother and thank her for the incredible job she did with you.

We made it to Seattle. Until you, I never thought we would ever get her on a plane. She has even been able to get herself to sleep. She said she is going to send you post cards every day. Thank you for your wonderful coaching, listening and advice.

(My son) just left for college. It is quiet here and I have time to reflect on so much. We saw you together when he was two years old and I had no idea how to be a dad. I cherished my semi-annual visits to you to learn what was going to happen for him next developmentally and what to do about it and all the other things that were going on. You helped me with what to do with him, how to play with him, what schools to go to, what to do about weaknesses, how to benefit from his strengths…. You were right on about his learning disability. You saw his vulnerabilities before they peaked so I was already on it. You were there through the thick and thin of it all. You made perfect recommendations all along and I don’t know what I would have done without you.

Just a note to thank you for the wonderful learning opportunity I experienced with you a few weeks ago. I am grateful to you for my process of gaining clarity in my life and family. I was clueless yet full of blame towards the school and kids when I sent you my son who was having trouble with bullies and sticking up for himself. Then when your session before me ran late and I got furious with you, you were so, so brave to recognize me as a bully I was. When you informed me about this, especially as it related to my son, I am not proud of how I reacted and I am very sorry for everything I said. But, when I, in my fury told my best friend how awful you were – she said you were “terrific, and we laughed until we cried. I vow to you that I will never be that rageful person again. I am clear enough now to be embarrassed and ever grateful to you Dr. Cooper. Your willingness to be open, honest, and to not shy away from my fury has saved my family years of pain and long term therapy. Thank you for helping me to be the best I can. You have changed the way I will live my life, the quality of how my children will grow up and who they will become. You have broken a multi-generational chain that nobody else was brave enough to address.

Thank you for visiting me in the hospital. It was touch and go there but you came in like an angel and helped me, my husband and the kids get through it. This was above and beyond your duty and now I see more clearly who you really are. You are an angel. I will never forget you and how you helped my family.

Nothing can express the depth of my love and appreciation for how you saved my child from years of inaccurate diagnoses and social and emotional pain. How you discovered her food allergies and seizures in our one single parent session is beyond me but because of you my child and our family are on the mends. I still want you to meet her one day, but suffice it to say for now we are in the hands of your other referrals.

I don’t even know where to begin. I get it. I understand everything you said. It just took me a little time to see my child is so anxious because I am overbearing. Little did I know that bringing my child to therapy would include taking such a hard look at myself…By working the way you do, requiring us to be involved in his care, talking to us on the phone after every session, it moved along our whole family healing.

You are just the right combination of smart, empathetic and courageous to notice, feel and tell us what we can do. You are an incredible doctor and now that I am not so mad at you I can see that clearly.

You are a ray of sunshine in our lives and our lives are so much warmer and brighter because of you. Thanks for being you and doing all you do.

I cannot thank you enough for taking all that time to talk to me. It has been years since I came to see you, but going off to school, and how hard (ivy league school) is brought up so much stress for me and you helped me so much in the past, you are the one I needed to talk to. Your memory of me and your healing voice and wisdom really helped me get through this difficult time and remain at school. I admire and respect you so much and it means the world to me that I am able to talk to you. See you at Thanksgiving break.

You’ve been more than a guide and mentor to me, you are my friend. You truly are the sweetest woman I know, and you can’t possibly ever understand how much you have helped me, how happy I am because of you and how grateful I am to have you in my life. You’ve given me the tools to have the most rewarding life I can and you deserve nothing but happiness and good fortune.

I know it has been a long time since we worked with you but I had to send this along. (My son) made this for you, even after all this time and I thought you should have it. (This was on red construction paper replete with Valentine stickers.)

when I had a temper – you were there and taught me how to calm down
when I had no friends – you were there and taught me how to be a friend
when they thought I was stupid – you were there and taught me how smart I am
when I helped other members of the group – you were there nodding
when I tested into the talent and gifted –you were there cheering (in my mind)
now I’ve graduated from you but
when I look in my heart (card opens)– you are there, thanks for all your great help.

I can’t express how much it meant to me to have you there at my graduation, with flowers ready for me as soon as I was off-stage. You are family to me, and I can’t thank you enough for everything you have done for me to get me to this amazing place in my life. I would not have been able to apply myself and get into (the ivy league school) if it wasn’t for you.

It was so great to visit you this holiday at the cottage after all these years. The cottage is wonderful. You have been such an inspiration to me and I hope you realize what an important part you have played in shaping who I have become. Thank you so much for everything!! Much love

It was so good to see you the other day. That made my day…my year. You were such a big part of our lives when we were younger and my family was falling apart, so it was perfect timing to run into you right before college…another huge change in my life and all you taught me comes to mind, just like my memories of our time together…

I think you are one of the nicest people I ever met. Thank you for helping me grow into the person I am now. I feel good about myself now and I am making healthy choices. I think when I grow up I want to do what you do because I see the difference you have made in my life and even my mom and dad are happy because of you. Thank you.

You did a fantastic job. You are a gifted speaker and you were extremely engaging. I am really grateful I found you. You touched a lot of people today.

I have attended your local lectures on Positive Parenting for years (I am a forever groupie). In one of your lectures you taught the benefits and techniques of how to teach children to self-soothe. This helped me so much with my son’s bedtime issues and temper tantrums. But then he got bit by a dog and the hospital wanted to tie him down to stitch him up. He screamed with terror. This loss of power was more devastating to him than anything that happened that day. So here’s the amazing part, Dr. Cooper, because of what you taught me and because I had shared this skill with him, together, we were able to demonstrate to the doctor that he could sit still and calm in my lap for the shots and stitching. It was an amazing moment in my mothering, in his sense of self-control and power, and hopefully the doctor learned something about children, too….

My name is N and I met you at my church group when you talked about parenting challenges. You were incredibly helpful, insightful and inspiring!! I literally could not wait for my kids to wake up the next morning so that I could put your suggestions into action!! As a full time mom I take my job very seriously…and I also take it to heart. I was so energized by your talk I just wanted to let you know what a difference you made in how I (and my husband!) are approaching these absolutely wonderful, yet challenging years. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Thank you for all you do, for not just me-but everyone!

You don’t know me but I use your name around my house most days. I quote you and I have your recommendation “be imitation worthy” above my vanity mirror. I breathe deep to pause before managing problems with my kids and I live a better life, as do my kids because of you.

Please tell me where and when all your ‘open to the public’ lectures are during your Positive Parenting April this year. I saw you last year at OGS and have implemented a bunch of the techniques you gave me. My family is soooo much healthier. I learned more from you about ‘what to do’ and ‘how to be’ in that 90 minutes than from any other teacher/doctor/caretaker. But I need a refresher, maybe some fine-tuning and I am ready for some more of your gems. Actually, I want to come to as many of your classes as I can and send my husband, my babysitter and my parents, too. Oh! and my in-laws!!!! I want us all to attend and be consistent in our approach with our children. Thank you for all your help with OGS families and everywhere!

Our teachers responses to your workshop were excellent. Every teacher left the day feeling that they had new ideas to apply in their practice. I appreciated your delivery of information: direct! You emanate enthusiasm and authentic care for families. It is wonderful to work with a person who cares so much and enjoys her work so. Kudos and smiles for your meaningful presentation.

Thank you so much for your generosity and your invaluable words of wisdom. I wanted to let you know how appreciative we were of your coming to our school (particularly at such an early hour). I had so many favorable comments from our staff in response to your presentation I thought I should pass some on to you. One teacher told me that she learned more in your 45-minute talk than she had in all our 3 and a half hour professional development day presentations. Another shared that your suggestions and strategies could be implemented in any age group, and she planned on utilizing some of them right away with her class with whom she is having some behavioral issues and also in her home. You provided us with a wealth of information that is directly applicable and practical to our student population and with such an upbeat affirmative attitude. Thank you again for your phenomenal talk.

Our school parents have been emailing and calling to express their appreciation and enthusiasm for what you said and I want to tell you that they took home a better understanding of the importance of using encouraging language with their children and recognized the challenge to take stock in themselves and strive to be imitation worthy. Thank you for honoring our School with this “treasure” workshop and I hope that you will return to educate our parents with another thoughtful lecture next year.

Thank you very much for coming back to… As you can see from the enclosed evaluations, the program was, once again, very well received. The audience loved your style and wealth of knowledge, and, in particular, your specific suggestions that they could take home and implement immediately. We hope we can do further programming with you again next year! Here’s what the audience wrote about your program: excellent, interesting, compassionate, great examples, poignant stories, effective, relevant, great strategies and language to use at home, very engaging, real solutions, humorous, perfect combination of clinical and personal, knowledgeable, she really cares, down to earth, real, she is so clear, positive, honest, great ideas, able to address our concerns and awesome Q & A, she’s the BEST!

It’s amazing how much I learned during my internship. You and your teachings are always in my thoughts. I just finished my Masters in School Guidance Counseling and want you to know I take what I learned with you everywhere and in all my interactions with others.

P.S. I framed the card you made me.

I wanted to thank you for all your support and the incredible experience that I was a part of at Creative Therapies (I still have my tool box). I remember that first group when the boys told me they could tell I was nervous from my breathing, well they would be proud to know that I confidently earned the assistance-ship position in my Ph.D. program thanks to all I learned from you and the group. I know I could not have done this without all you taught me professionally and about myself personally. I felt compelled to fill you in since you have been such a great support to me.

Thank you for going out of your way to make my interning experience nothing short of spectacular. You have taught me that genuine compassion can truly lead to making a difference in people’s lives. I have the utmost respect for not only your practice but for you as a person. I hope that one day I can be as effective and successful as you have been. Good luck with everything and I’ll be sure to keep you posted on my future!

You asked me to prepare for my last supervision with memories and discoveries, lessons learned and decisions made. I guess it started when I interviewed for the internship, well, probably when I read the description at my university and decided to apply for it but…. At the interview I hoped that despite my indecision about my career (teacher or counselor) you would see through to my good heart. That night I prayed over and over I would make the cut and be invited back for the second round. Then you called and said, you had thought a great deal about me at Creative Therapies the night before and I just knew how tuned in you were.

When I was accepted into the position we mapped out an intensive program that was miraculously not so much about what I could do for Creative Therapies as it was what Creative Therapies could do for me. None of the other students in my class got an experience anything like what you created for me.

I visited interesting and diverse schools, I did in-home care with two very different and wonderful families and I spent my spring break shadowing you. The thing that impressed me most is that I met dozens of parents and teachers you have helped and they rave about you. They love and admire you – kids, heck even store clerks, the mailman and people who recognized you or your voice on the street – everywhere. This is so uncommon. There was that woman who hugged you and told you a story in broken English, we were just trying to get a cup of tea. You were so kind and compassionate even though I knew we had to go, you allowed her the time and I never asked you if you even understood what she was saying. You help and make a difference in the lives of so many people, you are incredible….so I have to say the greatest lesson I learned is also the greatest decision I made which is to keep my heart open and strive to be in the presence of positive, beautiful people like you. My aim is high but I hope someday to be as good as you in God’s service.