Sandra E Cohen, Ph.D.

Psychologist & Psychoanalyst

Dr. Sandra E. Cohen began her career as a clinical psychologist in the 1970s, working in psychiatric hospitals. Those hospitalized, without exception, suffered childhood trauma. She saw the devastation of trauma firsthand. The complexities of how trauma affects any one person are not easy to unravel. Witnessing the long-term effects of childhood trauma well into adulthood made her determined to perfect her skills and specialize in helping traumatized people heal. Dr. Cohen has been in private practice for over forty years as both a psychologist and psychoanalyst. She became certified as a psychoanalyst to gain training in uncovering the unconscious roots of how trauma affects adult lives. She is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of California, where she has served as Dean. Dr. Cohen’s psychoanalytic training has given her the skills to help patients work through their trauma. She specializes in treating those who’ve been sexually and physically abused and severely neglected and who come to see her with persistent depression, anxiety and panic, dissociative states, eating disorders, problems with self-esteem, attachment difficulties, and struggles with love. She has written book chapters and numerous blog pieces about the effects of childhood trauma and is currently completing a non-fiction manuscript. This book focuses on how a traumatized child is forced to cope when starved of love and the ways problems with love continue into adulthood. This writing was inspired by years of experience seeing traumatized patients in therapy. At the core of their problems are difficulties with love: believing they are unlovable and unworthy, feeling self-hate for needing love, and shutting down emotionally due to fear of rejection. Dr. Cohen has written this manuscript for those who have not yet been understood and are looking for answers about why they continue to struggle with love.