Welcome to Justin Cooper’s practice!
A warm welcome to my website. My name is Justin Cooper, I am a native-English speaking therapist, counsellor and teacher with a practice in west Amsterdam. My services include hypnotherapy, relationship therapy, mindfulness and counselling.
My personal vision
The way I work is both down to earth and practical and at the same time holistic and integrative. I strongly believe that every human being has a sort of self-healing ability, an inner source, with which we can restore the balance in ourselves and improve the quality of our lives. Just like learning to drive a car you can also learn to tap into your own inner resources.
Furthermore, I see my work as a 'wake-up call' which means helping you break through the layers of conditioned behaviour and fear so you can reconnect to what is really important to you and be true to yourself.
It's about following your heart with an open, expansive mind. This is where creativity and spirituality meet, where playfulness and curiosity are alive and fulfilment and purpose serve as an inner compass.
My personal story
After graduating with a first class honours degree, I pursued a career in journalism and publishing and communications. Following several promotions I worked as Group Editor for a number of magazines until my lifestyle of deadlines, stress and a lot of travelling started to take its toll. With two slipped discs I would still drag myself to the office, I was really hard on myself and was scared to let people down and to come across as weak or needy. One day the straw that broke the camel’s back became reality for me.
A complicated operation was unavoidable and when I woke up from the anaesthetic, I had (temporary) paralysis in both legs. I fell into an acute depression and isolated myself from those I most needed. With a lot of soul-searching I was able to start dealing with my inner demons and get behind the steering wheel of my own life. An intensive period of rehabilitation followed in which I had to learn to walk again. This whole experience marked a major turning point in my life during which I became more interested in personal and spiritual development.
I have been working as a fully certified hypnotherapist since 2003 and find it both a privilege and a joy to be able to help guide people, both individually and as a couple, through challenging and difficult periods in their lives. I know what if feels like as I have had my own share of painful and difficult experiences.
I am also a fully certified mindfulness trainer and offer courses in mindfulness and self-compassion in both groups and on an individual basis in my own practice. This is not only something I love teaching it is also an integral part of my life. Furthermore, I also teach at the Dutch Academy for Psychodynamics and at the Advanced Institute for Therapeutic Studies.
Testimonials
Thank you so much for guiding me through my subconscious issues, I wouldn’t have been able to have done without you. The way you work is very special, no other therapist has been able to understand and help me in the way that you have helped me. I’m wishing you all the best in your life.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank you again for your help. My husband and I attended your therapy sessions over 3 years ago. We were trying to conceive & had been for 3 years previous, without success. Your hypnotherapy resulted in us successfully conceiving, only a month later! The day that I read the positive pregnancy test was one of the happiest moments of my life! That and of course the days of my sons’ births.I now have a second son who is nearly one year old. I will be forever grateful to you for helping us in this unique way. Bless you & I hope you are healthy & well. Thanks again!
My experiences in the sessions with Justin were intense and have created a big shift within myself. Justin tunes into what you are feeling and experiencing in a very intuitive way, he doesn’t follow strict guidelines. He genuinely listens, which is a quality not every therapist has. Thank you!
You brought me in a very deep state of relaxation which is still working through my body one day later. You really tuned in to how I was feeling. It felt extremely healing to give so much attention to the stress and tension in my body and also to myself. Thank you!
I promised I would update you with news over my achievements in life. You know I wanted to get out of my past job and find something more fulfilling. I had an important interview opportunity but just missed out… I then stopped the sessions with you because I felt stronger and more confident. I continued with my intention to succeed in that matter and I got it! Since 4 months already I have my dream job, with amazing conditions where I feel valued and considered. I couldn’t have dreamed of something better and I got it with your great help! In that respect I am very happy and I continue to try and apply everything I learned with you.
Your calming presence made me feel very much at ease. I didn’t expect to be able to open up in the way I did and even when I visited the pain inside I was surprised that I actually felt stronger as opposed to feeling weaker.
The sessions have had a huge impact on my life. I came to you struggling in the aftermath of a burnout feeling like my world had been turned upside down. I have been able to understand what was going on inside myself and how old behavioural patterns created the burnout. The work we did on my relationship with my parents has helped me find healthier and more effective ways of working, and most importantly, I have learned to take care of myself more. Thank you so much!
The atmosphere is relaxed and you work at a pace that’s really good for me. I always feel understood and you help me go deeper into my thoughts and help me reach feelings I am unable to feel without guidance at this point. I am also learning skills that I can also use by myself. The sessions have made a huge difference to my life, I am no longer bogged down with irrational fears. You have helped me to breathe through the fear and connect with the feelings underneath. This has helped me get a grip and feel like I’m getting back the control over my life.
Its been a while since our last session. Its 2016 and I can’t believe how my life has changed. The work that we did together is really showing its fruits. I feel alignment in a way that I have never felt it before. My life is really shifting in the direction of my dreams and some how the stream of LIFE that i was blocking subconsciously is flowing like never before. I now have an amazing partner, an amazing job and I have found a really nice apartment to live in and above all, I feel soooo GOOD! I’m a strong believer in hypnotherapy. It really improved my relationship with myself.
Justin was the first person I confided in after years of private pain regarding my inability to feel comfortable with my sexuality, even in loving relationships. After struggling to be emotionally and physically able to have sexual intercourse, it remained an over-intense experience which often left me in tears. I felt unable to get in touch with my sexual desires, to express them or really enjoy my own sexuality. Hypnotherapy helped me to get to connect to this part of myself through which I started to build up a new solidarity with myself and put my own needs first. With this growing sense of self-worth and ability to articulate my needs, I started to learn to change or walk away from self-destructive situations and relationships. This was a healing and transformational process.
Agenda
Please find below an overview of the (start) dates of the courses:
18 Apr Mindfulness course
26 Jun Mindfulness course