Cynthia Curnan

From an early age, Dr. Cynthia Curnan was a seeker of love and guidance, traits that were absent from the family. The sci-fi classic Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein, introduced Cynthia to the Fair Witness. The Fair Witness (within) sees you accurately - strengths, weaknesses, potential - but does not judge you. The Fair Witness can be trusted to see the whole truth of you and still want the best for you.

The Fair Witness became the trait Cynthia most wanted to give to others and receive for herself. Service became her calling. In the 80's, Cynthia took a course on Inner Guidance from the Naravedan Institute, which included meditation practice, bringing her Fair Witness even closer.

Teaching Inner Guidance was deeply fulfilling and inspired Dr. Curnan to further her education, specifically psychology. During her courses she worked at a Residential treatment rehabilitation center for drug-addicted, gang-affiliated teens and a residential reparenting facility for parentless girls aged 12 to 18.

Licensed as a psychotherapist in 1992 she began her private practice while earning a PhD from California’s Ryokan College four years later. Dr. Curnan built a full practice as a Fair Witness.

In 1996, Cynthia had her first experience with the modality Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing or EMDR. Her EMDR therapist, a personal friend, was treating veterans with battle trauma. EMDR blew away everything that had come before. Inner Guidance remained her sacred principal and EMDR was the missing element for repairing her extensive childhood trauma and gifting her with brand new future of post-trauma possibilities.

A curriculum of EMDR replaces the missing elements, repairs damage and misunderstandings, restores health, bestows accurate self-knowledge, and makes peace with the past. Matching this with positive psychology resets the future.

Dr. Curnan realized she had been mistakenly trying to repair herself by becoming a overactive perfectionist. Her book The Care and Feeding of Perfectionists (Northstar Publications '98), was the result of in-depth self-study, plus study of all who came into view. Volunteers from her psychotherapy practice wanted to share their stories of trauma-induced self-misunderstanding mutated into self-destructive forms of perfectionism, eating disorders, addictions, anxiety, depressive and mood disorders.

Dr. Curnan is nurturing a thriving practice while supervising associates working toward their own California licensure and practicing EMDR at Serene Health Agency, in San Diego. She also serves Medi-Cal and Medicare patients at Serene.

Dr. Curnan is writing a follow up to The Care and Feeding called The Care and Healing of Perfectionists - with Dr. Candida Condor, an EMDR specialist, which weaves the newest experiences, modalities, and philosophies to guide recovering perfectionists into a future of healing.