Be with what is. Move toward what's possible.
A therapeutic wellbeing practice for English-speaking individuals, parents and families navigating change. In Paris and online.
Many people come here carrying too much for too long: the pressure to hold everything together, to care for everyone else, to adapt, to succeed, to stay strong. Somewhere along the way, it's easy to lose touch with what you need.
This work makes room to slow down, make sense of what's happening, and move forward differently, with more clarity, more ease in your body, and more room for rest and joy.
Mind Move Thrive offers therapeutic, evidence-informed support for adults and families going through change, family pressure, life across cultures, or a time when everything feels like too much. Much of my work is about belonging and home: how to feel more grounded in yourself while life keeps moving.
I'm Shawn Carol, a New Yorker living in Paris. I trained as a social worker in the United States and hold a Master's in Social Work. For over 17 years I worked in London with children, adults, parents and families, in local government, charities and private practice. Much of that work was in adoption: supporting families around attachment, loss, identity and belonging, including transracial and cross-cultural adoption.
I'm also a 200-hour trauma-informed yoga teacher and a certified health coach, so the body is always part of how I work.
I've lived and worked in the United States, the UK, France and Germany. I know what it's like to build a life in a new place, find your way through unfamiliar systems, and raise a child across languages and traditions, often without family or old friends nearby. When people move abroad, most of the attention goes to schools, careers, paperwork and language. Much less goes to how people actually feel. That's the part I'm most interested in.
Life rarely moves in straight lines. It brings beginnings, endings, stumbling blocks and long stretches of in-between. In those moments, people usually need more than strategies. They need time to pause, notice and make sense of what's happening, with someone who respects the complexity of their lives.
I work with the whole person: mind, body, relationships, history, identity, and the place you're living in. Often the work is about gathering parts of yourself that feel scattered or pushed aside, so that life feels more connected and more possible again.
It draws on attachment-informed practice, ways of steadying difficult emotions, and body-based approaches, and it aims for wellbeing that fits real life.
Every way of working together starts with a free introductory call, so we can both see whether it's the right fit.
Individual sessions can help when life has pulled you away from what matters to you, whether through stress, uncertainty, a loss, or a change you didn't choose. Sometimes the work is about letting go of expectations from family, from culture, or from an older version of yourself. Often it holds grief and possibility at the same time.
It can be relevant at any stage of life: early adulthood, family and relationship changes, child-free or childless lives, midlife, retirement, and starting again.
People often come to work on:
For people in the middle of a move or a major change, sessions can follow ROOTED, a structured programme of 8–10 sessions.
Children don't come with instructions, and family life can be demanding and emotionally full. Often, what children are asking of us lies beneath their behaviour. Distress, withdrawal, anger or big reactions can be hard to read, even for loving, thoughtful parents.
Together we make sense of what may be happening underneath: in your child, in the family, and in you. That includes looking at how you were parented, how you want to parent, and what support you need to respond with more steadiness and self-compassion.
I have particular experience with adoptive families, including transracial and cross-cultural adoption. I also work with families in different structures and care arrangements, and families adjusting to a move, cross-cultural family life or third culture experience.
The work draws on child development, attachment-informed practice, Dyadic Developmental Practice, Theraplay and life story work.
For some people, the body is an easier place to start than words. These sessions draw on trauma-informed yoga, mindful movement, breathwork and health coaching, to help with stress and a steadier relationship with your body.
This may be for you if:
You don't need to be fit, or to have a plan or a goal. You just need some curiosity and a willingness to start where you are. The approach is gentle, strength-informed, non-diet and body-respectful.
I offer workshops, talks and advisory work for schools, organisations and community settings, designed to be practical and relevant to real life.
Topics include:
Available on request.
I also write Well, From Here, where I share photographs, stories and reflections on what well looks like in real life, and host its podcast.
The work is therapeutic in approach, but it isn't psychotherapy in the French legal sense. I'm not registered as a psychothérapeute or psychologue in France, and sessions don't replace medical or psychological care. If something calls for specialist support, I'll help you find it.
English-speaking adults, parents and families, in Paris and online.
Please get in touch for current fees.
Sessions aren't an emergency service. In France, call 3114 for the national suicide prevention line, or 15 or 112 in an emergency.
To book an introductory call, ask a question, or talk about working together, email me.