This is a LIVE replay of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, January 25th, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat. Today's Guest is Corinne Coppola, Mental Health Coach, IFS Practitioner, Trauma Recovery Specialist and Founder of R.E.S.T Retreats. Lorilee Binstock 00:01:06 Welcome. I'm Lorilee Binstock and this is A Trauma Survivor Thriver’s Podcast Thank you so much for joining me live on a Fireside chat you can be a part of the conference station as my virtual audience. I am your host, Lorilee Binstock. Everyone has an opportunity to ask me or our guest questions by requesting to hop on stage or sending a message in the chat box I will try to get to you as soon as I can, but I do ask everybody be respectful. Today's guest is Current Cop, mental health coach, iss practitioner trauma recovery specialist, and founder of rest retreats current, thank you so much for joining me today. Corinne Coppola 00:02:05 You're welcome, Marlene. My pleasure, and it's just to let you know the pronunciation is Cor. Lorilee Binstock 00:02:11 Cup paula. Thank you so much for for correcting me because I probably would call you in the whole time. So thank you so much. Corinne Coppola 00:02:19 No problem. No problem. Lorilee Binstock 00:02:23 Well, first of all, I wanna talk about your journey to get you to where you are now. Really, what made you want to work as a mental health coach. Corinne Coppola 00:02:32 It's a really good question. I never thought I wind up here for sure. When I was a little girl, I told my parents that I wanted to be counselor, you know, back then, it was called count we're not therapist and they said, well, you're not gonna earn any money doing Lorilee Binstock 00:02:50 Mhmm Corinne Coppola 00:02:52 you better go into business. So that's what I did at the time. And then I found my way is in the business world for a number of years worth for profit for profit, have my masters and organization development, and then just radio and Mindfulness as a practice to help ground me, keep me steady. I had three young the children at the time And I thought, wow, This is really a way that I can help service people and help them because it helped those practice this really helped me so much. And then I started teaching, and then I worked for a long profit bringing wine centers to this and I started working on retreats and things just... And then I was brought to a cactus Lorilee Binstock 00:03:42 Yeah. Corinne Coppola 00:03:43 called Internal family systems. And I thought, wow, This is really phenomenal. And powerful for me and my own healing journey and I thought I really wanna be able to do this with people. So that they can also rewrite their past. And that's how I got to where I am. That being said, there's also, you know, some traumas around my childhood and my adult wife that came to play into being motivated to heal. You know? And that how now I am working with people and one on one of small groups and leading retreats and I could not the more alignment and more grateful and happy. Itself Lorilee Binstock 00:04:31 That's so wonderful. You know, it's it's interesting. You... You know, you were working in a traditional setting even though you were were you know, empowered by mindfulness But was it the trauma that actually had you move to towards, you know, being the founder of these retreats and and Corinne Coppola 00:04:58 Mhmm. Mhmm. Lorilee Binstock 00:04:58 all of this and even trauma recovery I know that you are specialist with was there was there something that clicked where you said. This is what... I wanna go this route. To help people recover from trauma. Corinne Coppola 00:05:11 Yeah. That is such a great question, Laura. We'll we piecing it together by your great questions. So, yes, the answer is yes. Well, when I first started, taking yoga. I belong to a gym, and one of my girlfriends just like, oh, you've gotta a you gotta come to this eight am Sunday class and like, No. That is my hurting to down. No. No. That won't be happening. And the The other side of that, actually, when I began my younger jury, my youngest... My oldest daughter was only about two years old, Eighteen months to two years and I was working part time finishing my masters part time And one of my friends had said you really gotta try yoga the class like, okay. What else? And with for those are you familiar with yoga, Is the final relaxation pose. And when I went into Last, I felt like I was home. Lorilee Binstock 00:06:11 Mm-mm Corinne Coppola 00:06:13 I was like, wow. This is pretty powerful. But then I had my second child, and I had difficult birth. So, like, I wasn't, you know, it it wasn't then what it is now because he's twenty two. My daughter is twenty four. And I have another son. Who's twenty, you know, twenty years ago, there wasn't the knowledge that prenatal yoga was okay for women who had complications. So then fast forward to my youngest being three And my girlfriend inviting me to this class at the gym and I... And she was a phenomenal instructor finally, I went she's a phenomenal director, and I thought Okay. I'm gonna get back to yoga in a serious way. So found studio that was close to my house and that I had originally gone to years before. And started to do additional classes there. And while there? I was volunteering at the front dash and there was a buck by a woman by the name of maya. And it was about how she healed herself. Lorilee Binstock 00:07:22 Mhmm. Corinne Coppola 00:07:23 From like stage for cancer through our you practices that were in her background, that she had been a go go go, you know, fashion designer in New york and it was called a path of practice. And I was just fascinated by that, and Monday, I was in a group setting. I was in a trauma recovery group. Myself is a participant for sexual abuse. I had experienced from a close family member and I hadn't had these memories until I was forty. I am now fifty six. So I thought to myself when I was in that group, I it just came to me. Like. Oh, This is how yoga has been so healing for me. I have to bring these practices to women and children. You know? And from there, it was Gave Emerson and Best I think I was in their second cohost of a for trauma for I mean you excuse me yoga for trauma. And my journey sort of just started to unravel from there. Started to... I I went myself on a retreat for women survivors of sexual violence, and then they invited me back the next year to co. So I co that retreat for ten years, and it was so powerful for me to see the transformation that could happen in two and a half days. And Lorilee Binstock 00:09:05 Mm-mm Corinne Coppola 00:09:06 by being in nature by being in play. We weren't talking about our stories. Right? We were in our bodies. There was movement, light yoga, drama, some meditation, you know, just really back to being a kid. And so then in my in my jury, I unfortunately, when my daughter was fourteen, so this is about this was ten years ago, there is a suicide cluster at high school. And I thought to myself, I can't just sit on the sidelines lines with us and knowing how these practices. We select practices can really hold I was able to partner with a organization that was just blossom. This is twenty thirteen, and you know, I said to them, we have to bring these practices to this schools in Northern Virginia, which is where I was living at the time. And it's sort of came from that. I worked with them for four years. We got the school board involved. We had a lot of high schools, you know, hundreds and then into the thousands of young people and adults you know, the teachers in the parents and from there started to do started to co and manage retreats for teens, and that also adults and now here I am. So Yeah. It's just sort of, like, following the next best thing. Right? The next best that, like, I did not have like, the super plan vision. And at the same time, like, I didn't have a pass, but I had a vision. Lorilee Binstock 00:10:53 Mhmm. Corinne Coppola 00:10:56 Okay. So, like, I knew nine, ten years ago when I was in close to read that, I wanna leave a retreat back here in Costa Rica, And this Marx, I'm leading her retreat my first retreat and close rica gut. So I would really you know, for me, it's just been following the bread. You know? And with the intention to serve, the intention to serve, like, how can I use my guess? To serve. And in the same time, you know, make a living. Sound That's it's a long answer to your shared question. Lorilee Binstock 00:11:35 No. I love it. Thank you so much. I love what you're talking about when when you talk about your your experience and this retreat would it was just play. It was your in your body, you want in your head, Is that what your rest retreats are, could you talk a little bit about that? I... It's a it's an acronym. Right? Right. Corinne Coppola 00:11:57 Right. Right. It's an acronym. So the r is for relaxed. Lorilee Binstock 00:12:04 Yeah Corinne Coppola 00:12:03 The x is for... The excuse me. They e is for examine. The s more surrender. And the t stands for transformation. So these retreats that I guide people on are different than the survival retreats that I did. There are elements. In this retreat. So and I also give one on one Vip retreats out in Shank critique Virginia where I live part time on the eastern shore. And so the rest will be in the first two days, you know, as people sort of enter we're doing a relaxation, integration, arri
