Katherine Cosimano of The Blue Blanket: Empowering Mind Wellness and Transforming Mental Health Care
Written by Rosa Linda Fallon
As a licensed clinical social worker with a tender-hearted, compassionate soul, Katherine Cosimano could no longer bear witness to all the suffering and losses in the world without doing everything in her power to help. “It hurt me to know the level of pain and trauma people were experiencing. I was committed to spreading love and light and healing in today’s dark and frightening world,” says Katherine. For the past twenty years, she has been working with clients on a therapeutic level in a variety of settings.
In response to the increasing need for services and an ineffective mental health system, she founded The Blue Blanket, Inc., an organization with the goal of disrupting the current mental health care industry by making treatment accessible, welcoming, effective, and scalable to all. Everyone deals with stress, anxiety, fatigue, fear, depression or feeling overwhelmed, but it’s how one deals with their troubles that makes the difference. “Too many people were falling through the cracks,” she says. “The Blue Blanket is more than a business, it’s a movement.”
The Blue Blanket takes its name from the origins and purpose of a blanket. Katherine says, “It is a universal extension of humanity that overcomes the logistical challenges of a human hug and provides physical warmth and protection – an expression of human caring.” There is also symbolism found in the color blue. “Our blanket is blue because this color represents intuition, sensitivity, comfort, stability and confidence, among other things. These are all values that The Blue Blanket embraces wholeheartedly,” she explains. “Also, a blanket’s strength comes from the unity and interweaving of many thousands of threads, each stronger when brought together, each greater than the sum of its parts. The Blue Blanket symbolizes the coming together of humanity to comfort, nurture, and heal others in need.” She continues, “It is a perfect metaphor for mending and weaving together the fragmented shreds of our mental health care system into a strong, cohesive blanket that can deliver best practice mental wellness treatment effectively and efficiently, and the beauty of bringing hurting people together into groups where they find mutual support, validity and true connection.”
Women attending The Blue Blanket's retreats will leave equipped with the tools needed to transform themselves, and facilitate personal growth and long-lasting healing. These retreats, which take place in a space of acceptance, support, and emotional safety, offer opportunities to forge lifelong sisterhoods. “Through our proven approach of using multi-modal treatment, including traditional psychotherapeutic techniques, commitment and acceptance theory, principles of neuroscience, yoga, mindfulness, sound healing, forest bathing, and art therapy, participants learn critical skills and strategies to reshape their thinking and behavior.”
“Mind wellness is the essential first step to living out one’s greatest potential,” Katherine explains. “By transitioning the terminology for our contemporary mental health challenges from one of “mental illness” (with all of its stigmatizing connotations) to “mind wellness”, we are disrupting the current landscape of mental health care. The Blue Blanket provides a welcoming and inclusive path for all people to achieve their full potential through empowering mind wellness.” Katherine goes on to describe how emotional healing is such an integral part of women’s health and wellness. “Adjustments in thinking, feeling and behaving lead to the adoption of more adaptive coping skills that bring self-respect,” she says. “They lead to healthier relationships, both personally and professionally, to the motivation and dedication to pursue and remain on a values-driven path towards self-actualization, and to implementing sustainable self-care practices.”
Katherine sees the work of The Blue Blanket impacting women and their families for generations to come. She is determined to spread the message of healing, and help other women conquer just as she has. In addition to the expanded programs that will be offered in the future, the sustained changes in outlook and awareness trickle down to everyone with whom participants come into contact. “Our participants serve as models to other women, their children, grandchildren, friends and coworkers with the self-confidence and self-worth they carry into the world,” she says.
With a deeply caring nature like Katherine’s comes the necessity for self-care and rest. In her spare time, Katherine enjoys creating art and reading. She also loves to spend time with family and friends, to be silly, and to laugh. She is a mother of two sons, who are both grown and independent. She shares that as they were growing up, she exposed them to “best practices in positive parenting and her absolute unconditional love.”
As for what’s next, Katherine envisions the full implementation of The Blue Blanket’s transformational retreats, online and self-directed courses, and digital communications. She hopes to see a world one day where mental health care is elevated to the same level of urgency and importance as physical health, and where everyone has the chance to become whole again.
For more information on The Blue Blanket, visit www.theblueblanket.org
