Professional Experience

Don Carter MSW, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with three decades of clinical experience. Don's specialties are Addictions, Mood Disorders, Sexual, Physical, and Emotional Abuse, Ritual Abuse,  PTSD, and Complex PTSD. Don is skilled with  EMDR, Clinical Hypnosis,  Ego-State Therapy, Addiction Therapy, and other integrative psychotherapy approaches.

Angie Carter CRADC, S.A.P. is a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor and is certified by the Dept. of Transportation to provide DOT Evaluations. She also has decades of experience. Her specialties are the assessment, treatment and referral of addictions, codependency, Adult-Child Syndrome, and family members who have been affected by someone else's substance abuse.

What Can Expect From Your 
Golden Key Subscription

  • 1

    Professional Care, Personalized to Fit You

    Don and Angie will assess your situation, help identify your goals, and work with you to develop a plan tailor-made for your unique circumstances.

  • 2

    Flexible Scheduling and Appointments

    Our client portal offers a calendar program designed to be as flexible as your schedule. Make changes 24/7 on the fly. (schedule, cancel, reschedule)

  • 3

    State of the Art Therapy and Resources

    As professional helpers, we are never done learning! We strive to stay on the cutting edge of the newest advances in therapy and resources. 

  • 4

    Serenity Cafe Lifetime Membership

    As our online or in-office clients, your success is our success! So you get every tool we have to offer, including our Serenity Cafe Lifetime Membership. 

  • 5

    Roll-Over Session Subscription Plans

    Subscribe for two sessions or four sessions a month. If you don't use them, they roll over to the next month. Suspend or reactivate your subscription as desired.

  • 6

    Individual, Couples & Group Sessions

    Use your sessions to supplement your work on any of the courses, setup couples coaching or counseling, or join a small group session focusing on your topic. 

Golden Key Walk-Through Video

Your Golden Key Toolbox

Golden Key clients get professional coaching or counseling sessions, PLUS all of the tools included in our Serenity Cafe Lifetime Membership, PLUS all Serenity Cafe Academy courses, Plus the Iceberg Series of books, Plus the Mobile App.

Personal & Professional

Don and Angie bring a personal touch to their many years of professional experience providing counseling and coaching sessions to clients and members. 

One-on-One Sessions

The vast majority of services Don and Angie provide are Individual counseling or coaching sessions. The therapeutic relationship is the most powerful force for change!

Small Groups Online

Necessity is the mother of all invention! Many services have now gone online. We offer small groups for Addiction, Codependency, and Adult-Child Syndrome & more!

Member Only Chat

Serenity Cafe Academy is all new including an improved community platform for members only. Every course has it's own chat program for members of that course!

Access on Any Device

Serenity Cafe Academy is now living on a very fast, user-friendly web-based platform that also has a native mobile app available for Apple & Android devices. 

Secure Client Portal

Members and clients have the ability to schedule, reschedule, and cancel appointments through our secure client portal. Also view and pay invoices, fill out paperwork, etc.

Thawing Abandonment

Thawing Childhood Abandonment Issues online course mimics the developmental processes of childhood. There is a strong focus on experiencing, integrating, and releasing the wounds of the past.

Thawing Addiction

Addiction comes in many forms, each of them having their own idiosyncrasies. Recovery from them is generally the same process as well, as evidenced by the more than 200 twelve-step programs.

Thawing Codependency

Thawing Adult/Child Syndrome is geared toward surfacing the underlying patterns of behavior and limiting beliefs that keep us in addictive cycles of codependency and toxic relationships.

Thaw Frozen Feelings

If you experience abandonment issues, emotional flooding, toxic shame, a pattern of dysfunctional relationships, or you help people who do, THAW - Freedom from Frozen Feelings is a must-have. 

Toxic Relationships

Thawing Toxic Relationships is a book about healing and co-creating healthy, functional relationships for those who grew up in a dysfunctional or less-than nuturing family

Books & EBooks

In long -term recovery himself, Don is dedicated to helping others find a way out too. The Iceberg Model in his bestselling "Thawing the Iceberg Series" was a product of the 30+ years that followed. 

Lifetime Membership

Get everything in the Academy now and in the future! Any new memberships, new courses, audios, and videos. Plus, get any or all of  printed versions of the books. (Free Shipping in N. America)

Audio & Video Library

Over the years, we have created and accumulated many audios and videos designed to tap into the multitude of benefits in relaxation, meditation, affirmation, and visualization. You get them all.

Premium Oasis

The Premium Edition of the Oasis @ Serenity Cafe now has a collection of more than 250 audios, videos, and downloads.Plus you get all that we create and add to the Oasis in the future.

Meditation Music

Sessions make use of meditation music, nature sounds such as babbling brooks, birds, buzzing bees, and sounds of nature to create wide-open spaces for relaxing away tension and stress.

Brainwave Meditations

Brainwave entrainment audios use monoaural, isochronic, or binaural beats to encourage and "train" the brain to produce optimal levels of brainwave activity for various purposes. (Best with Headphones)

Guided Meditations

Hypnotic and guided meditations for mindfulness, relaxation, treatment of stress-related issues, and personal growth. Not to mention the power of visualization and affirmation. 

Recovery Education

Don and Angie know that 70% of any good recovery program consists of education about recovery from addiction, codependency, Adult-Child Syndrome and more.

Serenity Cafe 
Recovery Center

Serenity Cafe Recovery Center is our online resource for information and education about how to develop a recover program for addiction, Codependency, and Adult-Child Syndrome. Don and Angie are also in personal recovery.

Family Education

Normal family problem solving does not work with addiction. What works is information, education, and the 3 C’s ~ You didn’t cause it, you cannot control it, and you cannot cure it!

Integrative Journaling

Don uses his Integrative Journaling process to teach and develop self-soothing and emotional regulation skills in therapy with clients, as well as online courses such as thawing childhood abandonment issues.

Changing Core Beliefs

Every therapist knows that perception-is-reality. This course helps to identify and loosen core belief systems. Replace limiting core beliefs and mental filters with more empowering ones.

Healing Depression

This is an extensive 21-lesson course that teaches evidenced-based information and skills to help overcome depression. (These courses are not a replacement for professional help.) 

Hypnotic Meditations

Hypnotic meditations combining audio and videos with various colors, shapes, patterns, movement and affirmation can be very powerful tools for reducing the damage from chronic stress.

Meditation Downloads

Downloads are available, but with increasing Internet speeds coupled with the Serenity Cafe Academy on a very powerful server, streaming from any device is the best option in our opinion.

Mind-Body Techniques

Mind-and-body collections coming soon include EMDR audios, Image Transformation Therapy (ImTT), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), and Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) 

Reviews & Client Testimonials 

Online Website Review
Hi Don, I can’t say enough how absolutely incredible the resources & all the work that you have done to make them easily available means to me personally! Thank you for the great site and the resources you provide to help others. You are a huge blessing in so many lives!!!  
Chuck - In Office Client
I have known Don & Angie for years. They are both easy to talk to and helpful in those times when you need to get a fresh perspective on personal issues. I have recommended both of them to several friends and would not hesitate to do so again.
Online Client - Book Review
Wow! Your new book THAW – Freedom from Frozen Feelings is great. It is your best work so far. The first two paragraphs really got me (and several others) right into the book – wanting to read more.

Golden Key Counseling & Coaching Program

Sign up for the Serenity Cafe Academy. It's free to register and there are some free courses so you can get a feel for how it works. Explore the various offers and select from a package of courses, or complete one at a time.