Shawna Velia Carboni

Shawna Velia Carboni passed away unexpectedly on December 28, 2024. Shawna was a true humanitarian and a gifted therapist. She loved people and loved life. She embodied the spirit of living each moment to its fullest. 

Professionally, Shawna was a Clinical Social Worker and held multiple graduate degrees. During the early part of her career and after she finished her first Master's degree at New York University, Shawna worked with adult refugees teaching English as a second language in New York City. Inspired by the people she met who had started a new life in a foreign land, she completed a Master's degree in Clinical Social Work at Boston College and worked as an intern at McLean Hospital, a private psychiatric hospital affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. As a therapist, she "fervently believed in each individual's capacity for personal growth and change." She provided innovative therapy with Brainspotting, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and specialized in Bioenergetic Analysis. She studied these techniques with several experts in the field and served as a leader in a number of different professional organizations throughout her career. In addition to being a wonderful listener and having so much compassion and empathy for others, she thought about things in the "big picture" and what she could do to better help patients in her care. She led many to find a positive outlook even when the outcome seemed dismal. She was a person of great integrity and was a pillar of strength for her patients, colleagues, friends and family. 

As a child, Shawna spent many years as a young girl growing up in Japan then later moved to the tri-state area of New York with her parents. Her father, William Carboni, was a violist with the New York Philharmonic, a luthier and was a member of the famed NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. Her mother, Velia, was a surgical nurse and a World War II United States Army Veteran. Shawna’s parents always encouraged her to be intellectually curious. As a child, Shawna studied music and even had a pet horse as a budding equestrian. As an adult she enjoyed intellectual conversations about art, science, music - and so many other topics. Throughout her life she traveled to many countries and was influenced by many different cultures. She was a beautiful artist, enjoyed cooking, and deeply appreciated the beauty of a winter's walk in the snow.

Shawna was a truly special person to all who knew her and will be sorely missed by her beloved friends and family.