Dr. Geoffrey Carr, Ph.D.

I completed by Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology over 25 years ago and have been in private practice in Vancouver for over 20 years. I was a professor at the University of British Columbia and at Simon Fraser University before this, and have continued to supervise clinical psychology students. At this point all of my practice is psychotherapy/counselling, but in the past a major part of my work involved assessing families involved in the court system and providing expert witness testimony to the courts. I have served as an Oral Examiner with the College of Psychologists for many years, assisting to ensure that potential new psychologists meet the registration requirements. My orientation to working with people draws from several different theoretical approaches, is informed by current research, and emphasizes respect and compassion for my clients. I have been trained in a variety of approaches and techniques including person-centered, psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioural, emotionally-focused, gestalt, EMDR, and family systems therapy. My approach to working with people is flexible and tailored to the individual needs, beliefs, feelings, and desires of each person I work with. I provide people with plenty of feedback regarding my impressions such that each person is able to make informed decisions about their therapy. I emphasize compassion for the difficulties we face in life and at the same time support people to take responsibility for their own healing and growth. When people are willing, I recommend reading and other activities that can be done between sessions in order to maximize the benefits of therapy. Despite usually having a waiting list, I deliberately keep my practice small so that I can offer each client a high level of commitment and care.