About Carien Brown

I am a counselling psychologist in private practice based in George, South Africa. I hold a Master of Arts degree (cum laude) in counselling psychology from the University of Stellenbosch and have been in private practice since 2000. I’ve been happily married for nearly thirty years, have three young adult children and recently became a grandmother. I thoroughly enjoy and embrace all these roles in life.

My fields of interest have evolved over the years along with my own development and as my practice grew.  My interest in women’s mental health was sparked by my Master’s thesis on the perceptions and enactment of mothering. Becoming a mother myself, my interest expanded to children. I enjoy the creative, fun, and practical ways in which play therapy can equip children with life skills. I also enjoy offering parental guidance in order to empower caregivers. We live very fast-paced lifestyles in a technological and digital era which can make parenting extremely challenging and pressured.

My experience includes facilitating support groups, offering individual and group therapy services, working in multi-disciplinary teams, administering specialised psychometric test batteries and extensive report writing. After deep contemplation and careful consideration during 2022, I decided to shift my focus and commit myself to a therapy-only practice for the remainder of my career as psychologist.  This enables me to spend time on practice-related creative pursuits. I am currently dreaming of writing a book and developing therapeutic games to facilitate conversations, thinking, and personal growth as a form of self-therapy.

In my free time I enjoy cooking, reading, writing, hiking, knitting and recently also started oil painting as a form of creative expression. These pursuits fill my own cup from which I can pour the dedication and love needed into my practice again. It is a healthy and sustainable process that took me years to master.