Meet Carien

Carien Lubbe is a registered psychologist in New Zealand with over 30 years of experience in psychology, psychotherapy, education, and counselling. Originally from South Africa, she began her career as a teacher before qualifying as an educational psychologist in 2000, mainly specialising in supporting individuals with emotional challenges. From 2001 to 2015 she was in part-time private practice whilst lecturing full-time.

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Carien has an extensive academic background, having earned her PhD in Educational Psychology in 2005 from the University of Pretoria. She spent over a decade in academia, initially as a lecturer and later as an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Pretoria. In 2015, she accepted a full professorship at the University of South Africa. Throughout her academic career, Carien played a vital role in training future psychologists and educators, supervising Master’s and PhD students, and contributing to research in psychology. She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, authored book chapters, and co-edited academic publications. She also served as a reviewer for scholarly journals and examined postgraduate dissertations and theses. Carien held leadership roles within the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), serving as Chair of the Sexuality and Gender Division. Her contributions to research earned her national recognition as a rated researcher.

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She and her whanau emigrated to New Zealand in 2016, accepting a role as a psychologist for the Ministry of Education. Since 2020, she has focused her attention on providing therapeutic services to individuals in her full-time private practice, providing compassionate, holistic support to individuals navigating stress, trauma, and life transitions.

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Carien takes an integrative approach to emotional well-being, and specialises in helping individuals build emotional resilience through nervous system regulation and expressive therapies. Beyond individual therapy, Carien facilitates online psychoeducational programs designed to support immigrants in their emotional well-being. 

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Carien values lifelong learning and has completed additional training in Somatic Experiencing, Somatic Regulation and Resilience, Brainworking Recursive Therapy (BWRT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Solution-Focused Therapy, and so forth.

Outside of her professional work, Carien enjoys yoga, beach and bush walks, reading, and gardening. She also volunteers within her local community at one of her son’s football clubs.