Carey has always been passionate about working with people, especially in supporting and facilitating positive growth, development, and healing. She was trained in the paradigm of Positive Psychology, and adopts a holistic approach to Wellbeing, with a special awareness of the connections between mind, body, and spirit.

“Positive Psychology is the scientific study of human flourishing and what makes life most worth living. As an applied approach to optimal functioning, it approaches the study of human thoughts, emotions, and behaviours with a focus on wellbeing, strengths, positive states and traits, and positive experiences. It has also been defined as the study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals, communities and organisations to thrive.”

(Positive Psychology Institute, 2015).

For the past 15 years, Carey has worked as a Psychologist both in schools and in private practice with children, adolescents, adults, parents, and teachers. She spent the last seven years as Director of Psychology and Wellbeing at St Stithians Girls’ College in Sandton, Johannesburg, where she worked extensively with teenagers, parents, and staff. Carey was fundamental in developing a shift to the practice of Positive Psychology in the school setting, and in creating the beautiful ‘Acacia Place’ Wellbeing Centre. Carey and her family relocated to Cape Town in 2024 and she is excited about working in her new home city.

Carey adopts an integrative approach in her private practice; that is, she makes use of a variety of techniques that may best suit a particular client or situation. Overall she aims to work collaboratively with her clients in order to enhance their processes of coping, resilience, and healthier adjustment to life demands, develop wellbeing skills, and ultimately improve general sense of wellbeing.

Carey completed her Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree at WITS University, and a BA Honours Degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Johannesburg in 1998. After engaging in work experience and some travel overseas, she qualified as a teacher with the Higher Diploma in Education (HDipEd) at WITS, and began her career in Education. Whilst teaching, Carey completed her Masters Degree at the University of Pretoria, specialising in Educational Psychology (MEd Ed. Psych.), followed by a Psychology internship and completion of her Master’s Dissertation (‘An Adolescent’s Subjective Experiences of Mindfulness’, 2008). Carey’s dissertation was awarded ‘Best Evidence-Based Study’ by the University of Pretoria, and she was later invited to present her research at the First International Conference on Mindfulness in Rome, 2013.

Carey is happily married and is mother to a teenage son and daughter. She thoroughly enjoys her work, and when not engaged in her life’s purpose, she loves spending time in nature, travelling, writing, cooking, baking, and arranging fun events.