Carson Kivari
Founder & Clinical Director
EMDR, EFCT & AEDP Trained
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
, C.S. Lewis
Specialties
- God, Faith and Spirituality
- Military and Service Trauma
- Men's Work
- Psychedelic Integration
- Attachment Trauma & PTSD
- Clinical Supervision
Approaches
- Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy
- EMDR
- Internal Family Systems
- Group Therapy (Veterans, Police & First Responders)
- Trauma Informed Therapy
Formal Trainings
- AEDP
- EFCT
- EMDR
- TE
- Life Review
- EFT
Qualifications
- MA Counselling Psychology (Distinction), UBC
- BA Psych (Honours), UBCO
Credentials and Licensing
- Registered Clinical Counsellor 11827 of the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors
A vague sense that the way they’ve been living isn’t working. That even when things look fine on the surface, something underneath feels off. Anxiety, disconnection, restlessness, a lack of meaning that no amount of productivity, comfort, or distraction seems to resolve.
My view is that this is not random. The conclusion I’ve come to is that not some, but all of our suffering stems from misunderstanding who and what we are, and why we exist. At its core, this is a spiritual problem.
I have come to experience that while we are psychological humans with all our thoughts and feelings (lots…), this is secondary to our core identity as beings part of something bigger, who have a clear blueprint and design. I say this not in an empty social media stand in your truth sense, I am sick of all that, but as a deep knowing that is suppressed, ignored and even mocked in ordinary society.
And how is that playing out?
Materialism, human objectification, comfort obsession, and endless distraction replace depth with stimulation and meaning with entertainment. The hunger for God, for truth, for something real, is dismissed or pathologized. Over time, the body and mind protest. You can’t replace a car’s gasoline with Koolaid.
Meanwhile, we try to fix symptoms with the same broken instruments that made us unwell in the first place. Our limited and injured ideas of what God even is make us think of cold, condemning religious institutions and we instead mistake our wandering hunger for freedom, even though something inside screams for meaning.
Working with me is not about reducing symptoms so you can return to that system with slightly less anxiety. It is about stepping outside of it.
This work is oriented toward who you actually are beneath everything you’ve been taught to identify with. Toward your highest nature. Toward alignment with something real, something true, something that sustains you even in the darkest of storms.
This means letting go of goals, identities, and attachments that may have organized your life but are ultimately hollow. It means learning that feelings of shame, terror and emptiness are not spiritual ones, but signals of distraction that have nothing to do with who are what you are.
It makes taking the risk that true growth may ruin your life in favour of you discovering one so much better than the one you designed from a broken childhood. So much better than you will want to share how you got there with everyone you meet.
If you feel called toward truth, towards a true encounter with the mystery of God, and toward becoming who you were meant to be, then we will get along great.
When you’re ready for that level of change, reach out.
Carson Kivari: Spiritually Grounded Trauma Counselling
Carson Kivari is the Founder and Clinical Director of Thrive Downtown and a Registered Clinical Counsellor who sees much of human suffering as rooted in a deeper question: who we are, and why we exist. This guide explains the training and approaches behind Carson’s work, the people Carson focuses on, and how to begin if this kind of change is what you are looking for.
On this page
“Made for Another World”: The Question Behind the Symptoms
The C.S. Lewis quote on this page points to a longing that nothing in ordinary life fully satisfies. Carson’s bio describes people who arrive with a vague sense that something is off: anxiety, restlessness, disconnection, or a lack of meaning that productivity and comfort cannot fix. Rather than treating those signals as random malfunctions, Carson sees them as meaningful, and ultimately spiritual.
That shapes the goal of the work. As the page puts it, counselling with Carson is not about reducing symptoms so you can return to the same way of living with slightly less anxiety. It is oriented toward who you are beneath what you have been taught to identify with, and toward alignment with something real and sustaining.
This approach may resonate if you
- Feel a hunger for truth, meaning or God that everyday life does not address
- Have achieved much of what you were told would make you happy, yet still feel empty
- Carry hurt from cold or condemning religious experiences but have not lost the longing underneath
- Sense that your anxiety or restlessness is pointing to something deeper
- Are ready to question goals and identities that no longer feel true
Training and Credentials of Carson Kivari
Carson brings extensive formal training to this spiritually oriented work, grounding it in established, evidence-informed trauma therapies.
- Registered Clinical Counsellor #11827 with the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors
- MA Counselling Psychology (Distinction), University of British Columbia
- BA Psychology (Honours), UBC Okanagan
- Formal trainings listed on this page: AEDP, EFCT, EMDR, TE, Life Review and EFT
- Clinical supervision, supporting other counsellors in their clinical work
Life review and meaning
Life Review, one of Carson’s listed trainings, draws on work first described by psychiatrist Robert Butler. It involves reflecting on the arc of your life story, revisiting key chapters, regrets and turning points, and looking for the meaning that ties them together. It fits naturally with Carson’s focus on purpose and on seeing your life in the light of something larger.
As Founder and Clinical Director, Carson also helps shape the culture of Thrive, where therapists practise together and support each other as a group.
EMDR Therapy with Carson Kivari
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, was developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro. It helps the brain reprocess distressing memories that seem stuck, so they can be remembered without the same overwhelming charge. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, tapping or tones, while you briefly focus on aspects of a memory. The World Health Organization has recognized EMDR as one of the recommended therapies for post-traumatic stress in adults.
The eight phases of EMDR
- History and planning: understanding your story and choosing targets together.
- Preparation: building trust and calming resources before any memory work.
- Assessment: identifying the image, belief, emotion and body sensation linked to a memory.
- Desensitization: sets of bilateral stimulation while the memory is processed.
- Installation: strengthening a more adaptive belief, such as “I survived” or “I am enough”.
- Body scan: checking for any remaining tension or disturbance.
- Closure: returning to a settled state at the end of each session.
- Re-evaluation: reviewing progress and deciding what comes next.
Learn more about EMDR therapy at Thrive, or visit EMDR Canada for background on the method.
Healing Attachment Trauma and PTSD with AEDP and IFS
Attachment trauma and PTSD are among Carson’s specialties. Attachment trauma often begins in childhood, when the people meant to protect us were absent, frightening or inconsistent. The page speaks to this directly, describing lives designed around a broken childhood and the possibility of discovering something far better.
AEDP: transformation through a secure relationship
Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy treats the therapy relationship as a place where old attachment wounds can finally meet a different response. Instead of facing overwhelming feelings alone, you process them with an engaged, emotionally present counsellor. AEDP also pays close attention to the positive feelings that arise as healing happens, such as relief, pride or a sense of truth, and helps you stay with them long enough for them to change you.
Internal Family Systems: unburdening what you carry
Internal Family Systems suggests that painful experiences leave “burdens” on younger parts of us, like beliefs that we are worthless or that the world is unsafe. Protective parts then organize life around keeping those burdens hidden. IFS helps you approach these parts with compassion, understand their roles, and release burdens that were never truly yours to carry.
Emotionally focused training
Carson’s formal trainings also include EFT and EFCT, emotionally focused approaches that view emotion as central to healing and, in the couples model, to secure bonds between partners. These trainings inform how Carson works with attachment, longing and fear in close relationships.
Military, Service and First Responder Trauma
Carson Kivari specializes in military and service trauma and lists group therapy for veterans, police and first responders among approaches. People in these roles often face repeated exposure to danger, death and moral complexity, while working in cultures that can discourage showing strain.
Common experiences in service-related trauma
- Operational stress injuries: a Canadian term for persistent psychological difficulties resulting from service duties, including PTSD, anxiety and depression.
- Moral injury: the deep distress that can follow doing, witnessing or failing to prevent acts that violate your moral beliefs.
- Hypervigilance: a nervous system that stays on alert long after the shift or deployment ends.
- Isolation: feeling that civilians, or even family, cannot understand what you have seen.
Why group therapy can help
Sitting with others who have walked a similar road can break isolation in a way individual work cannot. Groups offer shared language, mutual respect and the relief of not having to explain everything. Learn about Thrive’s support for first responders and high stress occupations, and see WorkSafeBC for information on workplace mental health claims in BC. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, or call 911 in an emergency.
Men’s Work, Faith and Spirituality
Men’s work
Men’s work is a listed specialty. Many men carry pressure to perform, provide and stay strong while having few places to be honest about fear, grief or emptiness. Carson’s emphasis on purpose, truth and becoming who you were meant to be can offer men a direct, meaningful frame for change.
Men’s work with Carson might explore questions such as what kind of man you want to be, what you are truly responsible for, where you have been numbing or distracting yourself, and how to build friendships and relationships that can hold real honesty. The aim is strength that includes vulnerability, not strength that depends on hiding it.
God, faith and spirituality
For Carson, questions of God and faith are not side topics. They are central. Sessions can make room for longing, doubt, anger at religious institutions, and the search for a real encounter with the mystery of God, as the page describes. If you feel called toward that kind of exploration, this is a place where it is taken seriously rather than dismissed or pathologized.
Psychedelic Integration
Psychedelic integration is one of Carson’s specialties. At Thrive, psychedelic-related support focuses on preparation and integration: helping people understand, ground and apply what arises from these experiences. Thrive does not supply or administer illegal substances. The legal status of psychedelics in Canada is evolving, so always follow Canadian law and medical guidance. Meet Thrive’s psychedelic integration team to learn more.
What This Work Can Ask of You
Carson is candid on this page that this is not a light-touch approach. It is designed for people who want deep change, and it may challenge assumptions you have lived by for years.
- Questioning hollow foundations: letting go of goals, identities and attachments that organized your life but no longer ring true.
- Reinterpreting pain: learning to see shame, terror and emptiness as signals pointing you back toward what matters, rather than as the truth about who you are.
- Taking real risks: allowing growth to change the shape of your life, trusting that what you discover may be better than the life you designed from old wounds.
- Staying with the mystery: being willing to encounter questions of God and meaning that do not have quick answers.
This kind of work unfolds with care and pacing, especially where trauma is involved. Stability and safety come first, and depth follows when you are ready.
Starting Counselling with Carson Kivari at Thrive
- Free 15 minute consult: book a consult and ask for Carson, or share what you are looking for through the contact form.
- First session: you explore what feels off, what you long for, and whether this approach fits.
- Collaborative plan: together you decide how EMDR, AEDP, IFS or spiritual exploration will shape the work.
- Where you meet: Thrive offers sessions in person at 470 Granville St. in downtown Vancouver and online by secure video. Ask at your consult which options Carson currently offers.
The Thrive Formula in Carson’s work
- Regulate: building safety and stability before trauma processing.
- Reveal: using EMDR, AEDP and IFS to uncover how you adapted to trauma and emptiness.
- Reclaim: living from your highest nature, aligned with what is real and true for you.
Fees vary by service, and current rates are shown when booking or on the contact page. Many extended health plans reimburse counselling with a Registered Clinical Counsellor, so check your plan. You can also browse the Thrive team.
Carson Kivari FAQ
Do I have to be religious to work with Carson Kivari?
Carson’s page is openly oriented toward God, truth and spiritual meaning. You do not need settled beliefs, but this work is likely to suit people who feel drawn to exploring those questions.
Is EMDR safe for complex trauma?
EMDR includes a preparation phase to build stability first. For complex trauma, preparation may take longer, and pacing is decided together.
Does Carson work with veterans and first responders?
Yes. Military and service trauma is a listed specialty, along with group therapy for veterans, police and first responders.
Does Carson offer clinical supervision?
Yes. Clinical supervision is listed as a specialty on this page. Counsellors seeking supervision can reach out through the contact page.
Is Carson a registered counsellor?
Yes. Carson is a Registered Clinical Counsellor, #11827 with the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors.
Can Carson help me integrate a psychedelic experience?
Psychedelic integration is a listed specialty. Thrive provides preparation and integration support only, never substances.
What if I am not ready for that level of change?
That is okay. Thrive’s team includes many counsellors with different styles and focuses, and a free consult can help match you with someone who fits where you are right now.
When You Are Ready, Reach Out to Carson Kivari
If you feel called toward truth and toward becoming who you were meant to be, this may be your next step. You make sense, you are not broken, and connection heals. Book your free 15 minute consult to connect with Carson Kivari, or call Thrive at 604-227-0297.
