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Sandra Parker Ph.D.

About

Sandra Parker, Ph.D., is a registered psychologist in Vancouver and the author of Embracing Unrest: Harness Vulnerability to Tame Anxiety and Spark Growth. Over the past 30 years, she has helped people turn toward their inner experience with compassion. She invites people to understand unrest as a call to come home to the body in moments of vulnerability, and to resolve anxiety, depression, and loss of intimacy. Her practice explores ideas from developmental psychology, neurobiology, psychodynamic therapy, experiential processes, and mindfulness practices. She earned her doctoral degree at the University of British Columbia and is a member of the BC Psychological Association, the Canadian Psychological Association, and the Canadian Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology.

Books by Sandra Parker Ph.D.
Recent Posts
Dr. Google and the Search for Certainty
The work of resolving health anxiety is the same as for all forms of anxiety. We must release the fixation on “what if” and turn ourselves toward the painful truth of “what is”.
Getting Unstuck by Embracing Unrest
Personal Perspective: As we face vulnerability and experience emotion, we communicate to ourselves that we matter. Even when circumstances do not change, we are no longer stuck.
Who Cares?
Who Cares?
Compassion fatigue has worsened for many people, leading to irritability and numbing. Many are at the point of thinking, "Who cares?" What can we do about that?
Vulnerability stirs emotion
7 Things You Can Do to Approach Vulnerability

If we pause in moments of vulnerability, soothe the body, and face our emotions, we show ourselves we can bear the pain of life. We grow capacities to live our biggest lives.

If we pause in moments of vulnerability, soothe the body, and face our emotions, we show ourselves we can bear the pain of life. We grow capacities to live our biggest lives.

4 Ways We Avoid Emotion

Learn how to recognize your exits from experiencing vulnerable emotion to access greater resilience, authenticity and mental health.

Learn how to recognize your exits from experiencing vulnerable emotion to access greater resilience, authenticity and mental health.

Anxiety as the Path to Freedom

Freedom is the ability to be with ourselves in the discomfort of what is. Rather than fight with what is, freedom is saying hello to what is actually happening in your skin.

Freedom is the ability to be with ourselves in the discomfort of what is. Rather than fight with what is, freedom is saying hello to what is actually happening in your skin.

How to Let Go of the Need to Fix Everything

Is trying to fix things making you exhausted? How to let go of compulsive helping by embracing helplessness.

Is trying to fix things making you exhausted? How to let go of compulsive helping by embracing helplessness.

Creating a Kindness Zone

Though nothing will give you 100% control, there’s always something you can do to feel better. That choice is a profound form of personal power in the face of vulnerability.

Though nothing will give you 100% control, there’s always something you can do to feel better. That choice is a profound form of personal power in the face of vulnerability.

The Key Quality-of-Life Factor When You Don’t Have Control

We often don't have much control over things in the outside world, and how we treat ourselves in those vulnerable moments is the key to our quality of life.

We often don't have much control over things in the outside world, and how we treat ourselves in those vulnerable moments is the key to our quality of life.