Dr. Cindy H. Carr, D.Min., MACL

Cindy H. Carr is an author, pastoral counselor, speaker, and scholar whose work focuses on practical self-regulation, recovery, and life design. Her work emerged from a growing recognition—accelerated during the COVID pandemic—that the mental health and addiction needs of adults were exceeding the capacity of clinical systems alone. 

Through her doctoral work, Cindy explored how psychiatry, psychology, faith communities, and family systems could be integrated ethically to create a broader foundation of support for individuals struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma, panic disorder, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and addiction. Rather than replacing professional care, her work focuses on building skills and structures that help people function during the long stretches of real life that occur between episodes of treatment or institutional support. 

Cindy has worked extensively in pastoral counseling and community care, where she has seen firsthand how overwhelming mental health needs can be—not only for individuals, but also for families, faith communities, and institutions themselves. This experience shaped a central conviction of her work: sustainable care must empower people with tools they can use independently, without requiring constant external support or rescue. 

She is the creator of the Anchored System, a cross-diagnostic, skills-based framework designed to help individuals stabilize, self-regulate, and return after setbacks. She is also the developer of the 28-Day Life Design Recovery Program, a structured, non-punitive approach to addiction recovery and relapse re-entry that emphasizes routine, agency, and rebuilding a life worth protecting. 

Cindy’s work is grounded in evidence-informed practice, trauma awareness, and a deep respect for human dignity. Her approach emphasizes return over perfection, empowerment over dependency, and tools that scale to real life. Through writing, teaching, and speaking, her frameworks equips individuals, pastors, counselors, educators, and community leaders seeking practical, ethically grounded ways to support mental health, recovery, and long-term flourishing.