About

Max Innes

Max Innes, Ph.D., is a family therapist who has worked with individuals, couples and families throughout the Lower Mainland during the last twenty years. He is a Clinical Fellow and Approved Supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the British Columbia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and a member of the Registry of Marriage and Family Therapists in Canada.

Family Therapy

In the course of my work as a family therapist, I meet with many different kinds of people, of all ages, from many different cultures and lifestyles, who work and play in a great many different ways, who visit me with a wide range of concerns and, sometimes, tragedies. I meet with families (sometimes three generations at a time); couples-in-and-out-of-love; newly-weds; parents with and without their children; teenagers, young adults and older adults, in transition, seeking change; adult children searching for a new understanding with their parents or siblings (family of origin explorations); and adults who are curious about what has happened in their lives, determined they will have more say about what happens in their present and future than they have in the past.

Those I meet come with many labels and descriptions about what is happening to them: anxiety, depression, phobias, substance abuse and stress, to name a few. Concerns like these, while they are often regarded as residing in the individual, affect and are affected by others. Other concerns are clearly relational: couples and marital issues (addressing difficulties so the relationship may continue, or coming to terms with the possibility of separation and divorce); parent-child concerns; parenting after conflict; the challenges of step parenting and blended families; the many different concerns that parents have about their children, and the wide variety of  struggles that go on in families.

In addition to my private practice, I have worked as a family therapist with a number of local agencies including, Vancouver Coastal Health, Greater Vancouver Mental Health Services, British Columbia Ministry of Health, and the Ministry for Children and Family Development. I have also taught graduate courses in Family Therapy and Counselling Theories for the Department of Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and acted as Clinical Practicum Supervisor for Master’s students in Counselling Psychology.