ABOUT
Meet Nicole Barr, RN, NP, LMFT
For more than twenty-five years, I have cared for patients and families facing serious illness. I started work in community health in San Francisco. For the last 20 years I have worked at the Stanford Cancer Center — first as an oncology nurse practitioner, and more recently in psycho-oncology, where I helped develop a clinical program at the intersection of cancer and mental health. I continue at Stanford today in a primary care role that combines routine medical care with mental health support.
The hardest aspects of illness are often not only medical. Serious diagnoses can reshape identity, relationships, family dynamics, sexuality, work, and one's sense of safety in the future. Providing integrated care allows me to meet patients across the whole experience.
In the middle of my nurse practitioner career, I went back to school for a second Master’s Degree and trained formally as a psychotherapist so I could support patients and families more deeply. For the past decade I have also run a private psychotherapy practice, where I found I loved working with couples in particular.
I also understand caregiving personally. I have supported loved ones through cancer, stroke, and cardiac illness, and those experiences deepened my appreciation for the emotional, practical, and relational burdens families carry through illness and recovery. My work has also been shaped by a longstanding mindfulness practice — I began my healthcare journey as a Zen Hospice Project volunteer and continue to practice mindfulness today.
How I Work
I hold two distinct California licenses, and it helps to be clear about what each one allows.
With individuals, I work as a nurse practitioner. I provide health teaching and counseling, make assessments and diagnoses, order and interpret labs, and prescribe and manage medications — including medications for mental health, as well as supportive care for symptoms related to menopause, cancer treatment, and other health conditions.
In practice, this means I can talk freely with you about your medical care, help you understand your scans and lab results, make sense of what your other providers have told you, and navigate alongside your medical team.
My care complements, and does not replace, your medical team and I am happy to communicate with them as needed.
With couples and families. I work as a psychotherapist, providing formal therapy under my LMFT license. In this context I don't offer medical guidance.
Together, my credentials let me hold your physical and emotional health in the same conversation — something most clinicians can't offer at once.
Teaching, Research & Community
I lecture regularly and have taught at the graduate level, including training psychotherapists in psychopharmacology. I provide consultation to other therapists and speak at patient, family, and academic events. I have served as a sub-investigator on clinical trials of emerging cancer therapies, and I currently serve on the board of the Cancer Support Community San Francisco Bay Area.
My peer-reviewed presentations at the American Psychosocial Oncology Society have addressed how to recognize and respond when cancer patients are at acute risk of suicide (work that helped shape a clinical protocol now in use at Stanford), the intersection of trauma and cancer, and disordered eating in the context of cancer. I have also co-authored published work on educating mental health professionals about breast cancer care.
Education & Training
BA in Anthropology, summa cum laude — UC Berkeley
MSN / Nurse Practitioner training — UCSF
MA in Clinical Counseling — Wright Institute
Postgraduate therapist training: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT); Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBSR/MBCT); Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT); with additional training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Psycho-oncology.
Professional affiliations: California Association of Marriage & Family Therapists (CAMFT); International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT); American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS).