Dr. Sanjay Rao, MBBS, MD, FRCPsych, FRCPC, MBA
Director of Learning and Development

Dr. Rao has trained in psychiatry, cognitive behavioural therapies and business administration. He received his FRCPsych and MBA from the UK , his MD in psychological Medicine from India, and his FRCPC in psychiatry from Canada. He developed and was the Head of an evidence based psychological therapy centre in the UK delivering Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and EMDR. He was awarded the Northern England Doctor of the Year in 2007 and invited to the Public Service Excellence Reception by the Prime Minster of UK. Since 2011 he has helped the province of Nova Scotia develop Cognitive Behavioural Therapy implementation by training and supervising therapists across the province. He has also served as an executive member of the Canadian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy along with various management position such as Co-Chair of Chiefs of Psychiatrists in Nova Scotia, and Clinical Director of The Mood and Anxiety Program at the Royal Ottawa Hospital and also served as the Clinical Lead of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Improve Access to Structured Psychotherapy pilot at the Royal Ottawa Hospital. Dr. Rao was also an advisor to the psychotherapy group in the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Ontario for implementation of the provincial Improving Access to Structured Psychotherapy Programme. In 2018 he was awarded a Fellowship of the Canadian Association of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in recognition of his efforts to disseminate CBT in Canada. He is involved in research concerning distance delivery of CBT through technology as well as workplace mental health using CBT and problem-solving approaches. He trains and supervises multidisciplinary teams including physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists and counsellors. Apart from training in multiple schools of CBT (CBT, ACT and Mindfulness) Dr. Rao is also trained in Strength based coaching approaches from Gallup Inc and Centre of Applied Positive Psychology from the UK. He has delivered over 300 workshops in Cognitive behavioural therapies, presented in national international conferences and published in several scientific journals. Dr. Rao provides consultation for mood and anxiety problems. A physician referral is required to arrange a psychiatry consultation with Dr. Rao. Dr. Rao is currently not accepting any new referrals. His training workshops can be accessed through the Unified CBT Academy at unifiedcbt.com