About Caroline

The Official

Dr. Caroline Fleck is a licensed psychologist, corporate consultant, and an Adjunct Clinical Instructor at Stanford University. She is a respected voice in psychology and has been featured in national media outlets, including The New York Times, Good Morning America, and The Huffington Post. Caroline is a world renowned expert in validation. Her new book, Validation: How the Skill Set That Revolutionized Psychology Will Transform Your Relationships, Increase Your Influence, and Change Your Life (Penguin Random House, 2025), has been translated into nine different languages.

Caroline’s therapy practice specializes in evidence-based treatments for adults, adolescents, and couples, including Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), and Gottman Method Couples Therapy. Her corporate work focuses on creating high-performing individuals and teams using the proven methods of behavioral science. Caroline graduated from the University of Michigan (BA) and Duke University (MA, PhD).

The Unofficial

I once took in a three-legged feral cat named Sparrow Baggins and spent several months socializing him through a combination of Gerber’s chicken-flavored baby food and Scrubs episodes.* I’m unapologetic about my use of footnotes. I don’t think I’ve gotten the fitted sheet going in the right direction on my first go when making a bed. I believe making meaning out of suffering is the meaning of life. I used the third person for the bio above even though I wrote it, and feel better now that I’ve come clean. My daughter is my moon, my husband, Mat, is my “sun and stars,” and yeah, I loved Game of Thrones, with the exception of that last season, because Khaleesi would not have gone down like that.

* The Gerber’s chicken-flavored baby food was used to reinforce Sparrow for any progress he made; the Scrubs episodes functioned to reinforce me for spending hours on a hard bathroom floor socializing a feral cat who would occasionally spit, bite, and try to stab me with his bad arm.