Therapy is a personalized journey that focuses primarily on building a positive trusting relationship for the child to feel safe and connected. We believe every child has unique needs and ways of being in the world. They express this in many ways, most visibly through their behaviors.

Children are not immune to the mental health challenges that impact the way they feel, think, and behave. When these challenges are addressed early on and children are provided with a validating environment and professional support, they can recover fully and develop better coping skills to manage the “ups” and “downs” of life.

Child therapy is based on validation, respect, playfulness, story-telling, imaginative play, and games.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is also an approach to therapy that is empirically validated and is personalized to the child’s development and skill level. Cognitive Behavioral Play therapy is derived from CBT where play is used as a means to communicate and teach evidence-based strategies indirectly. This approach focuses on the child’s strengths and experiential interventions that incorporate play where they learn to problem solve, and associate behaviors with their thoughts and learn to express their feelings in a more adaptive way.

Dr. Sanaa incorporates mindfulness in therapy, and psychoeducation. In therapy children learn about the nervous system, developing awareness of their bodies and what to do when becoming dysregulated, learning tools on how to prevent it, learning to become aware of their sensory systems, the triggers, and how to cope with uncomfortable emotions. The tools they learn in therapy will teach lifelong skills that cultivate wellbeing and make them feel empowered.

60-90 minutes

During the intake interview, we meet with the parents or caregiver without the child to obtain all necessary information about the reasons for therapy and parent’s concerns and background history (i.e., developmental, medical, educational, social/emotional, family dynamics). We will discuss what to expect and how best to prepare the child for the first session as well as explain the process of therapy in an age-appropriate way.

First two sessions

The first two sessions focus on observing the child’s spontaneous play and interaction. Developing rapport with the child is one of the main goals of the assessment. During this time, we may also include parent & teacher rating scales and child focused assessments. Once enough data is collected, we’ll work together to define the goals and outcome of therapy.

Subsequent sessions

In the Post-Assessment phase we will provide a treatment plan that focuses on involving and empowering the child. This is done by showing them that learning how their bodies respond to stress, learn to cope with the stress, learn to problem solve, learn how their thoughts impact the way they feel and behave and through the process increases their sense of self-confidence, self-control and accomplishment.

Parent’s involvement is crucial in this stage. Here, you’ll be learning parental strategies to implement at home, how to modify the environment, and techniques to respond to the child. All of this will strengthen the outcomes of therapy.

The number of sessions will depend on the complexity of the challenges and for how long the problem has been present. Sessions will typically start at once per week, then as the child makes progress, can increase to once every two weeks, or be just once a month as maintenance until termination.

Subsequent sessions

This stage prepares the child for the end of therapy. At this point they will be in a position of feeling empowered, having the social and emotional fitness to lead life with its challenges. The parents and the child will be given recommendations to continue to implement at home to further support the child moving forward.