Therapy for Youths & Teens in Ontario
Growing up and entering adulthood can bring pressures, emotions, relationships, and experiences that feel difficult to understand or carry alone. Our youth therapists offer a supportive space to work through what is happening, build emotional capacity, and help young people feel more connected to themselves and the people around them.
Whether you’re a young person looking for support or an adult helping the young person in your life find care, you don’t need to have the right words or know exactly where to begin. We’ll help you find a therapist who can meet them with understanding, respect, and care shaped around what they need.
For youths ages 12 and older · Virtual therapy across Ontario · Limited in-person options in Toronto · Low-cost care available
YOU DON’T NEED A DIAGNOSIS TO SEEK SUPPORT
When growing up feels like too much to carry.
You don’t need to have a diagnosis, a clear explanation, or the right language for what you’re experiencing.
You may know that something feels difficult before you know how to explain it. Or someone who cares about you may have noticed that you seem overwhelmed, withdrawn, irritable, exhausted, or unlike yourself.
School, expectations, or decisions about the future feel overwhelming.
You’re working hard but still feel as though you’re falling behind or letting people down.
Your emotions feel intense, confusing, or difficult to manage.
Friendships, dating, or family relationships are creating stress.
You feel pressure to fit in, meet other people’s expectations, or hide parts of yourself.
ADHD, Autism, sensory needs, or other differences make everyday demands more exhausting.
You don’t have to manage all of this alone. With the right support, it’s possible to better understand what you’re experiencing, build confidence in handling overwhelm, and make more room for connection, choice, and hope.
Support for what teens and youths are carrying
Youth therapy can support concerns affecting emotions, relationships, identity, school, or everyday life. Some difficulties may be connected, while others deserve care in their own right. Therapy can begin with whatever feels most important right now.
Academic pressure and burnout
School and performance pressure
Perfectionism and fear of failure
Difficulty concentrating or keeping up
Procrastination and avoidance
Exhaustion and loss of motivation
Neurodivergent burnout
Uncertainty about the future
Relationships and family stress
Family conflict
Friendship and peer difficulties
Dating and relationship concerns
Loneliness or social isolation
Communication & boundary setting difficulties
Bullying
Peer pressure and the need to fit in
Emotional and mental health
Anxiety and persistent stress
Depression or low mood
Emotional overwhelm
Difficulty regulating intense emotions
Numbness, shutdown, or disconnection
Low self-esteem
Difficulty understanding or expressing needs
Identity, culture, and belonging
Identity and self-discovery
Gender and sexual identity
Cultural identity and expectations
Migration and acculturation stress
Racism and discrimination
Feeling caught between different cultures
Feeling different, misunderstood, or excluded
Your concerns don’t need to fit neatly into one category. Your therapist can help you understand how different parts of your experiences connect and decide together where support would be most helpful.
What youth therapy can look like
HOW WE CAN HELP
Therapy is shaped around your needs, comfort, and pace. You will not be expected to share everything immediately or arrive knowing exactly what you want to work on. The process may include some of the following:
Create a space where you can be yourself
Your therapist can offer a supportive, nonjudgmental relationship where you can speak openly, take time to build trust, and feel respected as your own person.
Understand what’s happening
Together, you can explore the emotions, pressures, relationships, experiences, and circumstances affecting your everyday life. Developing a clearer understanding can help difficult reactions feel less confusing or out of control.
Build regulation and practical support
Therapy can help you recognize your emotions and needs, recover from overwhelm, communicate more clearly, set boundaries, and develop ways of responding to stress and overwhelm that work for your life and circumstances. Gain skills that will help you throughout adulthood.
Strengthen confidence and connection
As you understand yourself more fully, you can begin making choices with greater confidence, building healthier relationships, and developing a stronger sense of identity, agency, and hope for the future.
These parts of therapy can overlap, and there is no single path you have to follow. Your therapist will regularly check in with you and adapt the work as your needs, readiness, and priorities change.
For parents and caregivers of youth under 16.
This section is specifically for parents and caregivers helping a young person under the age of 16 begin therapy. Reaching out can be an important way to support them, especially when you can see that something is wrong but aren’t sure what they need.
Watching a young person you care about experience distress, overwhelm, or disconnection can be overwhelming in its own right. You may feel worried, helpless, frustrated, frightened, or uncertain about what to do. You may also be carrying the practical and emotional responsibility of finding support while trying to manage the rest of family life. You do not have to know how to handle every situation before reaching out.
Your involvement can help your young person access care while therapy gives them room to develop their own voice, confidence, and sense of agency.
Making room for their perspective
Your young person may describe their experience differently than you do. Their therapist will take time to understand what matters to them, what they hope will change, and what would help therapy feel useful and safe.
Finding the right level of involvement
For youths under 16, parents or caregivers may be asked to participate in the intake process or selected conversations throughout care. The therapist can work with your youth to help determine when your involvement would support the work and when private space may help them to speak more openly.
Understanding privacy and safety
Respecting confidentiality and privacy is crucial for building trust in therapy. At the beginning of care, the therapist will explain how confidentiality works, what information may or may not be shared, and the circumstances in which safety concerns require an adult to become involved.
Supporting progress outside therapy
You may be invited to help by active listening, supporting agreed-upon changes, reducing avoidable pressures, or making room for new ways of communicating. You do not need to have all the answers. Being willing to stay curious and involved can make a meaningful difference.
If you have questions about caregiver involvement before booking, our intake team can explain the process and help you find a therapist whose approach feels appropriate for your family.
Meet Our Youth Therapists
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Arshein Brar, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Arshein offers warm, practical, and culturally responsive support for anxiety, emotional regulation, relationships, self-esteem, grief, identity, and everyday stress. As a South Asian immigrant therapist, she brings particular understanding to cultural expectations, belonging, and navigating different parts of your identity.
Virtual appointments · Services also available in Hindi and Punjabi
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Annie Tung, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Annie offers a calm, creative, and somatics-based approach to anxiety, identity, relationships, emotional regulation, and overwhelming experiences. She helps young people become more aware of what they feel and need while building a stronger connection with themselves.
Virtual and in-person appointments in downtown Toronto
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Lisa Sasso, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
Lisa brings warmth, humour, and creativity to her work with anxiety, ADHD, self-esteem, relationships, identity, and emotional challenges. She incorporates creativity and the arts into her clinical approach and also offers EMDR when trauma processing is appropriate.
Virtual appointments
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Louis Law, Registered Psychotherapist
Louis offers a grounded, collaborative approach for young people navigating ADHD, autism, anxiety, emotional regulation, relationships, self-esteem, and social pressure. His approach combines practical cognitive and behavioural support with space to process the emotional impact of feeling different or living with stigma.
Virtual appointments · Services also available in Cantonese
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Sabrina Wei, Registered Psychotherapist
Sabrina brings warmth and more than a decade of trauma-therapy experience to her work with emotional regulation, anxiety, depression, relationships, self-esteem, and overwhelming experiences. She has deep expertise in AEDP, an approach that helps clients work with emotions and difficult experiences within a safe therapeutic relationship.
Virtual appointments · Services also available in Mandarin and Shanghainese
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Massara Hikmat, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), Practicum Therapist
Massara brings experience supporting teens and youths with diverse academic, emotional, developmental, and behavioural needs. She offers compassionate, low-cost therapy for anxiety, ADHD, perfectionism, self-esteem, cultural stress, relationships, and overwhelm.
Virtual appointments · Low-cost therapy
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Maidah Waheed, awaiting CRPO license
Maidah offers warm, culturally responsive support for anxiety, grief, relationships, emotional regulation, and the lasting effects of overwhelming experiences. Her approach is informed by training in EMDR and Internal Family Systems, as well as her experience supporting people affected by trauma, migration, and major life transitions.
Virtual appointments · Services also available in Urdu and Pashto
Availability note: Waitlist only- please contact us to ask about joining Maidah’s waitlist.
Find support that fits
There is more than one way to find a therapist. You book a free consultation with a youth therapist in mind, ask us for help choosing, or explore low-cost therapy if budget is an issue.
Book a free consultation
If you already have someone in mind, you can book a free 15-minute consultation to ask questions, learn about their approach, and decide whether you would feel comfortable working together.
Let our intake team help
You don’t have to compare every profile or decide on your own. Tell our intake team what you’re experiencing and what matters to you in a therapist, and we’ll help you identify a suitable place to begin.
Explore low-cost therapy
Therapy is not always being paid for by a parent, caregiver, or insurance plan. If you’re covering the cost yourself or finances are making it difficult to access support, our practicum therapists offer low-cost sessions. Pay-what-you-can spaces may also be available.