Individual Therapy · Children & Teens · North York & Oakville
If your child is nervous about coming, that is expected. Whatever you are feeling as a parent, that is expected too. We work with children and teens in North York, Oakville, and across Ontario, and what we can tell you is this: we have never met a child who did not deserve to feel cared for. And we know how to get there.
Children leave their first session feeling something powerful. Understood.
Our approach
Evidence-based. And built around your child.
Therapy at Whole Kids starts from two places at once. What does the evidence say works? And who is this specific child, in this specific family, with this specific set of values and experiences? Neither question gets answered without the other.
The goal is never just to teach a skill. It's to find the right vehicle for that skill to actually land. For one child that's play. For another it's humour. For another it's coming at something sideways when going direct shuts them down. That takes clinical skill and genuine curiosity about the person in front of you.
Therapy here is collaborative. Your child brings the direction. We bring the knowledge and the flexibility to meet them where they are. Parents are part of the process too, not waiting in the lobby.
The goal from the beginning is that what happens in the room gets applied outside it. That over time, your child builds what they need to keep going on their own. That's not the end of something. That's the whole point.
"At the end of every first session, I ask: did this go worse than you thought, better, or the same? Almost every child tells me it went better."
Dr. Stella Dentakos, Founder and Director
What child therapy looks like
A relationship that grows
with your child.
Child therapy doesn't always look like a straight line from start to finish. Children often come for a block of care, life moves forward, and they come back when something shifts developmentally or when things get hard again.
That's not a setback. That's what child therapy actually looks like when it's working. What an eight-year-old needs from a session is completely different from what that same child needs at fifteen. We're attuned to that. We plan for it.
We think about the long game.
Readiness looks different for every child. We work with that.
Maintaining a positive relationship with the process matters more than any single block of sessions. We want your child to feel that this is a place they can return to, across ages and stages, whenever they need it. We will honour that. We will be here.
How we work
The approaches we draw on.
Our clinicians are trained across a wide range of evidence-based approaches. The right method depends on the child, the concern, and what will actually reach them.
CBT
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
ACT
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
DBT
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
ERP
Exposure and Response Prevention
HRT
Habit Reversal Training
EFT
Emotion-Focused Therapy
EFFT
Emotion-Focused Family Therapy
MI
Motivational Interviewing
Play
Play Therapy
Behaviour
Behaviour Therapy
Attachment
Attachment-Based Approaches
Psychoed
Psychoeducation
All therapy at Whole Kids Health is developmentally appropriate, individually tailored, and trauma-informed.
What we support
Concerns we work with in therapy.
The concerns that bring families to us are wide-ranging. What every child has in common is that they are more than the hard thing they are going through. Our job is to find what is already strong, and use that as the foundation for everything else.
ADHD
Your child has a way of thinking and feeling that doesn't always fit the system. We help them find where it becomes a strength.
→Autism
Not every child moves through the world the same way. We learn how your child does, and we build from there.
→School Avoidance
When mornings become a battle and school starts to feel impossible. We help families understand what is underneath it and find a way forward.
→Anxiety and OCD
When worry starts running the day. We help children and teens understand what is happening and move through it.
→Mood and Depression
When your child seems far away from themselves. We help families name what is going on and find a way back.
→Emotion Regulation
Big feelings are not a flaw. We help children make sense of them before they take over.
→Friendship and Belonging
Friendships don't always come easily. We help children and teens understand how they connect and build confidence doing it.
→Chronic Illness
A diagnosis changes more than health. We support the whole child through what it means for their life and who they are becoming.
→Sometimes an assessment comes before therapy. It helps us understand your child more fully and make sure we're building the right plan from the beginning.
Starting with the Whole Kids Care Plan.
All individual therapy at Whole Kids Health begins with the Whole Kids Care Plan. It is a two-appointment consultation that gives your child and your family the space to share what's going on, what matters most, and what you're hoping for.
We meet separately with your child and with you as a parent. At the end, your clinician brings it together into a one-page document that outlines what you discussed, what you'll work on, and how often you'll meet. It's a starting point, not a fixed plan. Care evolves as we get to know your family.
Hearing their story.
Your clinician meets with your child or teen to hear about their experience, their strengths, and what they're hoping to work on.
Hearing yours.
Your clinician meets with you as a parent to understand your perspective, your goals, and the full picture of your child's life.
Your Care Plan document.
A one-page summary of what you discussed, your goals, and your starting treatment plan. Clear, collaborative, and yours to keep.
Ready when you are
Your child is going to do better than they think.
We'd love to meet them. Whatever they're feeling about coming, we've got them from the moment they walk in.