Psychologist in Supervised Practice

Clinical, Health and School Psychologist

Dr. Maria Khan

PhD, C.Psych

Dr. Maria has a gift for reaching children that others have struggled to reach. She is warm, patient, and deeply perceptive, and she brings something genuinely special to the room. For families who have tried before without finding the right fit, that quality is often exactly what they were looking for.

You don't have to have it figured out.

How Dr. Maria works

Dr. Maria works with children and adolescents navigating anxiety, low mood, trauma, emotion dysregulation, attention and learning challenges, and behavioural difficulties. She also has expertises in early childhood and parent-child relationship work, supporting families where the earliest bonds and dynamics are at the centre of what needs care.

Early relationships shape everything. Dr. Maria is particularly drawn to young children and the families around them, and she brings real depth to caregiver-child work. She understands that supporting a child often means supporting the whole system around them and she approaches that work with the same warmth and attentiveness she brings to the child themselves.

With younger children, sessions tend to look a lot like play, because play is how children make sense of the world and process what is hard. Dr. Maria follows their lead, pays close attention to what is emerging, and trusts the process. With adolescents, it is more conversational, but the same principles apply throughout: safety first, relationship first.

Dr. Maria works closely with parents, educators, and other professionals involved in a child's life, ensuring that support extends beyond the therapy room and into the systems where a child actually lives.

What to expect

Dr. Maria believes connection is the vehicle for change. In a first session, she is not rushing toward goals or strategies. She is building the relationship that makes everything else possible. Most families leave feeling genuinely heard, and most children leave willing to come back.

Clinical approach

Safety first. Relationship first.

Dr. Maria approaches every child from the belief that connection is the vehicle for change. Children communicate what they need constantly, but not always in words. Her job is to create enough safety that they do not have to translate themselves and to listen closely to what they are already showing.

She draws on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Psychodynamic, Relational, Emotion-Focused, and Attachment-based approaches, integrating these with a trauma-informed and interpersonal lens. She does not apply a fixed framework. She follows the child, and adjusts as the relationship deepens and the picture becomes clearer.

Dr. Maria has particular depth in early childhood and caregiver-child work. She understands that the earliest relationships shape what a child believes about themselves and the world, and that repairing or strengthening those bonds is some of the most meaningful work there is. She brings that conviction into every session with young children and the families around them.

Children tell you everything. Just not always in words. My job is to listen in a way that does not require them to translate.

CBTPsychodynamicRelationalEmotion-FocusedAttachment-Based

What Dr. Maria works with.

Areas of focus

Anxiety & Specific FearsLow Mood & DepressionTrauma & Complex TraumaEmotion RegulationAttention & LearningBehavioural DifficultiesParent-Child RelationshipsEarly Childhood & Play TherapyAttachment & Caregiving SupportAssessment & Consultation

Languages: English

Background and credentials.

Education and training

Degrees

PhD, School and Clinical Child Psychology

University of Toronto / OISE

MA, School and Clinical Child Psychology

University of Alberta

BA (Hons), Psychology

York University

Professional Associations

College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO)

Clinical Training

Predoctoral Residency

The Garry Hurvitz Centre for Community Mental Health at SickKids

Additional Placements

North York General Hospital · Boomerang Health, powered by SickKids · OISE Psychology Clinic

get started

Let's find the right fit.