Autonomous Psychologist
Clinical and Health Psychologist
Dr. Megan O’Connor
PhD, C.Psych
Children and teenagers tend to leave these sessions sitting a little taller than when they arrived. Listened to, understood, and a bit more confident about what they are carrying. Families can expect a warm and engaging space where a child learns to make sense of themselves, work through what is hard, and move toward the life they want, without pressure and without judgment.
I spent several summers working in Switzerland and came home with a serious hiking habit. My ideal day is a new trail followed by a very good meal.
You don't have to have it figured out.
How Dr. Megan works
Some families come because worry has quietly taken over the house. Others come in the middle of a medical diagnosis, trying to work out how a child is supposed to hold all of it at once. Dr. Megan works across both, and across the ground in between.
Her training runs through hospital, community, and school settings. She completed her pre-doctoral residency at Alberta Children's Hospital, and has trained at Surrey Place, Kinark Child and Family Services, and the Toronto Catholic District School Board. That range shows up in the work. She is as comfortable alongside a medical team as she is making sense of what is happening in a classroom.
She works with anxiety and OCD, low mood, emotion regulation, somatic symptoms, trauma, and children navigating medical diagnoses and illness. She also supports parents directly, and completes psychoeducational assessments.
Sessions move between conversation and creative work, whatever helps a child explore what they are thinking and feeling in a way that makes sense to them.
The strengths already there.
Clinical approach
Dr. Megan starts from something she is clear about. Children do not come to therapy to be fixed. They come to be understood. A child flourishes when they feel understood, have the right tools in hand, and have somewhere safe enough to be fully themselves.
In a session she is paying attention to more than what a child says. How they experience the world. What matters to them. The strengths they already have, which are almost always easier for someone else to see than for the child themselves.
She draws on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and emotion-focused family therapy (EFFT). Rather than one model applied the same way to every family, she builds a flexible approach around the child in front of her.
I want every child I meet to feel that therapy is a place where they can be themselves, feel understood, and know that they don't have to face challenges alone.
Areas of focus
What Dr. Megan works with.
Languages: English
Education and training
Background and credentials.
PhD, School and Clinical Child Psychology
University of Toronto
MA, School and Clinical Child Psychology
University of Toronto
BSc, Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour
McMaster University
Professional associationsCollege of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO)
Ontario Psychological Association (OPA)
Alberta Children's Hospital
Pre-doctoral residency
Surrey Place
Kinark Child and Family Services
Toronto Catholic District School Board
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