Autonomous Psychologist
Clinical, Health and Neuropsychologist
Dr. Rachael Lyon
PhD, C.Psych
Most families arrive at psychology at a moment when something feels too big to carry. Maybe it's a new diagnosis. Maybe it's a child who's struggling and no one seems to understand why. Wherever you're coming from, Dr. Rachael is glad you're here.
I lived in Melbourne long enough to develop coffee opinions I have never quite recovered from. Toronto is trying its best.
You don't have to have it figured out.
How Dr. Rachael works
Dr. Rachael is passionate about supporting children, adolescents, and families as they navigate fears, challenges, and difficult experiences. She works to create a space built on safety, collaboration, trust, and genuine hope, where young people and families feel accepted, supported, and ready to grow.
As a Clinical Psychologist, she provides therapy and assessment for a wide range of concerns, including anxiety, low mood, OCD, trauma, emotion regulation challenges, and neurodevelopmental differences such as autism and ADHD. As a Neuropsychologist, she supports children navigating neurological conditions, acquired brain injury, learning and attention challenges, and the cognitive effects of illness. Her training spanned some of the most complex paediatric settings, and that breadth shapes how she approaches every child she works with.
As a Health Psychologist, she also supports families coping with medical diagnoses and treatment, hospitalizations and procedures, pain and procedural anxiety, medical trauma, and adjustment to illness across every stage of development. She consults with medical teams, allied health professionals, and school staff, working to make sure every child and family feels understood and well cared for.
Sessions with Dr. Rachael are calm and grounding, but also warm and sometimes a little bit silly when it fits. She pays close attention to what's showing up in the moment, what's getting in the way, and where there might be a little more room than your child expected.
Clinical approach
Evidence-based. Strength-oriented.
Dr. Rachael's therapeutic approach is tailored to each child and family's unique needs and goals. She sees therapy as an opportunity to ease distress, build resilience, and help families find as much calm, joy, and freedom as possible in daily life.
Dr. Rachaelis particularly drawn to working with children navigating medical challenges and the fears, grief, and uncertainty that come with them. Her expertise in health and neuropsychology gives her a distinctive lens for understanding how physical health, emotional wellbeing, and cognitive functioning are interconnected. She also works closely with parents throughout the process, because supporting a child means supporting the whole family.
The goal isn't to make hard feelings go away. It's to help young people understand them, hold them more lightly, and find their way back to what they care about.
What Dr. Rachael works with.
Areas of focus
Languages: English
Background and credentials.
Education and training
PhD, Clinical-Developmental Psychology
Clinical Neuropsychology track · York University
MA, Clinical-Developmental Psychology
Clinical Neuropsychology track · York University
BA (Hons), Psychology
York University
BSc (Hons), Life Sciences
Queen's University
Professional AssociationsCollege of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO)
Ontario Psychological Association (OPA)
International Neuropsychological Society
American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto
Health Psychology · Clinical Neuropsychology
Predoctoral Residency
Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto
Additional Placements
Toronto Western Hospital · CAMH · York University Psychology Clinic
CertificationsChildren's Grief and Bereavement Certificate
SickKids CCMH Learning Institute
Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)
Yale Child Study Center
ADOS-2 Training
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