Autonomous Psychologist
Clinical and Health Psychologist
SENIOR CLINICAL LEAD
Dr. Sahar Borairi
PhD, C.Psych
Children who have never quite clicked with a therapist before tend to click with Dr. Sahar. She has a rare gift for meeting kids exactly where they are, and for making the hard concepts feel suddenly, surprisingly simple. For families who have tried before without finding the right fit, that matters.
I own a collection of themed sweaters that I take very seriously. My colleagues will tell you the sheep one is a personal highlight.
You don't have to have it figured out.
How Dr. Sahar works
Dr. Sahar works with children and adolescents navigating anxiety, mood disorders, emotion dysregulation, learning and attention challenges, behavioural difficulties, and trauma. She also provides comprehensive psychological and neuropsychological assessments covering cognitive, academic, and socio-emotional functioning, helping families understand what is driving what, and what to do about it.
Alongside her practice at Whole Kids Health, Dr. Sahar holds a staff position at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) within General Paediatrics and Genetics, where she works closely with multidisciplinary medical teams. That experience shapes how she thinks about children in complex medical contexts and informs the depth she brings to health-related psychological care.
A central part of how Dr. Sahar works is finding the right way in. The right analogy. The right exercise. The right moment. She believes every child has more capacity than they have been given credit for, and her job is to unlock that. She wants children to leave a session having genuinely understood something not just having talked about it.
Dr. Sahar places a high value on collaboration. She works alongside parents and caregivers to build the strategies and tools they need to support their child at home, and coordinates with educators, medical professionals, and community supports to ensure every part of a child's network is working from the same understanding.
A first session with Dr. Sahar is about finding the right way in. She will take time to understand your child's world, what has already been tried, and what feels most stuck. By the end, most families leave with a clearer sense of what is actually going on and what comes next.
Clinical approach
When something clicks, it really clicks.
Dr. Sahar approaches every child through a biopsychosocial lens, understanding that a young person's challenges never exist in isolation. She draws on the full picture, biological, psychological, social, and systemic, to develop evidence-based, tailored recommendations that actually reflect how a child's life works.
She integrates Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Motivational Interviewing (MI), alongside behavioural and attachment-based approaches. She does not apply a fixed framework. She chooses the tools most likely to work for the specific child in front of her, and adjusts as the work unfolds.
At the heart of Dr. Sahar's clinical approach is a belief that every child has more capacity than they have been given credit for. Her job is to find the right analogy, the right exercise, the right moment and trust that when something genuinely clicks for a child, real and lasting change follows.
Connection comes first. Everything else follows from that: the insights, the breakthroughs, the hard work.
What Dr. Sahar works with.
Areas of focus
Languages: English
Background and credentials.
Education and training
PhD, School and Clinical Child Psychology
University of Toronto
MA, School and Clinical Child Psychology
University of Toronto
BA (Hons), Psychology
York University
Professional AssociationsCollege of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO)
Predoctoral Residency
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)
Additional Placements
CAMH · OISE Psychology Clinic · Toronto District School Board · Private Practice
CertificationsSupportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)
Yale Child Study Center
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