Get to know us
Sara Pishdadian, Ph.D., C.Psych.
Clinical, Rehabilitation and Neuropsychologist
she/her
Dr. Sara Pishdadian is a Clinical, Rehabilitation and Neuropsychologist, registered with the College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario (CPBAO). She provides psychological assessment and therapy to adults and seniors.
Training & Experience
Dr. Sara Pishdadian completed her undergraduate honours degree in psychology at the University of Toronto and her master and doctoral degrees in Clinical and Neuropsychology at York University. Over the course of her training, Dr. Sara held positions at a number of well-regarded healthcare facilities in Ontario, including Baycrest Hospital, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Sunnybrook Health Sciences, Toronto Western Hospital, as well as the York University Psychology Clinic. She also completed a Canadian Psychological Association accredited residency in Clinical Psychology, with a specialization in neuropsychology at The Ottawa Hospital. These experiences supported Dr. Sara in developing a proficiency for psychological and neuropsychological assessments, as well as cognitive rehabilitation and psychotherapy services, across a range of settings, including acute care, outpatient, inpatient, psychiatric, and rehabilitation programs. She is also quite experienced in working with individuals struggling with complex cognitive, psychological, and emotional issues, as well as chronic and acute medical comorbidities.
Since completing her degree, Dr. Sara has worked as a staff psychologist at CAMH in the Geriatric Mental Health, the Neuropsychological Assessment, and the Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Psychosis services and at West Park Healthcare Centre (part of the University Health Network) in the Respiratory, Acquired Brain Injury, Geriatric Day Hospital, Musculoskeletal and Stroke programs. She is currently an assistant professor in the Clinical Psychology and Clinical Neuropsychology program areas at York University.
Approach to Care
My clients describe our work together as impactful and supportive. – Dr. Sara
Dr. Sara’s sessions are centered around the idea that every client’s experience is understandable given their history, which helps the client-therapist team begin their work from a place of non-judgment and strength. Her treatment approach is both client-centered and integrative. This means that she believes her clients should have agency in determining what it means to be their best selves, and that she draws on tools from different therapy modalities to assist her clients’ in working towards this goal. Clients have described Dr. Sara as extremely knowledgeable and warm. She is also known to strike a nice balance between being supportive and encouraging of change.
A course of therapy begins with Dr. Sara getting to know you and developing a treatment plan, which can take one to four sessions. The treatment plan is collaboratively decided upon and guides the therapy but remains flexible. Given her expertise in assessment, Dr. Sara also regularly uses questionnaires to monitor progress between sessions. She is eager to receive feedback and will check-in to ensure that you are on track to meet your goals.
Client Goals & Concerns
Dr. Sara works with clients with a broad range of goals, including:
- Depression and low mood
- Bipolar disorder
- Low self-esteem, self-criticism, never feeling "good enough"
- Anxiety, worry, overthinking
- Social anxiety
- Phobias
- Stress and difficulty relaxing
- Trauma, complex trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Hallucinations (e.g., hearing voices or sounds, or seeing things, that others cannot hear or see)
- Odd, unusual or delusional beliefs
- Paranoia
- Schizophrenia, schizoaffective and other related disorders.
- Insomnia and other sleep difficulties
- Problematic emotions (e.g., anger, shame, guilt)
- Pain (e.g., arthritis, fibromyalgia, back pain, nerve damage)
- COVID-19 or long-covid illness
- Challenges with attention, memory, multitasking
- Functional neurological disorder, including psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) and other unresolved physical symptoms
- Brain injury, concussion and stroke
- Neurological conditions (e.g., mild cognitive impairment, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease)
- Coping or adapting to medical interventions, conditions and disability (e.g., surgery, cancer, etc.)
- Caregiver or carepartner-related stress (i.e., supporting loved ones affected by medical, neurological or psychiatric conditions)
- Relationship concerns (partner, friend, colleague, etc.)
- Managing difficult family dynamics
- Assertiveness and boundary settings
Assessment
Dr. Sara draws on the following treatment approaches and strategies when working with clients:
- Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Therapy
Dr. Sara draws on the following treatment approaches and strategies when working with clients:
- Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Client-Centered or Humanistic Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for psychosis (CBT-p)
- Cognitive Rehabilitation (e.g., Goal Management Training or GMT)
- Compassion-Focused interventions
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
- Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Motivational Interviewing (MI)