Hilary Aime, PhD Candidate
Supervised Student Clinician
Background
Hilary Aime (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in child-clinical psychology at Simon Fraser University. She completed her pre-doctoral residency at BC Children’s Hospital, where she supported children and families facing complex medical and mental health challenges. Her training included advanced rotations in pediatric medical psychology, childhood mental health, and autism assessment through Sunny Hill Health Centre. She has also completed supervised practicums through university-based, hospital, and private practice settings.
Academically, Hilary’s dissertation research focuses on autism. She has a particular interest in camouflaging (or “masking”) in autistic children and has published peer-reviewed work in this area.
Area of Specialty
At Dr. Arnold & Associates, Hilary provides both psychological therapy and comprehensive assessment services.
Hilary has extensive training in autism and takes a neurodiversity-affirming, strengths-based approach to care. In her assessment work, her goal is to help families better understand their child and access meaningful supports. She provides a range of assessment services for children, adolescents, and young adults, including:
Diagnostic assessments for autism
Diagnostic assessments for ADHD
Psychoeducational assessments (e.g., learning disorders, intellectual disabilities, giftedness)
Adaptive functioning assessments for youth transitioning to adult services
Hilary also offers therapy for children, adolescents, and families experiencing a wide range of mental health concerns, including:
Anxiety (e.g., phobias, separation anxiety, social anxiety, generalized worries)
Selective mutism
OCD
Psychological challenges related to medical conditions (e.g., managing pain, needle phobia, medication adherence, coping with illness)
Somatization (i.e., when stress shows up in the body)
Low mood and depression
School refusal
Tics and Tourette’s Disorder
Body-focused repetitive behaviours (e.g., skin picking, hair pulling)
Behavioural challenges (including working with demand avoidance/PDA, challenges related to ADHD/executive functioning, and meltdowns/explosive behaviour)
Life stressors (e.g., grief, coping with separation or divorce, school stress)
Hilary provides individually tailored, evidence-based treatment to help families reach their therapeutic goals. She primarily uses a cognitive behavioural (CBT) framework and draws on attachment-based, process-oriented, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) principles. She works flexibly to adapt evidence-based treatments for children of different neurotypes (including those with autism, demand avoidance/PDA, ADHD, and intellectual disabilities). She recognizes the essential role of caregivers and often works directly with families to support children’s mental health. She has specialized training in Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE), Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS), Comprehensive Behavioural Intervention for Tics (CBIT), and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for OCD. Outside of her professional life, Hilary is a mother of three and brings a warm, practical, and family-centred approach to her clinical work.