Rachelle Yu, MA
Supervised Student Clinician
Background
Rachelle Yu graduated with her MA in Clinical-Child Psychology in 2020 and is currently completing her PhD in the same field at Simon Fraser University. Her clinical work at our clinic is supervised by Dr. Arnold or Dr. Gurm and offered at a reduced rate. In addition to her work here, Rachelle has completed practica placements in the Mood & Anxiety Disorders Clinic, OCD Clinic, and Medical Psychology Intake Clinic at BC Children's Hospital. She also works with adolescent and adult therapy clients at the SFU Clinical Psychology Centre. With regards to her research, Rachelle's doctoral dissertation focuses on identifying differences between males and females in her examination of longitudinal associations between ADHD in childhood and adolescence (ages 6-18) and harmful behaviours in adulthood (ages 25 and 32). Rachelle is also a graduate trainee at BC Children’s Hospital and a student member of the Society for Research in Child Development and the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.
Areas of Specialty
Rachelle specializes in providing treatment to children and adolescents from a compassionate, empowering, and client-led approach. She aims to highlight the courage and resilience of growing humans as they move toward a more meaningful life. She integrates many different evidence-based approaches to treatment, including cognitive-behavioural therapy, attachment-focused therapy, emotion-focused therapy, and acceptance-based therapy, and is formally trained in solution-focused and clinical hypnosis techniques. Rachelle has experience working with children and adolescents experiencing a broad range of challenges, including anxiety (e.g., generalized anxiety, social anxiety, separation anxiety, specific phobias), OCD, selective mutism, mood challenges, emotion dysregulation, social difficulties, and major life stressors (e.g., grief, substance misuse, family conflict). She strives to establish a safe and open environment that is carefully designed to bolster each client's unique strengths and personality, while integrating fun and humour along the way. To maximize the effectiveness of treatment, Rachelle involves parents as experts on their children and key agents in carrying change from inside the therapy room into the child's day-to-day life.
In addition to providing individual child therapy services, Rachelle conducts psychoeducational assessments (e.g., learning disorders, giftedness, intellectual disabilities) and psychodiagnostic assessments to identify ADHD, executive functioning, and/or social-emotional difficulties. Ultimately, she intends to provide a warm and familiar space to all her clients by taking time to build a one-on-one relationship with each individual who comes through her door.