Biography

Dr. Sonia Dhawan is a registered Clinical Psychologist licensed to practice in the Province of Ontario since 2000. She sees individuals from a broad range of ages, from adolescents to the elderly. Dr. Dhawan’s experience includes working with individuals in hospitals, health care centers, community agencies, and college and university counselling centers.

Dr. Sonia Dhawan provides assessment, therapy and consultation in a number of areas including depression, anxiety, trauma and life transitions. In addition to these general areas of practice, Dr. Dhawan also specializes in working with multicultural individuals and helping them to deal with cross-cultural issues, such as the adjustment to a new culture, inter-generational conflict and cultural identity issues.

Qualifications

Dr. Sonia Dhawan’s qualifications include a Bachelors degree from McGill University and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Clinical Psychology from Queen’s University. She has been registered as a Clinical Psychologist with the College of Psychologists of Ontario since 2000.

Dr. Dhawan has recently completed her Certificate in Applied Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

Membership

Dr. Dhawan is a member of the Ontario Psychologists of Ontario.

Experience

Dr. Dhawan has 20 years of experience working with individuals in hospitals, health care centers, community agencies, and college and university counselling centers.

She has presented talks and workshops on a number of cross-cultural issues to hospital clinics, counselling centers and professional groups. Topics have included “Delivering Culturally Sensitive Services” and “Crossing Cultures.”

Therapy Approach

Short-term and long-term therapy are both available. The length of the therapy depends on the individual’s needs and will be determined with the client. Dr. Dhawan uses brief solution-focused therapy in her short-term work, which has been found to be very effective.

Her work tends to be insight-oriented but she draws on her training in cognitive-behavioural psychology, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), cross-cultural psychology and dialectical behaviour therapy to help her clients.

Therapy Style

Dr. Dhawan is very client-centered and has a very warm, caring style that will put even the most apprehensive clients at ease. She is compassionate yet straight-forward and enjoys helping clients understand how their core beliefs from their past may be causing their current problems.