Dr. Vanessa Bao, Ph.D. is a registered psychologist with the College of Psychologists of Ontario. She specializes in helping children, adolescents and families, and holds competencies in both clinical psychology and school psychology. She graduated with a doctorate in School/Applied Child Psychology from McGill University, in 2018. She is trilingual in English, French and Italian.
During her graduate studies, Dr. Bao had the opportunity to work and intern in day treatment programs, hospital and clinical research settings, outpatient clinics, community mental health centres, and schools. After obtaining her degree, Dr. Bao worked in private practice and was a staff psychologist at the English Montreal School Board, where she had the opportunity to provide support to children with severe emotional, learning, and behavioural needs in small trauma-informed classrooms. Her experience across numerous settings, has allowed her to develop expertise working with youth with a wide variety of presenting concerns. In particular, she is skilled in providing assessment and therapy to individuals presenting with learning disabilities, attention problems, anxiety, depression, autism, intellectual disabilities, behavioural difficulties and social-emotional challenges.
Dr. Bao combines her experience, her passion for working with children and adolescents, and her analytic approach to ensure that she provides comprehensive assessments that will lead to a deeper understanding of a client’s unique profile. She strives to support clients and their families in identifying their specific strengths and challenges, and helping them to develop strategies to be successful in all areas of their lives. Her empathetic nature, combined with her client-centered approach and sense of humour, help to put at ease those who may be nervous about the assessment process.
In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family, going to concerts, and playing board games. She is also (slowly!) learning to knit.
