Education & Training
Dr. Saunia Ahmad completed her MA/ Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at York University, Toronto, Canada. During both her master’s and doctoral programs, she was awarded the Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). This scholarship is awarded to top-tier graduate students and was awarded based on her research in couples therapy and cultural sensitivity in psychotherapy.
Prior to starting the Toronto Psychology Clinic, Dr. Saunia Ahmad trained and worked in a diverse range of settings that include the York University Psychology Training Clinic (YUPC), the Borderline Personality Disorder Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), inpatient and outpatient mental health departments at North York General Hospital in Toronto, as well as the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, New York.
Dr. Saunia Ahmad previously worked as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Toronto where she provided executive health assessments to busy professionals. She has worked as a Clinical Psychologist at the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where she provided counselling and support to patients, couples and families coping with cancer. She also participated in a project funded by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF) to develop online psychological support for couples coping with cancer. She also trained and supervised graduate students providing clinical services at the York University Psychology Clinic (YUPC).
Theoretical Approach
Dr. Ahmad’s approach to psychotherapy integrates techniques and theory from several well-researched and highly recommended approaches in which she has extensive training. She continues to stay up to date on new developments in each of these approaches, including:
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Mindfulness
- Family systems theory
- Contemporary psychodynamic
- Social constructivist and Narrative approaches
Dr. Ahmad works with a broad range of issues from general adjustment issues (e.g., workplace stress, anxiety related to academics) to clinical diagnosis (e.g., depression, personality disorders, PTSD, bipolar, psychosis).
Languages
Dr. Ahmad provides services in English, Hindi, and Urdu.
Cultural Sensitivity and Diversity
Dr. Ahmad established a name for herself by being the first to initiate and complete a study to evaluate the effectiveness of an existing couple intervention with couples who identified as South Asian and were living in Canada (view her publications). The focus of this project was to better understand how underlying theories of psychotherapy for couples are biased towards one cultural worldview (Western culture)and to then expand the underlying theory to accommodate diverse cultural perspectives on marriage and family. This includes recognizing the multiple identities an individual will have because he/she has lived in different countries, belongs to diverse communities (religious, ethnic, etc.) or has grown up in a time and place different from their parents.
Dr. Ahmad is interested in issues related to discrimination and marginalization. Her practice is LGBT affirmative. She is particularly interested in working with members of the Muslim and South Asian communities who struggle with the lack of acceptance from their friends, family and community of their sexual identity.
Consultations and Presentations
Dr. Ahmad provides consultations, workshops and presentations to professionals and the community on delivering culturally sensitive psychotherapy. See list of her workshops and presentations.
Research & Teaching
Dr. Ahmad continues to be actively engaged in training and research alongside her role as a clinician in private practice. As a researcher, specifically in the area of psychotherapy effectiveness, she remains up to date on advances in the theory and practice of effective psychotherapy. Her current research interests include cultural sensitivity, couple therapy and coping with chronic disease. Dr. Ahmad has previously been an adjunct faculty at York University and Humber College.
Dr. Ahmad completed a postdoctoral clinical research fellowship in the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. She worked with a team of researchers to run a national, randomized control trial evaluating the effectiveness of Couplelinks, an online couple workshop for young breast cancer patients and their partners.
Dr. Ahmad has published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and provided presentations at national and international conferences. She was invited to be an editorial board member of the highly regarded Journal of Marital and Family Therapy.
Personal Background
Dr. Saunia Ahmad identifies as a second-generation South Asian. Her parents are first-generation Muslim immigrants from India. She was born in a small town north of Edmonton, Alberta, and spent her childhood in Toronto, Ontario. She also spent a great part of her life in the Middle East, India, the UK, and the US. Having lived in many different countries over the course of her life, she has a personal understanding of how one’s identity is a pluralistic combination of the various countries, communities, families and institutions they belong to. This informs her work in psychotherapy with clients.
Memberships
Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy
American Psychological Association (APA)
Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)
Ontario Psychological Association (OPA)
Peer Reviewer for the Following Journals:
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy
Psycho-Oncology
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships