A child and teen therapy practice in San Jose and Redwood City. Play therapy, teen therapy, and parent coaching in every case.
Book a Free 15-Minute ConsultationAges served
Children and teens, ages 3 to 17
Locations
San Jose and Redwood City, CA
Parent coaching
Every four weeks, every case
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Free 15-minute phone consultation
Your Therapy Nook is a child and teen therapy practice in San Jose and Redwood City, California: play therapy, teen therapy, and parent coaching for ages 3 to 17. Every therapist here works the same way: helping children put their inner world somewhere, and helping parents hear what their child has been saying.
Children and teens are the whole practice. That is the only population we take.
The mornings that fall apart before 8am. The school's number on your phone, and the half-second where you brace before answering.
The advice that worked for someone else's kid and bounced off yours.
The hour after bedtime when the house finally goes quiet and you sit in it, running the day back, wondering if you are getting this wrong.
Most parents do not find this page out of curiosity. Something has been building, and you are tired in a way that is hard to explain to people whose kids are easy.
And underneath the tired, the feelings you do not say out loud.
The flash of envy watching another family's easy morning.
The guilt that lands right after you lose it.
The grief, quiet and specific, for how you imagined this going.
People have opinions, which somehow makes it lonelier.
He just needs discipline.
She will grow out of it.
Kids these days.
You have nodded through all of it, knowing none of it fits the kid you actually have.
You are not getting it wrong.
And you do not have to sort this out alone.
If you have been wondering whether what is happening with your child is really bad enough to call someone, it is. That is almost always the last question a parent asks before they pick up the phone.
Child, Teen, and Play Therapist
I'm Hannah. I've worked with children since 2012, and I built this practice around one idea: behavior is communication, and connection comes before correction.
I started out as a nanny for Silicon Valley families. The parents I worked for were trying hard, and what they were missing was someone who could tell them what their child's behavior meant. That became the job.
For years, that job was mine alone. Now it's a team's. Your Therapy Nook is a group practice, and the rest of this page is about how we work, together.
Read Hannah's full storyYour Therapy Nook is a team of child and teen therapists, and every one of us works the same way. Hannah trains every therapist herself and reviews cases weekly, so the approach doesn't change depending on who your family sees. You're not choosing between different philosophies under one roof. You're choosing the practice, and we match you with the therapist.
That matters because a lot of group practices are really a set of independent therapists sharing a name and a booking page, each doing their own version of therapy. Ours isn't. Every therapist here trained under Hannah and holds to her standard, and the standard is short enough to say: child-led, attachment-focused, connection before correction.
Meet the teamHannah started this practice because of what she kept watching families get instead of help. A few things we've decided to do another way:
We don't sell therapy in a package.
Not six sessions and a coping-skills certificate. Kids don't heal on a schedule, so we stay as long as it's working, and we tell you when it isn't.
You are part of every case.
Some practices see the child and never speak to the parent. Other times the child therapist is great with kids, and parents still go months without knowing what their child is working on or what to try at home. Here, parent coaching every four weeks is part of every case, because most of the change lands at home.
Children and teens are all we see.
Most therapist profiles list children, teens, adults, couples, and families, and from the outside you can't tell who actually spends their days with kids. Here you don't have to guess. Every room, every therapist, and every training hour goes to children and teens.
We don't treat the behavior as the problem.
When therapy only aims at stopping a behavior, the feeling underneath it doesn't go anywhere, and a child can learn to hide it instead. We start with what the behavior is saying. The boundaries still come, second.
The same three things, for every family.
Fifty minutes with your child or teen, in person, where the child leads and the therapist tracks what they're being shown.
A working session with you, where the therapist tells you what they're seeing and what to try at home.
Every case is reviewed with Hannah, so no therapist works alone and no family's care rests on one person's read.
• A kid who feels their feelings, can say them, and can move through them
• A kid whose worth is not up for review, good report card or bad
• A 25-year-old who still knows how to be a kid
• "Fix my kid's feelings"
• "I just want them to regulate and behave"
• A proper, pruned, easy-going kid who never causes trouble. That is not a healthy kid. That is a kid rehearsing to become a shut-down adult.
What a therapist believes about children shows up in the room within about ten minutes. Here is ours, so you can decide before you book.
The meltdown, the shutting down, the thing at school that got you called: that is your child saying something they do not yet have words for. We work on what is underneath it. That is slower than a behavior chart, and it reaches further.
Kids around here grow up with a hundred voices saying the grade is the self, the resume is the person, worth has a scoreboard. We are not going to be voice one hundred and one.
Most of our parents are high achievers, and the instinct runs deep: find the best specialist, hand off the problem, let them work. Child therapy is the exception. Your child's patterns live inside their relationships, most of all with you, so what we offer is a team you are on.
It is also why there is a parent session every four weeks. Without it you get a child who does beautifully in our room and the same evening at home.
For most kids, this is it, and it shapes whether they ever reach for help again. We work hard to make sure therapy is not something your child dreads, and we never use the hour to sand your child down into someone easier.
Your child sees us for 50 minutes a week. They are with you for the rest of it.
That math is the reason this practice is built the way it is. The hour matters, and it is not where most of the change happens.
Come to parent coaching.
Every four weeks, without your child. It is part of every case here, and it is a working session, not a progress report.
Be willing to change something.
It is usually smaller than parents expect: the first words out of your mouth when a meltdown starts, or how you greet a kid who walks in upset.
Make therapy the priority.
When the week is overloaded, let an activity give before therapy does. Everything else goes better for a kid who is okay inside. We do not need perfect, just first.
Keep the weekly slot.
Kids read commitment in the calendar: the schedule changes, the skipped weeks, the month off. A child who is not sure their therapist will be there does not show up, not really. Therapy in stops and starts teaches a kid that opening up gets interrupted, and that can hurt more than it helps. If you are in, be in.
Tell us in advance.
Things come up. The families this goes best for plan around them instead of canceling the morning of.
Trust it before you can see it.
You will not hear everything that happens in the room, and we cannot give you a timeline. That privacy is on purpose. It is what lets the room belong to your child. For a while you will be going partly on trust, before you can see the change at home.
Give it a few months before you judge it.
Ask us hard questions about whether it is working, any time, and we will give you a straight answer. We will also tell you if we do not think it is working. What tends not to go well is deciding at week three. Four sessions is not enough to know.
Fifty minutes where one adult's whole job is your child.
For younger kids that means play, because play is how children work out what is happening inside them before they have words for it. The room is stocked accordingly: figures, art supplies, games, books, a sand tray.
Your child leads. The therapist follows and tracks what they are being shown. The same dinosaur chosen every week. The story that gets started and then abandoned. The painting made and then covered over with black.
Drawing, games, and real conversation about what is going on in their world. We get curious about the person first and the problem second.
For teens carrying anxiety, trauma, or the kind of overwhelm that talking has not touched, we use Brainspotting, a brain-body approach that works when words have run out.
The methods change with the kid. The stance stays where it is: your teen is someone to understand.
Every four weeks we meet with you, without your child. We tell you what we are seeing, ask what has been happening at home, and give you something specific to try.
With teens, we check first about what they are comfortable having shared. Their trust holds. You still get what you need.
Most of the change lands at home, in the ten minutes after school and the hour before bed. So this part is standard, not an upgrade.
When a child hits, melts down, or hides under a desk at school, they are communicating something they cannot yet say out loud. So the first question we ask is what they are saying, rather than what is wrong with them.
Once a parent can hear it, the behavior usually settles on its own, because the child no longer needs it to be heard.
This is the sentence the whole practice runs on. Here's what it actually means.
A flooded kid can't learn. Correction aimed at a dysregulated child bounces off, or lands as "something is wrong with me." So the order matters: connect first.
Get to what's driving the behavior, let the child feel understood, help the body settle. Then correct, and it lands, because it's coming from someone the child trusts, aimed at a kid who can actually hear it.
At home it sounds like this: "You're really mad. Something about that felt unfair." First. The boundary still comes. It just comes second, and it works better there.
Correction without connection is friction, and friction is what most families are exhausted from by the time they call us.
Concerns We Treat
We have two offices and we see children and teens in person at both.
Our San Jose office serves families from Willow Glen, Campbell, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Milpitas, and Fremont, and our Redwood City office serves Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, San Carlos, Belmont, and San Mateo, with Mountain View and Los Altos about equally close to both.
There is no score. There is a set of things that change in a fairly predictable order, mostly at home rather than in session.
Your child stops fighting going.
Usually within a month or two. They ask when the next one is.
Recovery gets faster.
The meltdowns still happen, and they get shorter. This is the most reliable early marker.
They start naming things.
"I'm mad." "I don't want to." It can sound like more talking back. It is usually the opposite.
The frequency drops.
Fewer hard mornings, fewer calls from school. This one takes longest, so it is a poor thing to measure in month one.
You see it coming.
You know what to do more often than not, and the house feels less like something you are managing.
We review all of this in parent coaching. If we are three or four months in and none of it is moving, we will say so directly, and that may mean changing the approach or pointing you somewhere else.
Your Therapy Nook works with children and teens ages 3 to 17. Children and teens are the only population the practice serves, so every therapist, every training hour, and every therapy room is focused on this age group.
Yes. Your Therapy Nook is a group practice led by founder Hannah Ly, LMFT, with therapists she hires, trains, and clinically directs. Everyone here uses the same child-led, attachment-focused approach, and Hannah reviews cases weekly. On the free 15-minute call, we match each family with the therapist we think fits best, often one of the therapists Hannah trains and supervises, based on the child's age, what is going on, and the parents' goals, and you can request any therapist by name.
No. Your Therapy Nook works only with children and teens ages 3 to 17. Parents are involved through parent coaching every four weeks that is part of every child's care, but the practice does not provide individual adult therapy, couples therapy, or family therapy as standalone services.
No. Your Therapy Nook is private pay and does not bill insurance, but it provides superbills you can submit for out-of-network reimbursement.
Sessions run $200 to $300 depending on the therapist your family sees, and every case includes a parent coaching session every four weeks at the same session rate. Current rates for each therapist are listed on the rates page.
Your Therapy Nook has two offices: San Jose at 2901 Moorpark Ave, Suite 270, and Redwood City at 611 Veterans Blvd, Suite 210. The practice serves families across the South Bay and Peninsula, including Santa Clara, Campbell, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Menlo Park.
Sessions at Your Therapy Nook are in person only, at the San Jose and Redwood City offices. The practice does not offer telehealth for children and teens, because the play therapy room itself is part of the therapy. Parent coaching every four weeks can be done by video.
Your Therapy Nook uses child-led play therapy, Synergetic Play Therapy, Brainspotting, and attachment-focused parent coaching. Every family also receives a parent coaching session every four weeks as a standard part of the model.
It depends on the child and what is driving things, and progress is not linear. Some families notice changes at home within a couple of months, and others need longer, especially when something has been building for years. We review how things are going regularly so the plan matches what your child actually needs.
The first step is a free 15-minute phone consultation. You can book online at yourtherapynook.com/introduction-call or call (408) 461-5935. You tell us what has been going on, and by the end of the call you will know whether we are the right fit and which therapist makes sense for your family.
Why specialization matters, questions to ask, red flags, and how to tell when you have found the right fit.
What we offer families on the Peninsula: play therapy, teen therapy, parent coaching, and how to get started.
A play therapist explains why sessions look like ordinary play, what is actually happening in the room, and what change tends to look like over time.
A free 15-minute call is how it starts. You tell us what is going on with your child or teen, we ask a few questions, and by the end we will both know whether we are the right fit. If we are not, we will point you toward someone who is.
Book a Free 15-Minute Consultation
