For the first few years, Your Therapy Nook was me, a playroom, and a calendar that kept filling up.
This year that changed. I hired two child and teen therapists who play the way I play, and I want you to meet each of them properly, because if you call us, your child may end up in their room. This post is about Sabrina. Bailey gets her own.
Who Sabrina Yglesias Is: Senior Associate Therapist at Your Therapy Nook in San Jose
Sabrina and I go back further than this practice. We worked together in community mental health here in San Jose before Your Therapy Nook existed, so I knew how she was in a room long before I interviewed her for the team. She is the person the slow-to-warm-up kid picks. The child who won't leave their parent's leg in the waiting room, the one other adults have decided is difficult, the one who has quietly stopped expecting grown-ups to get it right. Sabrina doesn't rush that kid. She doesn't need them to look at her yet. She waits, and she means it, and kids can tell.
Her training. Sabrina has a master's in Counseling Psychology from the University of San Francisco and a psychology degree from San Jose State, and she trained in play therapy and motivational interviewing. She's a registered associate marriage and family therapist, which means she practices under my supervision. In plain terms: I see her cases, we talk about them regularly, and your child gets two sets of eyes instead of one.
Sabrina Yglesias, Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #137432. Supervised by Hannah Ly, LMFT #129711.
What Is Child Therapy? What Child Therapy Looks Like With Sabrina
Parents ask me this on almost every first call, so it belongs here.
Play Is the Language of Child Therapy
Child therapy for a young kid is not a smaller version of adult therapy. A six-year-old can't sit on a couch and explain that the move made them feel unsafe, or that the fighting at home lands in their stomach. What they can do is play it. Play is the language kids already speak, so play therapy is how child therapy actually happens in our rooms. The child leads, the therapist follows, and the therapist's job is to see what the play is saying and, over time, help the child feel understood enough that the hard behaviors become less necessary.
Sabrina does this her own way, and I like her way. Ask her clients about the Uno cards. Some sessions start there, with the colors standing in for feelings, because a card is sometimes easier than a sentence. From there the child chooses: play, art, games, or talking. With teens it's less play and more real conversation, still on their terms. Nobody gets a clipboard.
Parent Coaching Is the Other Half of Child Therapy
The other half of child therapy is you. Every four weeks Sabrina meets with you, without your kid, for parent coaching. She tells you what she's seeing, you tell her what home looks like, and together you work out what to try next. The room is only fifty minutes. Home is the rest of the week. That's true for every therapist here, and it's why parents are part of the therapy, not spectators to it.
A Spanish-Speaking Child Therapist in San Jose
Sabrina works in English and Spanish. I want to be specific about why that matters, because "bilingual" on a website can sound like a checkbox.
Feelings have a first language. A child who grew up hearing "¿qué te pasa?" at bedtime may not have the English words for what's wrong, and shouldn't have to find them before they can get help. A parent who thinks in Spanish shouldn't have to translate their own kid back to a therapist in a parent coaching session. With Sabrina, a family can do the whole thing, child sessions and parent coaching, in whichever language the feelings actually live in, or switch between the two the way a lot of San Jose households already do.
Sabrina sees children and teens at our San Jose office on Moorpark Avenue, including weekends.
What Sabrina Helps With: Anger, Two Households, and Anxious Kids
Anger in Children: The Messenger, Not the Problem
Sabrina has a soft spot for angry kids, and she treats anger the way I do, as the messenger and not the problem. Other feelings always travel with it, fear and hurt and shame, and it takes patience rather than consequences to get a kid safe enough to show you what they are. If you've been told your child has an anger problem, that's the door Sabrina walks through first.
Child Therapy for Divorce and Two Households
She also sees a lot of children adjusting to two households, which in my intake data is the second most common reason a San Jose parent calls us. The goodbye at the car door, the kid who won't say which house they like better because they're afraid it's a betrayal, the loyalty bind nobody meant to create. Sabrina isn't part of the conflict, and that's the point.
Anxiety in Kids Who Don't Cause Trouble
And she sees the quiet worriers. The anxious kids who don't cause trouble at school and so get missed, the ones with the stomachaches on Sunday night. Those kids often take the longest to warm up, which is exactly why Sabrina is a good fit for them.
What the First Session With Sabrina Looks Like
You come in together. The first session is not a drop-off. For a younger child, you're in the waiting room and often in the playroom too, and your kid can stay glued to your leg for as long as they need to. Sabrina won't peel them off you. She'll get down on the floor, put something interesting within reach, and wait. For a teen, the first session usually starts with you in the room to talk about what's been going on and what everyone is hoping for, and then Sabrina gets curious about your teen as a person: what they like, what they're into, who they are when nobody's asking them to fix anything.
Nobody makes your child talk. Your kid doesn't have to explain why they're there. Sabrina will offer the Uno cards, or the sand, or the art supplies, and let them pick. A child who spends the whole first session building something in silence has still told her a lot.
You'll know what she saw. Sabrina will tell you what she noticed, in plain language, not a report card. The first few sessions are about your child deciding the room is safe. Once that happens, the actual therapy has already started.
How to Tell Your Child They're Going to See Sabrina
Parents ask me this constantly, and the short answer is: be honest, keep it simple, and don't sell it. Something like this, in whatever words are yours:
"We're going to see someone named Sabrina. She has a room with toys and games and art stuff, and her job is to help kids with big feelings. You don't have to talk if you don't want to. I'll be right there."
In Spanish, if that's the language your child is calmest in:
"Vamos a conocer a alguien que se llama Sabrina. Tiene un cuarto con juguetes, juegos y cosas para dibujar, y su trabajo es ayudar a los niños con sentimientos grandes. No tienes que hablar si no quieres. Yo voy a estar ahí."
Don't frame it as a consequence, and don't promise it'll be fun. Let it be a place. If you want the longer version, I wrote a whole post on how to tell your child they're going to therapy.
How to Start Child Therapy With Sabrina in San Jose
Every family at Your Therapy Nook starts the same way: a free 15-minute call with me. I listen, I ask about your kid, and then I match your family to the therapist who fits. If you want Sabrina, say so on the call, and when it's a good fit, that's who you'll get. Sessions with Sabrina are at a lower rate than sessions with me; the current numbers are on the rates page, and we provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement.
What I can't promise is a timeline. Some kids need a few sessions just to decide the room is safe, and the slow-to-warm-up ones Sabrina is best with sometimes need more. That's normal. It's also the part I trust her with most, because she was waiting out nervous kids long before she came to work with me.
Ready to Talk? Schedule a Free Consultation
I'm Hannah Ly, LMFT, founder of Your Therapy Nook. If you're wondering whether child therapy could help your kid, in English or in Spanish, I'd love to talk. We start with a free 15-minute call, no intake forms and no pressure, and we figure out together whether Your Therapy Nook is the right fit, and whether Sabrina is the right person for your child.
Schedule a Free 15-Minute Consultation
About the Author, Hannah Ly - San Jose Child Therapist
Hannah Ly is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #129711) and the founder and clinical director of Your Therapy Nook, a boutique child and teen therapy practice with offices in San Jose and Redwood City, CA. She is a child therapist, play therapist, and teen therapist, trained in Synergetic Play Therapy and Brainspotting, with a long background in adoption and foster care. Hannah does every family's first call herself, and every therapist on the team practices the way she does. Every family gets child-led play therapy or teen therapy plus parent coaching every four weeks.
Learn more About Hannah