For children ages 3 to 10 dealing with anxiety, big feelings, and behavior that has everyone stuck.
Book a Free 15-Minute Consultation3 to 10
San Jose and Redwood City
Weekly, 50 minutes
Every four weeks, every case
Free, 15 minutes
What you're living with
You already know something is wrong.
The school called again. Or it was the third meltdown before 8am, and you sat in the driveway a minute before you could make yourself go back in.
The hitting. The screaming over something you still can't identify.
Or they hold it together all day and fall apart the second they see you. The person who gets the worst of it is the one they feel safest with.
You've tried the charts, the calm voice, the consequences, the deep breaths. On a good day it works. On a bad day, which is most days lately, nothing does.
"Meltdowns about every little thing. Multiple times a day."
"He got sent home from school again."
"Once she's gone, there's no reasoning with her."
"My child's emotions are bigger than either of us can handle."
You dread pickup. The school's number comes up and your stomach drops.
Underneath the tired: the envy at another family's easy morning. The guilt after you lose it. The grief for how you pictured this.
Everyone has an answer.
Discipline.
She'll grow out of it.
Try a chart.
You've tried the chart.
You are not overreacting. You are worn down, and you need help. That is what we're for.
Your child isn't being bad. They're communicating.
The hitting, the meltdowns, the screaming, the shutting down. On the surface, all of that looks like defiance.
Your child is telling you something they don't have words for. They are overwhelmed, or scared, or holding a feeling too big for their body.
When a child is seen and understood, not only redirected, those behaviors quiet down. Not because someone trained them out, but because the child doesn't need them anymore. You can't do that decoding alone at 7:45am with your keys in your hand. That's where we come in.
I'm Hannah Ly, LMFT, founder and clinical director at Your Therapy Nook. I've been in your kitchen. Before I was a therapist I spent years as a nanny for Bay Area families, so I know the hours between pickup and bedtime from the inside. Nobody teaches this part.
My job is to see your child. Or the more honest way to say it: to work out what your child has been telling you all along, and get you in on it. Not to diagnose first and treat second, and not to hand you worksheets.
There are a few of us now. Every child therapist here trained under me, and I go over every case with them each week, so the approach your child gets doesn't depend on whose name is on the calendar. I take every consultation call myself, and if you'd like a particular therapist, just ask.
What parents notice
Not in the first week. Over time, once child therapy is underway, parents start noticing things:
You feel less like you are failing, because you are not failing.
Child therapy at Your Therapy Nook helps children ages 3 to 10 work through anxiety, big feelings, and hard behavior through play, which is how kids say what they cannot put into words yet. Every child's care includes parent coaching every four weeks, so the therapy keeps going at home.
We see children in San Jose and Redwood City, and children and teens are the only clients we take. Families come to us from San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Campbell, Los Gatos, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Atherton, and across the South Bay and Peninsula.
Your child walks into a room with sand trays, figures, art supplies, puppets, board games, and books, all within reach. (The sand tray is the most popular thing in the room. It is not close.) There is no clipboard, no agenda, no script.
Whatever they pick up, whatever they start doing, that is where we go. Your child's therapist is tracking all of it: what they reach for, what they avoid, how they play, what the play is saying. Reflecting it back, staying regulated alongside them, and responding as if what is happening in the room is happening for real, so that for your child it is.
That is play therapy. Play is how children under ten make sense of things, so it is the language we work in. Most Bay Area kids get almost no unstructured time, and this 50 minutes is often the only space in their week where nobody is telling them what to do. As your child gets older, or if they are closer to ten, sessions shift toward games, conversation, drawing, and art. The approach follows the child.
We do not see adults. Every therapist here trained specifically for child and teen therapy, because it is genuinely different from adult therapy. A general counseling practice where most clients are adults is not the same thing as a practice built around children from the start.
Every family gets parent sessions every four weeks, on the calendar from the start, not just when something goes wrong. A dedicated hour where your child's therapist tells you the themes they are seeing, helps you understand what is happening from a different angle, and gives you specific things to try at home. You are part of your child's care, not a bystander to it.
The goal here is not a compliant child. It is a child who feels understood and a family that can breathe again. We are not running a behavior-modification program. We work with your child as a whole person who is trying to tell you something.
Your Therapy Nook is a boutique group practice: Hannah as clinical director, plus therapists she hires, trains, and reviews weekly. One clinical philosophy, held consistently, whoever your family sees.
Separation anxiety, the what-ifs that will not stop, fear of making mistakes, school mornings that fall apart every single day. Anxiety is the most common reason families come to us, and it responds well once you get at what is underneath it.
Hitting, throwing, meltdowns that seem wildly out of proportion, anger that arrives out of nowhere. Usually there is something underneath that nobody has helped the child name yet. The behavior is the signal.
Two houses. New routines. Goodbyes at the car door that break your heart a little every time. Kids do not struggle with this because they are fragile. They struggle when nobody has helped them process what is actually happening.
Something happened. A move, a loss, something they saw, something they will not talk about. Children process this differently than adults do, so we meet them where they are.
Attachment wounds look different in kids who have been through early loss or disruption. We have specific training for this, and it shows in how we work.
No one to play with at recess. “Nobody likes me” on the ride home. Shyness and self-doubt usually sit on top of a worry or a hurt, and play gives a child somewhere to practice being bold before trying it with other kids.
"We just need help." Some parents call unable to name exactly what is happening. That is always enough. You do not need to have it figured out before you call.
You tell me what is going on. I run every consultation myself, and I will tell you honestly whether we are a good fit, what I think your child needs, and which therapist on our team is the best match, usually one of our other therapists, each trained and supervised by me. No obligation. Most parents say they wish they had called sooner.
Before your child ever comes in, your child's therapist meets with you alone. You set goals together, and they learn about your child from the person who knows them best.
Your child comes in weekly for 50 minutes, in person at our San Jose or Redwood City office. What happens in the room follows your child's lead.
Every four weeks you meet without your child. Your therapist tells you the themes they are seeing, what to try at home, and answers whatever you are wondering about. You are never dropped off and left out.
Progress is not linear and I will not tell you it is. But at some point the calls from school get further apart. The mornings get less chaotic. You stop walking on eggshells.
Child therapy is therapy adapted to how children actually work. For kids ages 3 to 10 that mostly means play therapy: your child plays, in a room set up for exactly that, and a trained child therapist reads what the play is saying and responds to it. At Your Therapy Nook every case also has parent coaching every four weeks, so the change carries into home.
If the worry has lasted more than a few weeks and it is affecting school, sleep, friendships, or the mood of your home, that is enough of a reason. You do not need a crisis and you do not need a diagnosis first. Most parents who call us are not certain either, and that is part of what the free consultation is for.
We see children starting at age 3. Play therapy works for very young children, they do not have to talk about their feelings for it to work, so age is rarely the barrier parents expect it to be.
Sessions at Your Therapy Nook run $200 to $300 depending on the therapist your family sees, and parent coaching every four weeks is part of every case, billed at the same session rate. We are private pay, and we provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement.
For most of what brings families here, anxiety, behavior, big feelings, family change, a licensed child therapist is the right fit. A child psychologist with a PhD or PsyD is who you want for formal testing, like an autism or learning evaluation. We are licensed child and teen therapists and we do not do testing, so if testing is what your child needs, we will say so and point you toward someone good.
Yes. Bailey Verhulst, ASW, is trained in AutPlay, play therapy adapted for autistic and neurodivergent children, and she sees kids at both offices. We don't do autism testing or diagnosis, so if you need an evaluation we'll point you to a child psychologist. Therapy can start with or without a diagnosis. Ask for Bailey on your free 15-minute call.
Children ages 3 to 10 for the child therapy program. Teens ages 11 to 17 are a separate program.
No, we do not bill insurance. We are private pay. Sessions run $200 to $300 depending on the therapist, and current rates are on our rates page. We do provide superbills, so if you have out-of-network benefits you can submit one and your plan reimburses you directly.
Yes. In-person sessions only, at both our San Jose and Redwood City offices. Child therapy needs the room, the tools, and the physical presence, so we do not offer virtual sessions for this program.
They do not have to. That is the whole point of play therapy. Children say things through play long before they can put them into words, and often more honestly. Your child does not need to sit across a desk and answer questions for this to work.
Yes, through the parent coaching sessions every four weeks. Your child's therapist tells you the themes, what they are working with, and what they are noticing. You will not get a word-for-word report, and even young children get a version of the conversation about what stays private and what gets shared. Kids understand how it works. You will not be in the dark about your child's care.
It depends on the child and what we are working with. Some families see real change in a few months. Others stay longer, because the therapy goes deeper or because the room itself has become something the child does not want to give up. You will get honest updates. No open-ended treatment with no end in sight.
Two offices. San Jose at 2901 Moorpark Ave, Suite 270, and Redwood City at 611 Veterans Blvd, Suite 210. The San Jose office serves families from Willow Glen, Campbell, Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Milpitas, and Fremont, and the Redwood City office serves Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, San Carlos, and San Mateo, with Mountain View and Los Altos about equally close to both.
Yes. Sabrina Yglesias, our bilingual child therapist, provides child therapy and play therapy fully in Spanish or English at our San Jose office, and parent coaching sessions are available in Spanish too. Ask for her by name on your free 15-minute call.
Ways to help an anxious child at home, from steady routines to modeling calm, and how to tell when it is time to see a child therapist in San Jose.
Why small things set off big meltdowns, what is usually underneath them, and which common reactions make things worse, from a San Jose child therapist.
What play therapy is, what it is not, and why children ages 3 to 10 work things out through play. For parents weighing whether it fits their child.
It is a real conversation with a person, not a form. You tell us what is going on, and we will tell you honestly what we think your child needs and whether we are the right fit. You do not have to have it sorted out before you call.
