Meet Your Therapists
Child and Teen Therapy in San Jose and Redwood City
At Your Therapy Nook, every family works with a therapist who specializes exclusively in children and teens.
No generalists.
No whoever-has-an-opening.
The model is the same regardless of who you work with: weekly sessions for your child, monthly parent coaching for you, and an approach built on the belief that behavior is communication — your child is telling you something, even when it doesn’t look that way yet.
When you reach out, we’ll help you find the right fit for your family.
Meet Our Team
Founder & Clinical Director
Hannah Ly, LMFT
Child, Teen & Play Therapist · San Jose and Redwood City
I’ve been working with children and families since 2012, but my path here started long before I had any credentials behind my name. At 22, I spent two weeks in an orphanage in Ukraine watching children who weren’t starving for food — they were starving for connection. That experience sent me into a decade of foster care advocacy, specialized training in attachment and trauma, and eventually graduate school for one reason: to have the skills to sit with children on the other side of hard things.
I work exclusively with children and teens ages 3–17. My approach is grounded in the belief that behavior is always communication — your child isn’t broken, they’re telling you something. My job is to help figure out what that is. And to help you hear it too.
Every family I work with includes monthly parent coaching built into the model from day one. You’re not just dropping your child off and waiting. You stay informed, you learn what I’m observing, and we work together on what’s happening at home. The therapy room can’t be the only place where your child gets to feel understood.
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, California · LMFT #129711
Synergetic Play Therapy
Brainspotting, Phase 1 + Brainspotting with Children · Pacific Trauma Center
Advanced Training in LGBTQ+ Competency and Treatment · Santa Clara County
M.A. in Counseling · Western Seminary
Associate Therapist
Bailey Verhulst
Child & Teen Therapist · San Jose and Redwood City Weekend Availability
Bailey was the kid who ran a café out of the living room, wrote the menus, and served her little sisters whether they wanted lunch or not. She was also the kid who struggled with social anxiety and got overstimulated at school, and who noticed that her foster sibling couldn't fall asleep unless an adult was nearby. She didn't have language for any of that then. She does now, and it's most of why she does this work.
Bailey works with children and teens ages 3 to 17, with a particular soft spot for the three to six-year-olds. Ask her what gets used most in the playroom and the honest answer is her. Kids brush her hair, hand her a part in bad guy versus good guy, and put her to work, because play is how children say the things they don't have words for yet. Tantrums are communication too. When a child is coming apart, they're telling you the moment got bigger than the tools they have.
She tends to click with the guarded ones, the kids who test whether she'll still be here after they show her their worst day. She will be. Outside the playroom you'll find her thrift shopping, outside somewhere, or holding a coffee.
Bailey sees children and teens at both the San Jose and Redwood City offices.
Supervised by Hannah Ly, LMFT #129711
-
An associate therapist holds a graduate degree in counseling, has passed their background check, and is registered with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences — the same licensing board that oversees fully licensed therapists. They’re working toward full licensure by accumulating supervised clinical hours. It’s a credential, not a gap.
-
That depends on what you’re measuring. Licensure tells you a therapist has met a required threshold — logged the hours, passed the exam. What it doesn’t tell you is who those hours were spent with.
A therapist can become fully licensed having spent most of their clinical time working with adults, couples, or groups — and then start seeing your child. The license doesn’t speak to that. What actually matters is whether your child’s therapist specifically trained for this population, on purpose. That’s what we look for when we hire, and it’s why Anissa is here. Child and family work isn’t something she landed in — it’s the work she came to do.
-
Every associate in California is required by law to work under a licensed supervisor. At Your Therapy Nook, that supervision is weekly — meaning Anissa reviews cases and receives direct clinical input on a consistent, ongoing basis. That kind of regular external review of the work isn’t something most therapists in private practice maintain after licensure. At Your Therapy Nook, we keep it in place because we think consistent oversight makes for better care.
A few questions we hear
Ready to get started?
Schedule a free introduction call — and we’ll take it from there.