Dr. Zahra Poonawala

She is a qualified Mental health professional working in UAE for the last 5 years helping individuals, families and schools (Kings school Al Barsha, Creakids Nursery) and other centers of special needs. In her practice she involves family to help make a difference in a child’s life to work as a team and play an individual unique role to improve behavior.

She strongly believe that every individual is unique and thus incorporate various techniques, and modalities tailored to the client’s requirements.

Services

Working with Children and Families

Her areas of interest include working with children exhibiting behavior problems and having emotional instability, children’s having autism spectrum disorder and struggling with social relatedness and behavior problems.

While working with children she use various evidence-based behavior modifying techniques, incorporate various principles from Behavioral therapy through coaching and counseling the parents and educate them about behavioral expectations and find their solution.

She design and implement strategies and interventions to help children adjust to their school environment and other social situations.

At present, she is associated with UAE’s first Equine Assisted Support Group for parents of children with special needs at the Al Marmoom Initiative. The support group focuses on building self-care practices and empowering parents to cope with the daily stressors of life.

She is also counseling Adolescents and adults and helping them learn healthy coping skills to deal with life stresses. Positive thinking and self-help techniques to overcome daily life challenges. She incorporate client-centered approach and using mindfulness-based practices into their lives to increase the inner potential to its fullest and facilitate a deeper understanding of themselves.

Qualifications & Affiliations

• Master of Arts (Clinical Psychology) Fergusson College, Pune. India 2010
• Bachelor of Arts (Major: Psychology) Fergusson College, Pune, India 2008
• Equine Assisted Mental Health Practitioner University of Denver, Colorado, USA, 2018