Registered Art Therapist, Registered Psychotherapist, and arts-based wellness advocate.
I speak English, Urdu, and Hindi.
College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. Registration #: 009036
Canadian Art Therapy Association. Membership #: 54102684
Board Member, Research & Publications Chair, Canadian Art Therapy Association.
rakshanda@theartsytherapist.com
(289) 809 8032
Rakshanda Khan (she/her)
MA, DTATI, RP, RCAT
My origin story:
My story is one of crossing borders and navigating transitions. I grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, spent some years studying and working in the United Kingdom, and have made Canada my home since 2016. My first careers in advertising and television, followed by non-profit work, taught me about storytelling, human connection, and systemic influences—all of which now shape my perspective.
Becoming a parent to a neurodivergent child has been one of my most profound teachers. It fuels a special focus in my practice: supporting neurodivergent children and their families with both professional knowledge and lived experience. I am dedicated to ongoing learning in neurodiversity-affirming care and disability justice principles.
My Approach:
As a Registered Psychotherapist and Registered Art Therapist, I nurture a soft landing place for my clients so we can collaborate to honor your lived experience, strengths, creativity, and resourcefulness. I work from a relational, client-centered, anti-oppressive framework.
My practice is built on the belief that you hold the innate wisdom and resources needed to thrive. My role is to support you by affirming, strengthening, at times questioning and challenging, so you can uncover for yourself how to align your heart, body, and mind with what is true to you.
By integrating arts-based methods, somatic (body-aware) practices, self-aware mindfulness, we can gently untangle old patterns, regulate the nervous system, and envision new ways of being that feel truly authentic to you. Mindful presence can help us feel safe, regulated, and attuned with ourselves, and engaging with our imagination allows us to envision and embody authentic, more desirable futures.
My practice is grounded in:
- A Safe, Collaborative Partnership: You are the expert on your life.
- An Integrative Framework: I draw from a diverse range of trauma-focused modalities, including Art Therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and humanistic therapies.
- Core Values: My work is deeply informed by trauma-focused, strength-based, and systemic thinking, always through a decolonizing, neurodiversity-affirming, and social justice lens.
Areas of Support:
- Trauma & Abuse: Sexual, physical, emotional abuse; Childhood Trauma; PTSD; Human Trafficking; Acts of War; Intergenerational Trauma
- Emotional Regulation: Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Self-Harm, Suicidal Ideation, Burnout
- Relationship & Life Challenges: Codependency, Parenting, Divorce, Grief & Loss, Immigration, Workplace conflict
- Identity & Self: Self-Esteem, Body Image, Racial/Cultural Identity, Gender/Sexual Identity, Social Anxiety
- Health & Neurodiversity: Chronic Illness/Pain, Learning & Developmental Disabilities
I work with:
- Children & Adolescents (5 yrs – 18 yrs)
- Adults
- Families
Qualifications, Certifications & Trainings:
- Using the STAIR Model and Critical Race Theory when working with Black youth and families | 2026
- Attachment, Regulation and Competency Framework | 2026
- Emotionally Focused Family Therapy | as part of Advanced Certificate in Couple and Family Therapy Studies | University of Guelph | 2026
- Conflict Transformation, Collective Healing & Social Justice: Somatics, Deep Democracy & Transformative Justice | Waterline Co-Op | February, 2026
- Theories And Methods Of Family Therapy: Foundations Of The Field | as part of Advanced Certificate in Couple and Family Therapy Studies | University of Guelph | 2025
- Workshop on Understanding Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder | BridgeNorth | 2025
- Province of Ontario sponsored Anti-Human Trafficking training: Understanding and Working with Sexually Exploited Youth | 2025
- Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) | Medical University of South Carolina | 2025
- Two-Day Intensive Course: Clinical Supervision, Providing Effective Supervision, navigating Ethical Issues and managing Risk | George B. Haarman, PsyD, LMFT | Psychotherapy Networker & PESI | 2024
- Treating Complex Trauma with Internal Family Systems (IFS) | Two-Day Intensive Workshop | Frank Guastella Anderson, MD | Psychotherapy Networker & PESI | 2024
- Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Training for Trauma Healing | Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute | Toronto, 2024 (in process)
- Level 1 Certificate Course in Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy | Sue Johnson & Leanne Campbell | 2023
- Three-Day Dialectical Behavior Certification Training | Psychotherapy Networker & PESI | 2023.
- Janina Fisher’s Trauma Treatment Certification Training (CCTP): The Latest Advances and Proven Techniques to Resolve Deeply Held Trauma (Online Course) | 2023.
- Transforming Trauma with Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) by Sue Johnson & Leanne Campbell | 2023.
- IFS Online Circle: Foundations of the IFS Model from The IFS Institute | 2022.
- Trauma Informed Expressive Arts Therapy Level One from Trauma-Informed Practices & Expressive Arts Therapy Institute | February, 2021.
- Regulating the Traumatized Body and Mind through Expressive Arts: Helping Clients “Come to Their Senses” through Rhythm, Movement, Sound, and Imagery by Cathy Malchiodi | November, 2020.
- Expressive Arts Therapy and Traumatic Stress: Innovative and Embodied Approaches in the Age of COVID-19 by Cathy Malchiodi | June, 2020.
- CPI Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Training from Crisis Prevention Institute | October, 2021.
- Graduate Diploma in Art Therapy from the Toronto Art Therapy Institute| June 2020
- Diploma in Humanistic Integrative Counselling from CPPD Counselling School| August 2015
- MA Design and Art Direction from Manchester Metropolitan University | September 2004
- Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Design from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture| December 2002
Conference Presentations:
- Poster Presentation ‘Re-orienting post-secondary education politics of international students in Canada through the lens of social justice and art therapy’, with Ebru Ustundag, ‘Advancing Gender Equity in the South Asian Diaspora Conference’, Laadliyaan, 2024.
- Presentation ‘Re-orienting post-secondary education politics of international students in Canada through the lens of social justice and art therapy’, with Ebru Ustundag, Canadian Art Therapy Association Conference, 2023.
- Workshop ‘Invitation to generative pedagogies of health humanities: A workshop on images, texts, and assemblages’, Creating Space 13: Canadian Association for Health Humanities Annual Conference, 2023.
- Panel Presentation ‘Telling the story of living through a pandemic’, Graphic Medicine Conference, 2022.
- Webinar “Telling the story of living through a pandemic”, Canadian Art Therapy Association Virtual Conference, 2021.
- Virtual Panel Presentation “Collective Trauma and Temporal Experiences during the Covid-19 Pandemic”, Comic Studies Society Virtual Conference, August, 2021.
- Virtual Presentation ‘Comics in Online Art Therapy with Pakistani Adolescents’, Canadian Art Therapy Association Virtual Conference, 2020.
- Virtual Presentation ‘Comics in Online Art Therapy with Pakistani Adolescents’, Flyover Comics Symposium, September, 2020.
- Lightning Talk ‘The Psychotherapeutic Benefits of Comics as an Art Therapy Modality with Adolescents’, Graphic Medicine Conference, 2019.
Publications:
- Read Khan, R. (2026). Drawing Connections: Comics in Art Therapy Practice. In Moon, C. H. (Ed.), Materials and Media in Art Therapy: Contemporary Theory and Practice (pp. 194-209). Routledge.
- Read Khan, R. (2021). Comics in Online Art Therapy With Pakistani Adolescents (Bandes dessinées dans l’art-thérapie virtuelle avec des adolescents pakistanais), Canadian Journal of Art Therapy, 34:1, 33-44.