Dr. Shannon McHugh, PsyD

Dr. Shannon V. McHugh is a Los Angeles native, growing up just outside of Burbank, California. She earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Southern California (USC) in psychology with a minor in social work focusing on Children and Families in Urban America in 2011. She has always had a passion for working with children, and during her time at USC, she became even more dedicated to learning about child development, particularly how their brain development affects their ability to manage their emotions. She continued to pursue her goal of learning to work with children and families, and this led her to complete her dual masters and doctorate degree program from California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) at Alliant University, Los Angeles, with an emphasis on family, children, and couples in 2016.

Currently, Dr. McHugh is a licensed psychologist (PSY29576), a certified Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) therapist, and a PCIT Level 1 Trainer. She does psychotherapy work in a virtual teletherapy practice and specializes in treatment of children, adolescents, and adults who have developmental and social delays, behavioral difficulties, those who have experienced traumatic events in their past, or those struggling with a combination of mental health and physical health and/or fitness concerns. She has expertise in helping parents learn how to help deeply feeling children with big emotions (and even bigger behaviors!) to learn how to regulate their emotions… which ultimately helps parents reduce their parenting stress and feel more confident in tackling difficulties that come up with their relationships with their children. She is also a freelance blog writer who writes for various publications and also has experience an assistant editor for several academic journals.

In addition to her psychological credentials, Dr. McHugh is a certified fitness trainer and nutrition specialist that has a special credential as a youth fitness trainer from the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA). Growing up, Dr. McHugh was an athlete from a very young age, participating in team sports throughout her entire childhood and has continued to be active in sports team environments as an adult. She believes that through team sports she learned some of life’s most important skills, particularly cooperation, flexibility, grit, and teamwork. Being active and athletic also helped her develop a strong set of personal goals and a healthy self-concept as well.

As a result, she has always seen a connection between physical fitness and mental health and has been eager to figure out how to merge her two greatest passions of her life: psychology and physical fitness. Research is currently centered around the connections between nutrition and physical activity on people’s mental health, and this has ignited Dr. McHugh’s passion to teach children at young ages about these connections in hopes that this knowledge will vastly improve their lives and prevent the development of severe mental health concerns later in life.

That’s why she and Dr. Jesi Sasaki developed the YouTube educational program, The Learn & Burn Explorers!  Dr. McHugh and Dr. Sasaki provide fun, free-to-access education about mental health to all kids on this platform using physical activity and escape room style challenges to keep them interested and engaged.

They also offer a subscription package where kids can delve deeper into the topics with fun bonus content like extra videos, experiments, and games! Check out their website for more information (coming soon!)