Sammy (Samantha) Merritt,
BA, MSc, RPsych
SHE/HER
REGISTERED PSYCHOLOGIST
QUALITIES
Sammy is certified in pediatric sleep
Sammy Merritt is a child psychologist
who uses her “Feelings Detective,” laughter,
and storytelling Superpowers
to help Calgary kids laugh
and grow their own Superpower strengths.
Sammy’s Superhero Story
Attention Parents
Before your first session, you can share this story
with your child. You can also scroll below
to read about Sammy’s
child psychologist expertise and experience
in her professional bio.
Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Samantha. Everyone called her Sammy. This is her Superpower story and she wants to share it with you. It’s about figuring out mysteries, laughing, and exploring your story.
Sammy loved stories, from people, movies, books, and even songs. They helped her learn and figure things out and made her laugh. Sammy had a lovely laugh and loved making her friends laugh. What a fun Superpower to share!
One of her favourite things was playing games, solving mysteries, and finding out stuff. That’s why she wanted to be a “Feelings Detective” when she grew up.
The grown-ups around her told Sammy that she was a fairy princess. They said that princesses wear pink dresses, tutus, and sparkly shoes.
Sammy thought about how she liked many things:
- Wearing fairy princess dresses, tutus, and sparkly shoes.
- Reading and playing quietly indoors sometimes.
- Pretty dresses, but her favourite colour was teal, not pink.
- Quiet games, but she also liked to climb trees and travel and take photos and explore the world.
- Exploring things she could see with her eyes (like rocks and stars and butterflies) and things she could not (like ideas, stories, and the meanings of feelings).
- Exploring but she thought pretty clothes weren’t allowed to get muddy and mucky.
Sammy thought carefully. What was she to do?
She reflected really hard with her mind and heart —as “Feelings Detectives” detectives do—
until she knew!
Fairy princesses can wear pink dresses —
AND they can ALSO wear other clothes or colours too!
Astronaut jackets, t-shirts, overalls, lab coats, hard hats,
jeans, heels, or rain boots that are teal.
Princesses can be strong, scientific, AND super cute.
So sometimes Sammy wore a fairy princess dress and played indoors. And sometimes, she explored the world outside—birds, ladybugs, rainy clouds, rocks. On rainy exploring days, she took her teal umbrella. She wore jeans, a teal t-shirt, and teal rain boots to play in the mud. How she loved splashing on puddles with zeal!
When she grew up, Sammy became a Registered Psychologist (a grown-up word for “Feelings Detective”). She works at Kids Reconnect, where she uses her Superpowers to help kids figure out mysteries, like why is this going on for you, how can we help you feel better, or why you are having those tricky feelings. Her favourite part about being a psychologist is making kids laugh.
Click on Sammy’s teal rain boots to splash on the puddle
Sammy’s Professional Bio
Sammy (Samantha) Merritt is a Registered Psychologist with the College of Alberta Psychologists, with a decade of experience providing therapy to kids, teens, and their parents. She is also receiving supervision in order to become a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist; she is currently an Associate.
Sammy works from a systemic lens, which means she sees relationships as the key area of focus in therapy and where change is most possible. When it comes to kids and teens, their parents are their most important relationships (and yes, siblings matter too), and so Sammy works with family members separately and together, all while being mindful of their relationships. She takes a relationally-focused approach to therapy, incorporating play-based and attachment-oriented interventions to support family members and strengthen both children’s mental health and their relationships with their family members.
One of Sammy’s areas of speciality is pediatric sleep, where she helps families with babies, toddlers, and elementary-aged kids get more sleep in ways that nurture the connection between parents and kids, while holding loving boundaries around sleep.
Sammy is passionate about working collaboratively with kids and families to cultivate lives and relationships that align with their strengths, values, hopes, and goals.
