Hayfa Bouzouita, MS

Who Is Hayfa Bouzouita?

Hayfa Bouzouita, MS is a Clinical Therapist Intern at Serenity Behavioral Health Services in Westerville, Ohio, currently practicing under the clinical supervision of Rachel Mertens, MA, LPCC-S. She is a Non-U.S. Licensed Child Psychologist with prior licensure and clinical experience in France and Tunisia, and is completing the supervised hours and coursework required for Ohio licensure as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC).

Before coming to the United States, Hayfa worked as a psychologist in private practice and as a school psychologist in Tunisia, and completed clinical work with psychological associations in Marseille, France. These experiences gave her direct exposure to children and families across different cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic contexts — and deepened her commitment to care that is responsive to the whole person, not just a clinical presentation.

She is one of a small number of clinicians in the Columbus, Ohio area who offers therapy in English, French, and Arabic, and who brings firsthand understanding of the challenges bicultural and immigrant families face.

Education & Training

Approach to Therapy

Hayfa draws on a range of evidence-based approaches, selected based on each client's needs, goals, and developmental stage:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) — Identifying and restructuring unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors that contribute to anxiety, depression, and distress.
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills — Emotion regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness, particularly useful for adolescents and adults with intense emotional experiences.
• Play Therapy — Child-centered therapeutic techniques that allow younger children to communicate and process experiences through play, their natural language.
• Family Systems Work — Understanding the child or client within the context of their family relationships and dynamics, and involving family members where appropriate and beneficial.
• Trauma-Informed Care — Recognizing how adverse experiences shape behavior, relationships, and sense of safety — and approaching treatment accordingly.
• Culturally Responsive Practice — Adapting approaches to honor the client's cultural values, identity, and community context, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all model.

Hayfa believes that therapy is most effective when clients feel genuinely seen and respected — not just assessed and treated. She takes time at the start of every therapeutic relationship to understand each person's unique story, values, and what they are hoping for from the work.

Who Hayfa Works With

Hayfa is currently accepting child and adult clients at Serenity Behavioral Health Services. She works with:

• Children (school age and up) — Anxiety, behavioral challenges, emotional dysregulation, school-related stress, ADHD presentations, and adjustment difficulties.
• Adolescents — Depression, anxiety, identity development, peer relationships, family conflict, and the particular challenges of the teen years — including in bicultural contexts.
• Adults — Anxiety, depression, burnout, relationship stress, acculturation challenges, life transitions, and trauma.
• Multicultural and immigrant families — Supporting families navigating cultural adjustment, bicultural identity, language, and the specific mental health dimensions of the immigration experience. According to the American Psychological Association, culturally adapted therapies are significantly more effective for ethnic minority and immigrant clients than standard unadapted approaches.

Languages

Hayfa offers therapy in English, French (Français), and Arabic (العربية). She is fully fluent in all three languages — not just conversationally, but clinically. This means she can work through emotionally complex material in the client's primary language, rather than asking them to translate their inner experience. For many clients, especially those navigating acculturation or bicultural identity, this is meaningful.

A Note on the Importance of Cultural Context in Mental Health

Research consistently shows that mental health care that ignores cultural context is less effective — and sometimes actively harmful. How people understand distress, whether they seek help, what kinds of support feel appropriate, and how they relate to a therapist are all shaped by culture, language, and lived experience. Hayfa brings both academic grounding in cross-cultural psychology and personal familiarity with the experience of living between cultures. This informs not just what she does in therapy, but how she shows up in the room.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), racial and ethnic minority populations face significant barriers to accessing mental health care — including language barriers, cultural stigma, and lack of culturally competent providers. Increasing access to multilingual, culturally informed care is a concrete way to address this gap.

Professional Philosophy

Healing begins when clients feel seen, supported, and accepted — just as they are. Hayfa's approach centers on building a therapeutic relationship that is safe, honest, and collaborative. She does not believe in a one-size-fits-all model of mental health care. Each person brings a unique history, cultural context, family system, and set of strengths — and therapy should reflect that.

She holds a particular commitment to making quality mental health support accessible to communities who have historically been underserved by mental health systems — including immigrant families, Arabic-speaking communities, and French-speaking communities in the United States.