Amanda Ajodhia, PhD

Dr.  Amanda Ajodhia is the Founder and Director of Mandala Educational Therapy Inc. She holds a PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, an MA from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in Early Childhood Studies, and a Honours BSc from the University of Toronto as a Psychology Specialist. Her primary practice, teaching, and research focus is on school inclusion and belonging, learning, and equity for ethnically diverse young people with disabilities, more specifically those with neurodevelopmental disabilities.  

She has over 20 years of clinical experience as a behavioural therapist and consultant for young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger syndrome, global developmental delays, and speech/language delays within the GTA. More specifically, she served as an ABA/IBI therapist, social skills coordinator, program developer, and facilitator supporting children ages 0-18 yrs within a variety of Toronto private centres, homes, and larger organizations and NGOs.  As a therapist, she designs child directed curriculum and therapeutic intervention programs for teaching young people with neurodevelopmental disabilities, including transitioning to school programs for children with ASD. Along with applied behavioural analysis, she uses principles of cognitive behavioural therapy and creative arts therapy throughout her practice. She is also an active member of the Canadian Psychological Association.

Dr. Ajodhia conducts research on inclusive education within Canada, as well as internationally; she has facilitated research within countries such as, Guyana, Cambodia, and Kazakhstan. A critical component of her work is facilitating research with young people with disabilities. Dr. Ajodhia employs various creative mediums to access voices and views of young people with disabilities who may not communicate via speech. She leads child-centred research engaging young people with disabilities and ASD in active agentful research participation through various creative and artful mediums. In 2016 she published a book exploring the narratives of middle years children with intersecting differences of race, ethnicity, language, and disabilities (particularly autism) within Toronto: Voices and Visions from Ethnoculturally Diverse Young People with Disabilities. For this research Dr. Ajodhia received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship (SSHRC) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She continues to publish in academic journals on topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion.  Please see below to learn more about her research. Dr. Ajodhia’s research connects strongly to the beliefs, values, and best practices maintained at Mandala Educational Therapy. 

Dr. Ajodhia has dedicated well over a decade to teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level. She was a Lecturer and Faculty Advisor in the School of Early Childhood Studies at Ryerson University (BA and MA programs), as well as an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan (MSc, MA, and PhD programs). She has taught courses on inclusive education, disability in childhood, working with ethnically diverse families and communities, teachers' repertoires of diversity, curriculum design for diversity, international perspectives on disability and inclusive education, educational qualitative research methodology, and research thesis courses. Dr. Ajodhia also served as a Professor at Humber College in the Faculty of Social and Community Services, teaching in the Bachelor of Behavioural Science and Bachelor of Social Science programs.

As a therapist, professor, and researcher she is passionate about serving and supporting children and families from diverse backgrounds from a strength-based lens. Mandala Educational Therapy Inc. grew from her continuous advocacy for inclusion and equity of minoritized young people with neurodevelopmental disabilities within educational settings. As a mompreneur she is also the proud mother of 2 young children, and hopes to share with them a love for kindness, compassion, diversity, social justice, and belonging.