Dr. Alyssa Cantal, OTD, OTR/L, BCP

Dr. Alyssa Cantal earned a Bachelor of Arts in Human Development with a minor in Psychology from University of California-San Diego (UCSD). During her years at UCSD, she co-founded the Speech, Physical, and Occupational Therapy (SPOT) group for students interested in the rehabilitation professions.  At University of Southern California (USC), Dr. Alyssa received her Masters and Doctorate in Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science. During her doctoral residency at USC, Dr. Alyssa developed the pilot program "Imagining America: CREATE Your Vision," a  community-based therapeutic arts program that guides children through a variety of mental, social, and physical health-related topics. In January 2019, she published the article "Managing Obesity in Pediatrics: A Role for Occupational Therapy," which focused on the various settings for occupational therapy to address childhood obesity and prevention and discusses approaches for treating obesity for children with various conditions and disabilities.

Dr. Alyssa has fieldwork and work experience in a variety of settings, including St. Joseph Hospital - Outpatient Rehabilitation Center, Children's Hospital Los Angeles - Primary Care, Los Angeles County - Department of Mental Health Wellness Center, St. Jude Medical Center, and Gallagher Pediatric Therapy (education-based occupational therapy services). Through her experiences, she has acted as a faculty preceptor to USC Doctoral Residents, acted as a clinical instructor to USC Fieldwork II Students, conducted initial occupational therapy evaluations to students from preschool to young adult age, led full-classroom OT groups, and assisted in the development of a collaboration program between occupational therapists and special education classroom staff. 

In January 2023, Dr. Alyssa was featured in the textbook Life Span Development (19th ed.) for her occupational therapy work with students in the education and health setting. The excerpt can be seen in the section below. 

Dr. Alyssa received a Board Certification in Pediatrics (BCP) and currently has a NBCOT Verified Practice Area of Emphasis in Pediatrics. She continues her professional memberships in Occupational Therapy Association of California (OTAC) and American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). 

• Occupational Therapy Pediatric Assessments
• Activities of daily living
• Handwriting / Typing
• Sensory Integration
• Fine Motor skills
• Visual Motor skills
• Visual Perceptual skills
• Zones of Regulation
• Emotional Regulation and Trauma-Informed Care
• Feeding and sensory-based feeding difficulties

Dr. Alyssa's interests include music (singing and playing instruments), outdoor activities (hiking, swimming, running), listening to audiobooks, and watching movies (from fantasy, Disney, Marvel, action, suspence, horror.... anything really!). Dr. Alyssa also enjoys playing with her poodle mix, Mazie, whose future goal is to be a therapy dog!