Understanding your mind a little better
Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), writes on mental health, relationships, immigration, and schema therapy.
These articles explore the emotional experiences many of us carry quietly, from the grief of immigration and the weight of collective trauma, to the repetitive thought patterns that keep us stuck.
Articles
When Their Hesitation Feels Like Proof
You can leave a room full of praise and still fall apart over a lukewarm text. When a partner hesitates, old shame can turn their pause into proof.
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When Partners Become Parents: Why the First Year Shakes Even Strong Marriages
Two in the morning, both awake, doing the math. Why the first year after a baby shakes most marriages, and what protects them.
Read Article →When Family Comes to Stay: Long Visits From Iran and the Quiet Strain on Couples
His parents arrived in October. It is now March. What long visits from Iran do to a marriage, and what protects it.
Read Article →When Should Couples Start Therapy? Why Most Wait Too Long, and What Actually Happens in the Room
Most couples wait years before making the call, not because the problems are small but because asking feels like admitting defeat. Here's what actually happens in the room, and why earlier is easier.
Read Article →When Love Isn't the Problem: Couples Therapy and Schema Couple Therapy
Couples therapy is not about who is right. It is about the pattern that keeps you both stuck, and how Schema Couple Therapy reaches the deeper emotional roots of conflict.
Read Article →When Trauma Does Not End: From Alarm Into Exhaustion
When trauma is ongoing, many people move from alarm into exhaustion, from fear into fog. Understanding this shift can help you carry it with more compassion.
Read Article →When Crisis Activates Our Inner Schemas
We are not only reacting to the situation itself. We are also responding through deeper, pre-existing patterns within us. Understanding these schemas can help us make sense of why crisis sometimes feels heavier than it "should."
Read Article →When Home Is Under Fire: Supporting Yourself While Your Loved Ones Are in Iran
You are here, and they are there. The fear lives in your body even when you push it from your mind. This article names what you are carrying, then offers ways to hold it without being destroyed by it.
Read Article →When Grief Meets Fear: Anticipatory Anxiety and Collective Trauma
There is a particular kind of dread that does not announce itself with a single crisis. It points forward, toward what might still come. This article names the experience, then offers ways to carry it more gently.
Read Article →Rumination: Why Your Mind Keeps Going in Circles, and How to Step Out
You've replayed the conversation a hundred times. You know it isn't helping. Yet the thoughts keep coming. Here's what's actually happening, and four evidence-based ways to break the cycle.
Read Article →The Hidden Grief of Immigration: What No One Tells You About Starting Over
Immigration is celebrated as a new beginning. But it is also, quietly, a loss. Understanding the emotional reality of displacement is the first step toward healing it.
Read Article →Why We Keep Repeating the Same Relationship Patterns, and How Schema Therapy Helps
If you've ever found yourself in the same painful dynamic with different people, schema therapy offers a profound explanation, and a path forward.
Read Article →Ready to begin your journey?
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