Toronto’s Persian hub is on the far side of the city from Etobicoke. You can still work with someone you don’t have to explain your culture, family pressure, or immigration grief to, in English or Farsi فارسی, online across Ontario. Three Farsi-speaking therapists, one practice.
Tina and Roya are booking now. Ghazal is booking by waitlist (3–4 weeks).
Ghazal, Tina and Roya all work in Farsi, so nothing gets lost in translation. Ghazal is also an Iranian immigrant herself: she knows the weight of family expectations, cultural nuance, immigration grief, and living between two worlds from the inside.
Ghazal brings over ten years of clinical experience, graduate training in both Iran and Canada, and advanced schema therapy training. Tina brings structured, skills-first CBT, and Roya brings ACT, DBT and a focus on newcomers. All three bring warmth and rigour to every session.
Anxiety, overthinking, trauma, relationship pain, burnout, immigration stress, identity conflict, low self-worth, guilt, and boundaries that feel impossible.
Start with a free 15-minute consultation with Ghazal, Tina or Roya. No pressure. Ask questions, get a feel for how your therapist works, and decide if the fit feels right before committing.
You don't need to have it all figured out. Start with a conversation.
Or call (647) 699-5142 · WhatsApp · Email
Speaking Farsi isn't the same as understanding Iranian life. Finding a therapist who actually gets what it means to grow up Iranian is something different: the layered expectations, the specific way silence is used, the pressure to appear strong, the way mental health has historically been discussed (or not discussed) in Persian families.
Ghazal trained in both Iran and Canada. She completed her first graduate degree in Clinical Psychology at Kharazmi University in Tehran, then immigrated to Canada for further training at Yorkville University. That path isn't just a credential. Learn more about Ghazal
For women, the expectation is often to manage inwardly, to be the steady person in the family even when you are not steady at all. Therapy can feel like an admission of failure, something you keep private even from close relatives.
For men, the pressure is different but just as real. Talking about anxiety, grief, or emotional struggle can feel incompatible with how strength has been defined. Many arrive at therapy having spent years convincing themselves that what they were feeling wasn't serious enough to warrant help.
These patterns are not weaknesses. They are cultural inheritances, and Ghazal understands them from the inside, not from a textbook.
Sessions are in Farsi, English, or a natural mix of both, because sometimes the right word only exists in one language.
There is no issue too culturally specific. Sessions are confidential, separate from your family, your community, and anyone else in your life.
You don't have to explain your culture before real work begins. Ghazal's training spans both Iranian and Canadian psychological frameworks. She understands how shame, honour, and loyalty operate differently in Iranian families, and how immigration can simultaneously feel like freedom and like a profound rupture, a grief rarely acknowledged because it doesn't look like the grief people recognize.
If you are ready to start, or even just ready to have a first conversation, the consultation is free. Call (647) 699-5142, message on WhatsApp, or book directly below.
Choose a time in Jane, ask your questions, and get a feel for whether working together feels right.
Sessions are online and open to anyone in Ontario, so the distance from Etobicoke to Yonge Street is no longer one you have to cover.
Together you work beneath surface symptoms to understand patterns, reduce suffering, and build a steadier, more grounded life.
Insurance receipts provided. Many extended health plans cover psychotherapy with a Registered Psychotherapist. Ghazal holds the Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) designation, so please confirm your plan covers it. Full fees & insurance details
Seen the pricing? The free consultation costs nothing, and many insurance plans reimburse full sessions. The hardest part is usually just sending that first message.
Or call (647) 699-5142 · WhatsApp · Email
Many extended health plans in Canada cover psychotherapy by a Registered Psychotherapist. Ghazal holds the Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) designation, so please confirm your plan covers it. Clients receive receipts after sessions for reimbursement.
Booking is simple through Jane. You can start with a free consultation, then schedule full sessions only if the fit feels right.
An Iranian immigrant herself, with over ten years of clinical experience. Schema therapy and psychodynamic work for long-standing patterns, immigration grief and family pressure.
Structured, skills-first CBT for anxiety, ADHD, sleep and life transitions, and Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples.
Warm, culturally responsive care: CBT, ACT and DBT for anxiety, depression, grief and the emotional work of settling in a new country, and EFT for couples.
Ghazal is currently booking by waitlist (3–4 weeks). Tina and Roya are accepting new clients.
Pick a time in Jane App that works for you. No intake forms, no questionnaires. Just choose a slot.
Share what's bringing you here. Ask Ghazal, Tina or Roya anything. No pressure to commit. This call exists to help you decide, nothing more.
If it feels right, book your first full session. If not, there's no follow-up, no awkwardness, no commitment of any kind.
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Read Article →Supporting yourself while loved ones are in Iran: how to hold your own wellbeing when the people you love are in danger.
Read Article →Book a free 15-minute consultation. No pressure, no commitment. Just a calm first conversation with a therapist who understands your language, culture, and emotional reality, wherever in the west end you are.
Or call (647) 699-5142 · WhatsApp · Email
Calls and messages aren’t monitored for emergencies. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide Crisis Helpline, available 24/7. You can ask 988 for an interpreter. میتوانید از ۹۸۸ درخواست مترجم کنید.
NoorMinds offers virtual Persian and Farsi-speaking (Iranian) therapy to communities throughout Ontario. Select your city to learn more:
Toronto's Persian-speaking community is sizeable. In the 2021 census, 34,575 Toronto residents reported Iranian Persian as their mother tongue, making it the city's eighth most common. Its centre of gravity, though, is on the far side of the city, along Yonge Street in North York, and from Etobicoke that is a long way to go for a conversation in your own language: Line 2 from Kipling across to Yonge and then north on Line 1, or a slow drive on the 401 at the wrong time of day.
Farsi speakers in Etobicoke are spread through the district rather than clustered, which means there may be Iranian neighbours on your street and still nowhere nearby to talk about what you are carrying. Grief for Iran and worry for people still there, family expectations that follow you across an ocean, the feeling of being one person in Farsi and another at work: these usually need more than a translator. They need someone who already knows the ground.
Work and study add their own weight. If you are rebuilding a career or a qualification here, you may spend the whole day in English and arrive home too tired to find words for anything in either language. Therapy in Farsi can be the one hour of the week when nothing has to be translated, and when the part of you that grew up in another language finally gets a say. If your partner is not Iranian, it can also be the place to talk about what you miss that they cannot quite see, without feeling disloyal to either side.
For some people the pressing issue is practical rather than cultural: panic before presenting in English, interview nerves, sleep that has gone wrong since the move. Tina's structured, skills-first approach suits goals like these, and working on them in Farsi means the explanation does not get in the way of the practice.
Ghazal Sheikhtaheri is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, born in Iran, with a first graduate degree in clinical psychology from Kharazmi University in Tehran and further training at Yorkville University in Canada. Some people search for an "Iranian psychologist"; what she offers is psychotherapy in Farsi or English, using Schema Therapy with attachment- and emotion-focused work to reach the roots of long-standing patterns.
Tina Abadi, RP, also works in both languages, with a structured CBT approach for people who want practical tools first. Roya Dadollahi Sarab, RP, also works in Farsi and English and uses CBT, ACT and DBT skills, with a focus on newcomers and settling in. Because everything happens online, the geography stops mattering: you can meet from home in New Toronto, Mimico or Kingsview Village, in whichever language fits the moment, and switch as often as you need. The Toronto organizations below can support you between sessions.
The organizations below are independent of NoorMinds and not affiliated with the practice; Farsi speakers in Etobicoke may find them useful alongside or between sessions.
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