Searching for a Persian or Farsi therapist in London, Ontario? Work with someone you don’t have to explain your culture, family pressure, or immigration grief to, from home or from campus. 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. In a city where classes, shifts and appointments all happen in English, an hour in Farsi can be the first time all week you are not translating yourself. Ghazal is also an Iranian immigrant herself: she knows family expectations, 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, by video from wherever you are in London. No pressure. Ask questions, get a feel for how your therapist works, and decide whether 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.
Whether you arrived this term or decades ago, and whether you are ready to start or only ready to talk, 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, so you can join from home, an office or a quiet room on campus, anywhere in London or elsewhere in Ontario.
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. For someone far from family and community, the hardest part is often 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.
More questions about Farsi therapy, from the free consultation to how long therapy takes, are answered on the Persian & Farsi therapy in Ontario page.
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Read Article →Book a free 15-minute consultation, in Farsi or English. No pressure, no commitment: a calm first conversation, from London, with a therapist who understands your language and culture.
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:
London, Ontario's Iranian community is small. In the 2021 Census, about 5,300 residents, roughly 1.3 per cent of the city, were in the West Asian group, a census category that includes most people of Iranian background along with Afghan, Turkish and other backgrounds. It is not a count of Farsi speakers, but it gives a sense of scale. Ontario's larger Persian-speaking communities are in the GTA, a long drive east along the 401. If you live here, you may know a handful of Iranian families, or none, and finding someone who can hear you in Farsi, without a slow translation of every feeling, can seem like a long shot.
I am Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300. I grew up in Iran, completed my first graduate degree in clinical psychology at Kharazmi University in Tehran, and continued my training in Canada. When people search for an "Iranian psychologist", I tell them honestly that I am a psychotherapist, not a psychologist. What they are usually looking for, though, is someone who already understands ta'arof and family duty, the grief of leaving, and the tiredness of explaining yourself in a second language. That part I can offer.
You might be in London to study or train, far from parents and siblings, balancing a program, a study permit and the hopes of a family back home. Or you might have lived here for years, raised children who answer you in English, and still feel the pull between two cultures. My work draws on Schema Therapy and attachment- and emotion-focused approaches, looking at patterns that formed early, often in Farsi, and still shape how you love, rest and cope today.
Therapy in your first language is not only a matter of vocabulary. For many people, childhood memories and family arguments live in Farsi while work and study run in English, and being able to switch mid-sentence, when a feeling only has a Farsi word, lets things surface that stay hidden in translation. We can use either language, or both, in the same hour.
Living in London can also mean living at a distance from difficult news: events in Iran, a parent's illness you can only follow by phone, a family occasion you watch on a screen. That helplessness often sits underneath a busy, apparently settled life here. Sessions are a place to hold both, the life you are building in Canada and the one you are watching from afar, without having to explain to anyone why the two pull at you so hard.
Everything happens online, so you can meet from home or campus, wherever you have a private hour, anywhere in London or across Ontario. There is no waiting room and no one needs to see you arrive. If you would prefer a structured, skills-first approach, Tina Abadi, RP, also works in Farsi and English. 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.
Independent London services, not affiliated with NoorMinds, that newcomers and students may find useful alongside or between sessions.
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