Searching for a Persian or Farsi therapist in Markham, for yourself or for a parent who has never talked about feelings in English? 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, or to have the right words in English. 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, so you can join from home anywhere in Markham, including the Markham side of Thornhill, or from anywhere else 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. The hardest part is usually just sending that first message, in whichever language comes more easily.
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, in Farsi or English, from wherever you are in Markham. No pressure, no commitment. Just a calm first conversation with a therapist who understands your language, culture, and emotional reality.
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:
In Markham, living much of your life in a language other than English is ordinary. In the 2021 Census about 34,400 residents, roughly one in ten, could not hold a conversation in either English or French, a figure that likely includes many older relatives and recent arrivals. For an Iranian mother who came to help raise her grandchildren, or a newcomer whose English is fine for work but not for grief, therapy in Farsi is not a preference. It is what makes therapy possible at all.
People reach out for many different reasons. It might be a career restarted from scratch that still feels behind where it should be. It might be a teenager who answers in English and seems to be drifting from the family, or the tiredness of being the only Iranian in the office and explaining, again, where you are from. It might be widowhood, with grown children who are busy, or anxiety about relatives in Iran whenever the news turns bad. None of these needs a diagnosis to be worth talking about, and each of them is easier to untangle when you do not have to translate yourself.
Language is only part of it. Farsi speakers in Markham live beside a large Persian community that runs up Yonge Street through Thornhill into neighbouring Richmond Hill, where Persian was the mother tongue of 10.3% of residents in 2021. Many people value that closeness. It can also make it harder to talk about depression, a marriage under strain or conflict with parents, because the people you might confide in belong to the same circles. A therapist outside your social world, who still understands the culture you live in, can be the easier first step.
Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, was born in Iran and trained first in Tehran and then in Canada. She works in Schema Therapy with attachment- and emotion-focused approaches, and she does not need family loyalty, ta'arof or the pressure to look fine explained before the work can begin. Tina Abadi, RP, also works in Farsi and English, with a structured, skills-first CBT approach. 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. People sometimes search for an "Iranian psychologist in Markham"; all three are psychotherapists, and all three see clients online.
Sessions happen by secure video, so there is no office to visit and no waiting room where someone from the community might see you. Family members who each want support can book their own sessions from their own homes, without anyone driving across the city. The answers to other common questions are on the Farsi therapy across Ontario page.
Each of these is a separate organization with no link to NoorMinds, and each offers something that can run alongside therapy in Farsi or between appointments.
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