Searching for a Persian or Farsi therapist in North York, where Farsi is part of everyday life along Yonge? 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 available anywhere in North York, from Willowdale to Downsview, and 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. 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.
What no one tells you about starting over: the losses that don't have a name, and why they still weigh so much.
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, from home in North York or anywhere in Ontario.
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 Willowdale, about 9% of residents reported Iranian Persian as their mother tongue in the 2021 Census, second only to Mandarin among non-English languages and roughly level with Korean. A smaller share, about 7 to 8%, use it as their main language at home. That gap says something real. Many Persian speakers in North York live bilingually, speaking Farsi with parents and English at work or with their own children, and the language a feeling arrives in is not always predictable.
Along Yonge between Finch and Steeles, the heart of what people call Tehranto, grocers, bakeries and bookshops make Farsi part of daily life. What people bring often has a North York shape: caring for parents who never became comfortable in English, a career rebuilt after years of retraining, grief on the days when news from Iran is bad and everyone on the street is reacting to the same headlines. Having the language around you is not the same as having somewhere to use it for the hard things. Therapy in Farsi can reach experiences that were first felt in Farsi: a parent's disappointment, what the family expected of a son or a daughter, grief for people and places in Iran. Therapy in English can sometimes give useful distance from those same things. Sessions with NoorMinds move between the two as needed, within a sentence if that is how it comes out.
North York also has Farsi-language community supports, from the Iranian Women's Organization of Ontario to settlement workers at North York Community House, and several are listed below. Psychotherapy is a different, private kind of help: a confidential hour with a regulated professional who sits outside your social circle, within the legal limits of confidentiality explained at the start. Living close to a community can make that separation matter more, not less, and some people choose an online therapist precisely so that their therapy happens nowhere near the neighbourhood, the school gate or the family dinner table.
Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, is Iranian-born and combines schema therapy with relational and psychodynamic insight. Tina Abadi, RP, works in Farsi and English with a 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. Sessions are online, so whether you live near Yonge and Finch, in Bayview Village or in Downsview, you can meet from home. For general questions, from what happens in the consultation to how long therapy lasts, see the Ontario Farsi therapy page.
Independent of NoorMinds and not affiliated with it, these organizations serve Farsi speakers and newcomers in North York and may be useful alongside or between sessions.
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