Searching for a Persian or Farsi therapist in St. Catharines? Work with someone you don’t have to explain your culture, family pressure, or immigration grief to, in English or Farsi فارسی, by video from home, without the drive up the QEW. 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 Ontario, including St. Catharines, Toronto, and communities across 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 from anywhere in Niagara. 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:
If you live in St. Catharines and want to talk to someone in Farsi, the honest picture is this. Niagara's largest city has a small Iranian community: the 2021 Census counted fewer than 400 residents in the whole West Asian group, which includes Iranians, and there is no Persian community association I know of anywhere in the region. Toronto-area Persian hubs such as North York and Richmond Hill are a long way up the highway, and a weekly trip there for therapy is not realistic for most people with jobs, classes or children.
If you came to St. Catharines for graduate study or research at Brock University, you may have met a few other Iranians on campus and still have nobody to talk to about what is really going on: a supervisor's expectations, a funding or permit deadline, and family in Iran you worry about every time the news changes. Brock's own counselling service is there for registered students, and therapy in Farsi can sit alongside it, giving the part of you that thinks and feels in Farsi somewhere to speak.
If you arrived as a newcomer, organizations such as the Niagara Folk Arts Multicultural Centre and the YMCA of Niagara's Newcomer Information Centre can help with the practical steps of settling in. What they are not set up for is the part that tends to surface at night: grief for the people and the city you left, guilt at building a life far from ageing parents, and the tiring work of being a slightly different person in each language. Census figures for 2016 to 2021 show recent immigrants to the St. Catharines–Niagara area came most often from India, China and the Philippines, so the settlement world here runs in many languages, and you may go weeks without hearing Farsi outside your own home.
I am Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300. I grew up in Iran, trained there and in Canada, and now work with clients in Farsi and English. My work rests on Schema Therapy and emotion-focused methods, following the patterns first formed in Farsi, in another place and time, that still shape how you react today.
Every session is by video; you might join from a student apartment near Brock, a house in Glenridge or anywhere else in Ontario. My colleagues Tina Abadi, RP, and Roya Dadollahi Sarab, RP, offer sessions in both languages too.
These are independent organizations, not affiliated with NoorMinds, that some people find useful alongside or between sessions.
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