Searching for a Persian or Farsi therapist in Whitby? If you are raising a family in a mostly English-speaking town, it can matter to have one place where Farsi comes first. 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, in whichever language comes first.
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 meet from home in Whitby or anywhere else in Ontario, without adding travel to a week of work and school.
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 next step, from home in Whitby, is one short 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.
Looking for more? Questions about the free consultation, how long therapy takes and whether online sessions work as well as face-to-face therapy are answered on the Ontario-wide Persian & Farsi therapy page.
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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, from home in Whitby, 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 a town of about 138,500 people, the 2021 Census counted 2,155 Whitby residents in the West Asian group, which includes people of Iranian background: roughly 1.6% of the town, though up from 1,260 in 2016. If you speak Farsi here, you may be the only Persian family on your street or at your children's school. Some days that is simply ordinary suburban life; on others it is lonely, especially around Nowruz, a death in the family, or a week of hard news from Iran.
For parents, the distance often shows up at home. Children grow up speaking English at school and with friends, and Farsi can slowly shrink to the language of grandparents' phone calls. Some parents keep it alive through weekend classes or long calls with family in Iran; others feel guilty that they haven't managed to. Many parents feel torn between wanting their children to belong here and grieving what might be lost. Adults who came to Canada as children carry the reverse: fluent in both worlds and fully at home in neither. Neither experience is a problem to be fixed, but both deserve somewhere to be said out loud, in the language that fits.
The practical side of settling in has its own help. Community Development Council Durham runs newcomer settlement programs across the region, and there are Farsi-language community programs in the GTA. Therapy is for what those services are not designed to hold: immigration grief, family expectations, anxiety and low mood, and patterns that formed long ago in another country and another language.
Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, is Iranian-born and works in Farsi and English. Some people search for an "Iranian psychologist"; the accurate word for her role is psychotherapist, and her work draws on Schema Therapy and attachment- and emotion-focused approaches. Tina Abadi, RP, works in both languages too, with a structured approach grounded in CBT. 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 distance to the GTA's larger Persian communities stops mattering, and a session can be held entirely in Farsi, entirely in English, or in whatever mix the moment calls for.
Independent organizations, not affiliated with NoorMinds, that you may find useful alongside or between sessions.
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