Culturally sensitive online psychotherapy for the many people in Ajax who were born somewhere else and are navigating life between two worlds. Sessions in English and Farsi, online across Ontario.
Roya is booking now. Ghazal is booking by waitlist (3–4 weeks).
In Ajax, immigration is not the exception. At the 2021 Census, 41.8% of residents, about 52,700 people, were immigrants, and their most common birthplaces were India, Sri Lanka and Jamaica. Among people who arrived between 2016 and 2021, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan led. Being one of many does not make the experience less lonely, though. Your neighbours may share a continent but not your story, and the pressure to find work that matches your training and a home in a housing market that is costly even east of Toronto can crowd out the emotional work of settling in. Many newcomers spend years adapting on the outside while quietly struggling on the inside.
Ghazal immigrated to Canada from Iran and has worked with immigrants and refugees from all over the world: the Middle East, South Asia, East Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and beyond. She doesn't just understand the theory. She knows the loneliness of starting over, the grief of distance, and the quiet courage it takes to build a new life.
Therapy that respects your cultural background, family values, and the complexity of navigating two worlds, without pathologizing your experience.
Sessions in English and Farsi (فارسی), or a mix of both. Express yourself in whichever language feels right.
Schema therapy, CBT, and emotion-focused techniques, grounded in research and tailored to your unique story.
Talk about what brought you here, ask questions, and see if it feels right. No pressure.
Together, we'll identify what's weighing on you most and build a path forward using proven therapeutic approaches.
60-minute online sessions from anywhere in Ontario. Consistent, confidential, flexible.
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.
Free 15-minute consultation available. Receipts provided after each session for submission to your extended health insurance plan.
Book a free 15-minute consultation from wherever you are in Ajax. No commitment, no pressure, and no need to have the words ready yet.
Or call (647) 699-5142 · WhatsApp · Email
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NoorMinds provides virtual therapy for immigrants to residents throughout Ontario. Select your city to learn more:
Ajax is a town of many origins. In 2021, 64.6% of residents identified as racialized, and the largest groups were South Asian (26.2%), Black (16.8%) and Filipino (5.3%) residents. For many newcomers that is a real comfort: familiar food, places of worship and neighbours who know what it is to start again. It can also hide something. Being surrounded by other immigrants does not mean anyone nearby shares your particular history, your reasons for leaving or the family you left behind.
Practical settlement support is close at hand. Welcome Centre Immigrant Services runs an Ajax site for settlement help, employment support and family counselling, and Community Development Council Durham, based in Ajax, runs newcomer settlement programs across the region. What those services are not designed to hold is the emotional side of the move: grief for a life that carried on without you, a parent growing older on a video call, a professional identity that did not survive the credential process, or roles in a marriage that shift when one partner finds work first.
Some people choose to leave home; others are forced out by war or persecution and carry that history into the quiet of a Canadian suburb. Therapy does not assume which story is yours. Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, immigrated from Iran herself and has worked with immigrants and refugees from many parts of the world, using Schema Therapy and attachment- and emotion-focused approaches at a pace you set.
Sessions are online, which matters when evenings go to a second job, English classes or children's activities, and when the nearest person who speaks your language may live across the GTA. You can meet from home anywhere in Ajax, from historic Pickering Village to the newer streets north of Rossland Road, in English or Farsi.
The organizations below are independent of NoorMinds and have no affiliation with the practice; newcomers in Ajax may find them useful alongside or between sessions.
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