Being an immigrant in Mississauga is ordinary in one sense. In the 2021 Census, about 379,000 residents, 53.2 per cent, were immigrants, and roughly 27,000 more were non-permanent residents, such as people on work or study permits and refugee claimants. Some 61.5 per cent of residents were racialized, with large South Asian, Chinese, Black, Arab and Filipino communities. It is easy to assume that in a city like this, adjustment takes care of itself.
It rarely does. The practical side of settling has real help in Peel, from agencies like Polycultural, the Dixie Bloor Neighbourhood Centre and the Newcomer Centre of Peel. The quieter side has fewer places to go: grief for the people and places you left, guilt about parents ageing without you, a professional identity that did not survive the move, or a marriage reshaped as each partner takes on new roles.
Children often adjust at a different speed from their parents. A teenager at a Mississauga high school may switch between languages and sets of rules several times a day while a parent is still finding their footing at work, and the distance between them can open quickly. Sessions can look at what that does to a family, from either side of it.
Therapy is built for that quieter side. Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, immigrated from Iran herself and works with people from any country, not only Iran, using schema therapy, CBT and emotion-focused techniques. Roya Dadollahi Sarab, RP, works with life transitions and grief, in English and Farsi. Sessions look at what the move has cost as well as what it has given, and at the parts of you that feel split between two places. If your first language is neither English nor Farsi, English sessions can still work well, with room to stop and find a word.
If you are here on a permit or waiting on a permanent residence decision, the uncertainty itself can be a large part of the load, and it is welcome in the room too. Everything happens online, so you can meet from wherever you live in Mississauga, around the job or the classes you are building your life on, in English or Farsi.