Culturally sensitive online psychotherapy for newcomers building a life in Newmarket, whether you arrived last year or twenty years ago and still feel between two worlds. Sessions in English and Farsi, from home, anywhere in Ontario.
Roya is booking now. Ghazal is booking by waitlist (3–4 weeks).
Newcomers to Newmarket arrive in a steadily growing York Region town rather than the middle of a big city. The practical side of settling has local help, from settlement agencies to language classes. The inner side (missing people, rebuilding a sense of who you are, holding family expectations from across an ocean) rarely gets an appointment of its own, and it is often the part that wears people down. Plenty of 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 home in Newmarket or wherever you are in Ontario. No commitment, no pressure.
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:
Newcomers to Newmarket do not have to settle alone on paper. York Region's Welcome Centre network has a Newmarket location, and agencies such as Achēv offer settlement, employment and language support in town. A good settlement worker can help with forms, a résumé, housing or a child's school registration. What they are not there for is the three a.m. version of immigration: the grief you do not have words for yet, the guilt about parents getting older far away, the disorienting feeling of having been competent at home and being a beginner here.
A quieter town can make that inner side more noticeable. Newmarket has a family-oriented feel, and the rhythm of school runs, sports and weekend errands can make it hard to know where a newcomer is supposed to meet people. A social life often takes longer to build than a career. If you lived in Toronto or Richmond Hill before moving north for more space, you may also have left behind the friends who made the first years bearable, and found yourself starting over a second time.
Migration can also catch up with people long after arrival. The first years are often about survival: finding work, learning new systems, getting children settled. Sometimes it is only later, once life in Newmarket looks stable from the outside, that the grief arrives properly, set off by a parent's illness overseas, a graduation relatives could not attend, or simply the quiet of a house that finally has room for feelings. That delay is normal, and it is not too late to talk about it.
Ghazal Sheikhtaheri knows this terrain personally: she immigrated to Canada from Iran and has worked with immigrants and refugees from many parts of the world. As a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, she uses schema therapy, CBT and emotion-focused techniques to work with what migration stirs up, including an identity that feels split between two places, family roles that no longer fit, and the pressure to look grateful while you are exhausted.
Therapy and settlement support work well side by side: the agency helps with the paperwork and the job search, and sessions are where the rest gets said. Everything is online, in English, Farsi or both, so a session can happen from your kitchen table in Newmarket without another trip to an office.
Settlement agencies like these are separate from NoorMinds, with no affiliation to the practice; they take care of the practical side of arriving, alongside or between sessions.
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