Culturally sensitive online psychotherapy for Richmond Hill newcomers and long-settled immigrants alike, whether you arrived last year or twenty years ago. Sessions in English and Farsi. Available in Richmond Hill and across Ontario.
Roya is booking now. Ghazal is booking by waitlist (3–4 weeks).
Settling in Richmond Hill can look easy from the outside. There are shops that sell the food you grew up with, neighbours who share your language, and agencies that help with paperwork and job searches. And yet the experience of immigrating can still feel isolating. Building a financial footing can take all your energy, leaving little for the inner work of arriving, and it is common to look settled for years while feeling unsettled 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 by video, wherever you are in Richmond Hill. 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:
Richmond Hill is a city of arrivals. More than half of its roughly 202,000 residents are immigrants, according to the 2021 Census, and it has large Chinese and Iranian communities. The Iranian community in particular runs up the Yonge Street corridor from North York through Thornhill into Richmond Hill, so a newcomer from Iran can find Farsi-speaking shops, services and neighbours within days of landing.
Arriving into an established community makes some things easier and others harder. Practical help is close at hand, but so is comparison. Relatives and acquaintances who came years earlier may seem settled, with homes, careers and confident English, and it is easy to measure your first year against their twentieth. Expectations can arrive quickly too: questions about when you will find proper work, buy a place, or bring the rest of the family over. When everyone around you speaks your language, it can feel strange to admit that you still feel alone.
Long-settled immigrants carry their own version. Twenty years in, you may have the house and the career and still feel like a guest in both countries, or watch your children grow into a Canadian life you only half share. Parents left behind grow older at a distance. None of this fits neatly under settlement, and much of it is never said aloud.
Families often settle at different speeds. Children pick up English and local habits quickly and may end up translating at the bank or the doctor's office, while parents who were confident professionals at home feel suddenly dependent. Grandparents who join later can find themselves isolated in a suburb where they do not drive. Each person in the household is adjusting to something different, and the strain tends to surface as arguments about ordinary things.
The Welcome Centre has a Richmond Hill location for settlement, employment and language support, and those services matter. Therapy covers different ground: the grief of what you left, the shift in who you are at home and at work, and relationships that change under the strain of starting over. Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, came to Canada from Iran and has worked with immigrants and refugees from many countries. Her sessions combine Schema Therapy, CBT and emotion-focused work, and they take place by video in Farsi or English for anyone in Richmond Hill or elsewhere in Ontario.
These agencies are independent of NoorMinds and look after paperwork, jobs and language, the parts of arriving that therapy does not cover, and you can turn to them during therapy or between sessions.
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