Culturally sensitive online psychotherapy for people building a life in Toronto, whether you arrived last year or twenty years ago. Sessions in English and Farsi. Available in Toronto and across Ontario.
Roya is booking now. Ghazal is booking by waitlist (3–4 weeks).
Toronto is a city of arrivals. People settle here from every region of the world, in neighbourhoods from Rexdale to Malvern, and yet the experience of being an immigrant here often feels isolating. Community is harder to find than the numbers suggest. The pressure to establish yourself financially in a city where housing takes a large share of every paycheque 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. No commitment, no pressure. In English or Farsi, from anywhere in Toronto.
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:
In the 2021 Census, 46.6% of Toronto residents were immigrants, and another 5.3% were non-permanent residents: international students, people on work permits, and refugee claimants. That second group is easy to overlook, but it carries a particular kind of stress. When your right to stay depends on a permit renewal, a job offer or a hearing date, it is hard to put down roots, and hard to rest. Many people live for years with a plan B packed in the back of their mind.
For those who have status, the early years in Toronto bring their own pressures: work experience that does not transfer, credentials waiting on recognition, a first job well below the one left behind, and rent that takes a large bite of whatever you earn. The city has a wide network of settlement agencies and community health centres for the practical side, from language classes to employment programs. Therapy is for the other side: grief, shifts in identity, and the loneliness of being surrounded by people and known by very few of them.
That loneliness is common in a large city. The family networks that once handled childcare, advice and company are an ocean away, and friendships take time when everyone is working long hours and crossing the city to do it. The work in therapy is to make room for what was lost, including the version of yourself who was competent and known back home, and to look at the patterns migration stirs up: over-functioning, guilt toward parents, or a sense that you are not allowed to struggle because you chose this. Sometimes the trigger is small: a first Toronto winter, a phone call from home at the wrong hour, a form that asks for Canadian references you do not have yet. Small things land hard when the reserves are already spent.
Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, immigrated from Iran and has worked with immigrants and refugees from many regions of the world. She draws on Schema Therapy and emotion-focused approaches. Roya Dadollahi Sarab, RP, works with life transitions and grief. Sessions are online, in English, Farsi or both, so they can fit around shift work, classes or a second job, anywhere in Toronto or Ontario. The free consultation can also be in either language, and it is a chance to ask whether this is the right kind of help before committing to anything.
These are independent agencies, not affiliated with NoorMinds, that newcomers in Toronto can use alongside or between sessions.
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