Culturally sensitive online psychotherapy for international students, new permanent residents and everyone in between who is building a life in Waterloo. Sessions in English and Farsi, in Waterloo and across Ontario.
Roya is booking now. Ghazal is booking by waitlist (3–4 weeks).
Newcomers to Waterloo arrive from everywhere. Across the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo area, the most common birthplaces of recent immigrants in the 2021 census were India, Syria and Eritrea, and the city's campuses and workplaces draw people from many other countries. Still, arriving can be lonely. Your classmates or colleagues may come from all over the world, and still there can be no one who knows your family, your food or the version of you that existed before you came. 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 residence, a shared apartment or 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, whether you arrived last month or a decade ago. 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:
The Waterloo area has a larger-than-average temporary population. In 2021, non-permanent residents, a group that includes international students and people on work permits, made up about 3.9 per cent of the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo metropolitan area's household population, compared with 2.8 per cent for Ontario as a whole. For students who hope to stay, the path can run from a study permit to a work permit and, if all goes well, to permanent residence.
Living on a permit changes how everything feels. A lease, a relationship, even a winter coat can seem provisional when the future depends on a processing queue or an employer's decision. People in that position often postpone grief and homesickness because there is no time for them, and push through exams or probation periods with the private fear that one mistake could undo everything that was risked to get here.
The city has also grown quickly, by 15.7 per cent between 2016 and 2021. That growth brings people from many countries into the same classrooms and teams, but the immigrant share across the metropolitan area, 25.8 per cent in 2021, is below Ontario's, so you may find fewer people from your own country here than you would in Toronto.
The region's settlement agencies, from the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre to the Immigration Waterloo Region portal, help with the practical side. Therapy is for the part that doesn't fit on a form. Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, came to Canada from Iran herself. Her work combines Schema Therapy with attachment- and emotion-focused approaches, following the early lessons a move tends to stir up: whether you are good enough, and where you belong. For life transitions and grief, Roya Dadollahi Sarab, RP, is another option.
Sessions are online and available in English or Farsi, so you can use whichever language fits what you're trying to put into words, from wherever you can talk freely in Waterloo.
These are independent organizations, not affiliated with NoorMinds, that can be useful alongside or between sessions.
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