You don't have to keep surviving on autopilot. If the past still controls how you feel, how you sleep, or how close you let people get, therapy can help you reclaim your life. Schema-based trauma therapy in English or Farsi, online for people in Cambridge, at a pace you set.
Tina is booking now. Ghazal is booking by waitlist (3–4 weeks).
If you recognized yourself in any of these, you are not broken. These are normal responses to experiences that overwhelmed your capacity to cope.
Schema therapy goes beneath surface symptoms to address the deep emotional patterns trauma creates. This isn't about quick fixes. It's about understanding why you respond the way you do and changing those patterns from the root.
Trauma healing requires more than talking about what happened. Emotion-focused techniques help you process what's stored in your body and emotions, not just your thoughts. Every session is paced to what feels safe for you.
As an Iranian immigrant herself, Ghazal understands how culture, family systems, and migration shape the experience of trauma. Sessions in English and Farsi, because healing works best in the language your pain lives in.
Trained in both Iran (Kharazmi University) and Canada (Yorkville University), with over a decade of clinical experience. CRPO registered, with a verified Psychology Today profile.
A calm 15-minute conversation to share what you're experiencing and see if working together feels right. No pressure, no forms beforehand.
In early sessions, we explore how trauma has shaped your emotional world: the beliefs, the coping strategies, and the triggers that keep you stuck.
Weekly 60-minute sessions using schema therapy, emotion-focused techniques, and CBT. Always at a pace that feels safe. No rushing, no re-traumatizing.
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. Full fees & insurance details
Visa, Mastercard, Amex, e-Transfer, PayPal, and HSA accepted. Insurance receipts provided after every session.
Healing doesn't require you to be ready for everything, just ready for a first conversation, from a room in Cambridge where you feel safe.
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Calls and messages aren’t monitored for emergencies. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide Crisis Helpline, available 24/7.
NoorMinds provides virtual trauma therapy to residents throughout Ontario. Select your city to learn more:
When something has just happened, or when you are not safe, the help you need first is immediate. Across Waterloo Wellington, Here 24/7 is the round-the-clock access point for mental health, addictions and crisis services, and Cambridge Memorial Hospital provides mental health services in the city. Trauma therapy is something different. It is slower, ongoing work for the months and years afterwards, when the danger has passed but your body and mind have not quite accepted that.
Trauma in Cambridge comes from as many places as anywhere else. Some people carry childhood experiences that no one around them knew about. Some were hurt in a relationship. Some went through an incident or injury at work and find the memory returns on the drive in, or at the sound of a particular machine. Others came to Waterloo Region as refugees, after war or displacement, and are rebuilding their lives while carrying losses that have no easy words in any language. None of these stories is the same, and none needs to be told all at once.
Trauma rarely stays in one part of life. It can surface as irritability that frightens a partner, a startle at a raised voice on the shop floor, a sick day after a night of broken sleep, or a pull toward the numbness of a screen or a drink. Noticing those links, without blaming yourself for them, is part of the work.
Ghazal Sheikhtaheri’s approach is rooted in Schema Therapy, with emotion-focused and cognitive-behavioural techniques. Rather than asking you to relive events in detail, the work looks at the patterns trauma left behind: the constant scanning for danger, the numbness, the belief that you are on your own. Sessions are paced to what feels safe, and you decide what to share and when.
Language can matter in trauma work in ways people don't expect. For some, speaking Farsi reaches feelings that English keeps at arm's length. For others, English feels safer precisely because it holds a little distance from what happened. Either is fine, and sessions can move between the two. Between sessions, it can also help to know what else is around you in the region; the organizations below include specialized support for survivors of sexual violence and for people leaving abusive relationships.
Online sessions let you do this from a place that already feels like yours, with no waiting room beforehand and no drive afterwards when you may feel raw. Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, offers sessions to clients in Cambridge and throughout Ontario, in both English and Farsi. Tina Abadi, RP, also offers trauma-informed, CBT-based therapy online, in English or Farsi.
These are independent organizations, not affiliated with NoorMinds, that can be useful alongside sessions or in between them.
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