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 online for people in Kitchener, in English or Farsi, 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 somewhere in Kitchener 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:
Kitchener is one of the places in Ontario where refugees begin again. Reception House Waterloo Region is the first point of service for government-assisted refugees arriving in the region, and among Kitchener residents who immigrated between 2016 and 2021, Eritrea and Syria were two of the most common countries of birth. Some of the people now working, studying and raising families across the city lived through war, persecution or dangerous journeys to get here.
Trauma doesn't only come from those experiences, and nobody's history can be read from where they were born. It can come from a childhood home that was frightening or cold, from a relationship that wore away your sense of safety, from an assault, an accident or a sudden loss. What trauma tends to share is its aftermath: a body that stays on guard, sleep that doesn't restore, closeness that feels risky, and reactions that seem too big until you understand where they started.
Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, works with trauma through Schema Therapy combined with emotion-focused and cognitive-behavioural techniques. You set the pace. You won't be asked to retell everything; the focus is on the patterns those experiences left behind and on the younger parts of you still carrying them. Tina Abadi, RP, offers trauma-informed therapy with a more structured, skills-first approach.
If harm is happening now, at home, safety comes before therapy. The Family Violence Project of Waterloo Region brings local agencies together to support people living with family violence, and trauma work can follow once you are safer. Sessions here are offered in English and Farsi; if neither is the language you think in, the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre, which offers interpretation and settlement support, may be a useful first contact.
Online sessions have particular advantages for this kind of work. You choose the room, the chair and the blanket; nobody sees you arrive or leave; and when a session stirs things up, you are already home rather than facing a drive across Kitchener or a bus ride back.
Therapy is one support among several. When distress is acute, turn first to the crisis lines in the answers below or to Here 24/7, listed with the organizations that follow. Ongoing online sessions sit alongside that kind of help, in English or Farsi, from whatever room in Kitchener feels most private to you.
These independent organizations are not affiliated with NoorMinds and can be useful alongside or between sessions, including when you need support quickly.
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