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, so you can start from home in North York.
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.
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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:
Trauma therapy can stir things up even when it is going well, so a plan for the hours between sessions matters. Since September 2024 the Toronto Community Crisis Service has operated across the whole city, North York included, responding to people in mental-health distress with trained crisis workers instead of police. The Gerstein Crisis Centre adds a 24/7 crisis line and mobile team. Knowing those options exist, and when you would use them, is part of feeling safe enough to do the work at all.
Confidentiality matters in trauma work, and in a close community it can feel especially important. Sessions with NoorMinds are online, so you speak from your own home rather than walking into an office where someone might recognize you. What you share is confidential under CRPO standards, within limits required by law that are explained at the start, and you decide what to talk about and when. Nobody is asked to tell the whole story in the first session, or ever, if it is not needed. For some people the neighbourhood itself holds reminders, a sound, a smell, a kind of crowd, and part of the early work is simply understanding why an ordinary walk to the shops can set the body on alert. That understanding alone can take some of the shame out of it.
For survivors of war, torture or persecution, the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture offers specialized counselling and settlement help in several languages, including Farsi and Dari. Therapy with NoorMinds can run alongside a specialized service like that, or on its own. Schema-based trauma therapy works with the beliefs about safety, trust and your own worth that trauma leaves behind, and it does not require retelling every detail. The first goals can be simple: steadier sleep, fewer startles, and a little more room between a trigger and a reaction.
North York's neighbourhoods hold people with very different histories, and no one's is assumed: a collision on the highway, a childhood in an unpredictable home, a journey across borders, a relationship that was not safe. Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, is an Iranian immigrant who offers schema-based trauma therapy in English and Farsi. Tina Abadi, RP, works in a trauma-informed, skills-first CBT style. Every session happens by video, and you set the pace.
These organizations are independent and not affiliated with NoorMinds; people in North York may find them useful alongside or between sessions, including in a crisis.