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 from home in Pickering.
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.
You don't need to be ready for everything, only for a first conversation, from wherever in Pickering you feel safest.
Or call (647) 699-5142 · WhatsApp · Email
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:
Not all trauma comes from a single event. Some of it builds inside relationships: a partner who controlled or frightened you, a childhood home that never felt safe, years of being put down until you believed it. Some comes from a sudden loss, an assault or an accident. And some was carried across borders, from war or persecution before arriving in Canada. Wherever it comes from, much of it stays behind closed doors, and the people living with it are often the ones who look most capable from the outside, holding down a job, running a household and saying they are fine.
If violence or control is part of your life right now, safety comes first, and it deserves specialized help. In Durham Region, Catholic Family Services of Durham runs Safety Network Durham for people affected by gender-based violence, and Distress Centre Durham offers a distress line for the region; these and other independent services are listed below. Therapy is a different kind of support, one that fits alongside that help or after the immediate danger has passed.
Trauma often shows up sideways: sleeping badly, snapping at the people you love, feeling numb, avoiding certain places or people, bracing for something even on quiet days, or feeling ashamed of reactions you cannot explain. Ghazal Sheikhtaheri, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #21300, works with trauma through schema therapy combined with emotion-focused and cognitive-behavioural techniques. That means looking at the beliefs trauma left behind, such as "I'm not safe", "it was my fault" or "no one can be trusted", and at the ways you learned to cope, which made sense then and may be costing you now.
You will not be asked to describe everything that happened, and the pace is set by what feels safe for you. Early work often focuses on the present: steadier sleep, ways to settle when something sets you off, and a clearer sense of what your reactions are protecting. The article on when trauma does not end explains why a body can stay on alarm long after the danger is over.
Sessions are online, which can matter a great deal after trauma. You do not have to sit in a waiting room, drive into Toronto or explain an absence to anyone; you join from a room where you feel secure. If home does not feel private or safe, say so in the free consultation and you can think together about timing and options. Sessions are in English or Farsi, for people anywhere in Pickering and across Ontario.
None of these organizations is affiliated with NoorMinds; they are independent services that people in Pickering may find useful alongside or between sessions.
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