Couples and Family Therapy
Some of what brings people to therapy can’t be solved by working on yourself alone. A marriage that’s gone quiet in the wrong way. A teenager you can no longer reach. Parents whose worry has turned into control, or children who’ve stopped calling. A family that immigrated together but never recovered the closeness they had before the move.
Couples and family therapy is for the times when the work has to happen in the relationship, not just in the individuals.
What I work with
Couples therapy. For the slow drift apart, the conflict that keeps repeating, the trust that’s been damaged. We work on the actual communication, the underlying attachment patterns, and (if it’s there) the cultural overlay — what it means to be a couple from two different worlds, or one world that’s no longer there.
Family conflict and boundaries. When grown children and parents can’t figure out where one ends and the other begins. When siblings can’t be in the same room. When the family system is keeping someone stuck.
Parenting support. For parents trying to do better than they were done by — and finding it harder than expected. ADHD kids, anxious kids, kids growing up in a culture different from yours. I draw on what’s evidence-based and on the family-systems work I did with refugee families for over a decade.
Intergenerational trauma. The patterns that get passed down without anyone meaning to. The war or migration your grandparents lived through that you somehow inherited. The silence that protected your parents but is suffocating you. I’ve made this work my central focus for twenty years.
Cultural and immigration dynamics. Iranian-Canadian families especially — the loss of role and respect that immigration costs the parents, the dual identity the children carry, the conversations that can’t happen in either language, the aabroo that keeps everyone silent. I work with these dynamics every week.
Life transitions that affect a relationship. A move, a birth, a death, an illness, a child leaving, a retirement, an affair. The transitions that knock a relationship sideways and reveal what was already there.
What sessions look like
For couples: 75 or 90 minute sessions, in person or online. Usually weekly to start.
For families: 60 to 90 minutes depending on who’s there. I see parents and adult children, parents and adolescents, full family groups, and sometimes I work with one family member while leaving the door open for the others to join.
I work in English and Farsi. Bilingual sessions are common in immigrant families where the parents and children speak different home languages — I move between them as needed.
Fees and insurance
Sessions are $150 CAD for 60 minutes (longer sessions billed pro-rata). I direct-bill ICBC, CVAP, FNHA, IFHP, VAC, and RCMP. Most private insurance plans cover couples and family therapy under the general counselling benefit — call or text and I’ll help you check yours.
Your first 20 minutes are free. Call or text any day between 9am and 9pm — I respond within a couple of hours.