I offer virtual sessions by video or phone for Bowmanville residents, so you can access therapy from wherever you're most comfortable. If you'd prefer to meet in person, my office in Whitby is available to you.
Bowmanville sits at the eastern edge of Durham Region, far enough from the urban core that getting to a therapist in Oshawa or Whitby can feel like a commitment in itself, especially after a full workday. I work with Bowmanville clients by video or phone, which means your session happens in a space you've chosen, not a waiting room you drove forty minutes to reach. The therapeutic work is the same. What changes is that the logistics stop being a reason to put it off.
I'm a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), Licence #19673, trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Internal Family Systems, DBT, and several other approaches. What that means practically is that I don't have a single method I apply to every person. I pay attention to what's in front of me, and I adjust accordingly. For some clients, that means working through a structured approach to anxiety or depression. For others, it means sitting with something harder to name, a persistent sense of displacement, a grief that doesn't fit the usual categories, a feeling that the person you were before immigration or before a significant loss has quietly gone missing.
Clarington has a small but growing South Asian community, and some of my Bowmanville clients are navigating exactly that: the gap between where they came from and where they've landed, the pressure to perform togetherness for family while privately running low. I grew up in Bangladesh and lived there for more than thirty years before immigrating to Canada as a single mother. I know what it costs to hold all of that without a place to put it down. If that's part of what you're carrying, you don't have to explain the context from scratch.
Getting started is straightforward. You can book a free fifteen-minute call where you tell me a little about what's brought you here, I answer any questions you have, and we decide together whether to go ahead. There's no intake paperwork until after that conversation, and no commitment at that stage. If you'd rather come to Whitby in person, that's available too, but most clients find that virtual sessions fit more easily into how their week actually works.
I'm a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), Licence #19673, with an MA in Counselling Psychology from Yorkville University, completed in 2025. I'm a member of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, and I practise under supervision as required at this stage of registration. That supervision is a college regulatory requirement, built in to protect clients, and it means my work is actively reviewed by a more senior clinician.
I'm Bengali and Bangladeshi. I was born and raised in Bangladesh and lived there for more than thirty years before I came to Canada as a single mother. That biography shapes what I notice in a session. I understand, from the inside, what it means to rebuild a sense of self in a country that didn't shape you, to parent without the support structures you had at home, to carry grief for a life left behind while trying to build a new one. For clients from South Asia, from Bangladesh in particular, that understanding can matter enormously. You won't spend the first few sessions explaining the basics of where you came from.
I work in English, Bengali, and Hindi. My therapeutic approaches include CBT, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Internal Family Systems, DBT, psychodynamic and narrative approaches, and mindfulness integration. I use what fits the person, not the other way around. If you'd like to know more about how I work, you'll find more detail on my approach and fees page .
approach and fees pageMy in-person office is at 519 Dundas Street East in Whitby, Ontario, which is accessible to clients throughout Durham Region who'd prefer face-to-face sessions. For Bowmanville residents, the virtual option tends to be more practical, and I offer video and phone sessions to anyone in Ontario and across Canada. Wherever you are in the province, you can access the same sessions, the same approaches, and the same bilingual support.
Registration matters. In Ontario, psychotherapists are regulated by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, so look for a licence number you can verify. Beyond credentials, consider whether the therapist's background and experience are relevant to what you're bringing. Cultural fit, language, and lived experience all affect how quickly you can move past the explaining and into the work.
The research says yes for the majority of presenting concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship issues. The therapeutic relationship, which is the strongest predictor of outcome, builds just as well over video. The main exception is certain crisis presentations that benefit from in-person clinical oversight. For everything else, the consistency of virtual sessions, fewer cancelled appointments, no commute, often produces better attendance and therefore better results.
In Ontario, "psychotherapist" is a protected title under the Psychotherapy Act and requires registration with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. "Counsellor" is not a protected title, meaning anyone can use it. A Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) holds an active licence and practises under supervision as required by the college. When you see a licence number, you can verify it directly on the CRPO public register.
Book the free fifteen-minute consultation first. That call lets you describe briefly what you're looking for, ask any questions about fees, format, or approach, and decide whether to go ahead. If you do, I'll confirm a regular time and send a secure video link along with a short intake form. The first full session usually covers what brought you to therapy and what you'd like to be different. There's no pressure to arrive with a prepared speech.
Durham Mental Health Services offers community-based support across the region, and the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy program provides free CBT-based therapy for anxiety and depression through referral. Family doctors in Clarington can refer to psychiatry and community mental health teams. Private therapy, including virtual sessions like mine, offers faster access and more choice of approach, particularly for people whose concerns don't meet the threshold for public services or who want to work in a specific language.
"Finding a therapist who speaks Bengali and actually understands what that means culturally is harder than it sounds. I spent years putting this off because I didn't think I'd find someone who got it. Within a few sessions I was covering things I hadn't been able to talk about in English. I recommend Syeda to anyone in the Bengali community who's been sitting on this."
"I'd tried two other therapists before this. Syeda is the first one where I felt like we were actually getting somewhere rather than just talking around things. Three months in, I sleep better than I have in years. The online sessions worked out much better than I expected."
"I came in thinking I needed to talk about my relationship. What we actually worked on turned out to be older than that. Six weeks in, things had already shifted. Syeda doesn't rush you but she also doesn't let you go in circles. I hadn't expected to feel any different this quickly."
I don't have a practice location in Bowmanville itself. My in-person office is at 519 Dundas Street East in Whitby, which is roughly 40 to 50 minutes west along Highway 2 or the 401. For most Bowmanville clients, virtual sessions by video or phone are the more practical choice, and they work just as well for the kinds of issues I help with. If you'd strongly prefer to meet in person, the Whitby location is available to you, and some clients do make that trip. Many find, though, that removing the commute makes it easier to show up consistently, which matters a great deal in therapy.
Sessions take place over secure video or, if you'd prefer, by phone. I use a platform that's compliant with Canadian privacy standards, so your sessions are confidential and your data stays in Canada. You'd need a quiet space where you won't be overheard and a reliable internet connection for video. We meet at the same time each week for fifty minutes, and the session runs the same way it would in a room together. I've worked with clients across Ontario this way, and the therapeutic connection builds just as genuinely as it does in person. After booking, you'll receive a secure link and any intake forms by email well before your first session.
Yes. I'm fluent in Bengali and I grew up speaking it as my first language in Bangladesh, where I lived for more than thirty years before immigrating to Canada. For clients who think in Bengali, or who find that certain feelings are simply easier to describe in their mother tongue, that option is genuinely available here. It's not a translation service offered as an add-on. Bengali is the actual language I was raised in. I also speak Hindi. If you'd like to work in Bengali, English, or move between both within the same session, all of that is fine. Many of my South Asian clients find this makes a real difference to what they're able to say, and to how quickly we can get past the surface.
I work with a wide range of presenting concerns. Anxiety, including persistent worry, social anxiety, and panic, is probably the most common reason people book with me. Depression and low mood, burnout from work or caregiving, and trauma, including experiences from childhood or from the immigration process itself, are also frequent. I work with couples on communication and conflict patterns that have become entrenched. Many of my South Asian clients come with questions about identity, the tension between their family's expectations and their own needs, or the grief of leaving a country behind. I also work with life transitions including divorce, career change, and adjusting to a new country. The list isn't exhaustive. If you're unsure whether what you're dealing with is something I work with, the free consultation is the right place to find out.
Individual and couples sessions are $150 for a fifty-minute hour. I offer a sliding scale rate of $135 for clients who need it, and you're welcome to ask about that when we speak during the free consultation. I don't bill insurance directly, but I provide official receipts that you can submit to your insurer if your plan covers services from a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying). Many extended health benefit plans do include this, though it's worth checking your policy directly. Payment is accepted by cash, cheque, Visa, Mastercard, or PayPal. Before committing to anything, you can book a free fifteen-minute consultation to ask questions and get a sense of whether we'd work well together.
The easiest starting point is the free fifteen-minute consultation, which you can book through the contact page on this site. That call is a chance to tell me briefly what's brought you to therapy, ask any questions you have about fees, format, or how I work, and decide whether you'd like to go ahead. There's no pressure and no commitment at that stage. If you'd prefer to book a full session directly, you can do that too. Once we've confirmed a time, I'll send a secure link for your first video session along with a short intake form. The whole process from first contact to first session can move as quickly as a few days if my schedule allows, and I'm available Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 3 to 9pm, and Wednesday from 12 to 5pm.
I offer a free fifteen-minute consultation for Bowmanville residents. We'll talk briefly about what's brought you here, and you can ask me anything before deciding whether to book a full session. Virtual sessions are available by video or phone, and the first available appointment can often come within the week.