Therapist in
Pickering, Ontario

I don't have an office in Pickering itself. My in-person practice is at 519 Dundas Street East in Whitby, which is a short drive west along Highway 2 or the 401 for most Pickering residents. The journey is typically fifteen to twenty minutes outside of peak commute hours. Many of my Pickering clients find that virtual sessions by video or phone work extremely well and remove the travel entirely. If you'd prefer face-to-face, the Whitby location is easily accessible and there's parking nearby. Either way, the clinical work is the same quality regardless of the format we use.

Once you book, I send you a secure video link before your session. All you need is a private space, a device with a camera and microphone, and a reliable internet connection. Sessions run for fifty minutes at the same scheduled time each week, or however often we agree to meet. I'm registered to work with clients across Ontario, so your location in Pickering presents no barrier. Phone sessions are also available if video isn't accessible for you on a given day. Most clients tell me within the first few sessions that the format stops feeling unfamiliar quite quickly, and the work becomes the focus rather than the technology.

I do, and this is a meaningful part of my practice. I'm Bengali and grew up in Bangladesh, living there for more than thirty years before immigrating to Canada. I understand the pressures that come with South Asian family expectations, the experience of raising children between two cultural contexts, and the way mental health is often discussed quietly or not at all within our communities. Pickering has a substantial and growing South Asian population, and I work with clients navigating immigration stress, intergenerational conflict, identity questions, and the particular weight of being expected to hold everything together without ever asking for support. You won't need to translate your cultural experience for me. I already know what many of these dynamics feel like from the inside.

Yes. I offer sessions in Bengali, English, and Hindi. For many clients, speaking in Bengali unlocks a different kind of honesty. Certain feelings, particularly around family, shame, obligation, grief, and loss, don't always translate accurately into English. When you can name something in the language you first felt it in, the work moves differently and more directly. Bengali isn't a secondary language for me. I grew up speaking it in Dhaka, used it as my primary language for more than thirty years, and I continue to think in it. If you've been putting off therapy because you weren't sure you'd find someone who could work with you in your first language, that's not a barrier here.

The presenting issues vary widely, but I most often work with anxiety, depression, trauma, burnout, relationship difficulties, and major life transitions. For clients in Pickering's South Asian community specifically, I frequently see people carrying immigration-related stress, pressure from extended family, and the exhaustion of holding everything together while feeling disconnected from both cultures they belong to. I also work with women managing the simultaneous demands of career, family, and cultural expectation, and with couples who want to address entrenched communication patterns. My training covers CBT, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Internal Family Systems, DBT, psychodynamic and narrative approaches, and trauma-focused methods. What that means practically is that I adapt to what you need rather than applying a single framework to every person.

Individual and couples sessions are $150 per fifty-minute hour. A sliding scale rate of $135 per session is available for those who need it. I accept cash, cheque, Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal. I don't bill insurance directly, but I provide official receipts after each session that you can submit to your insurance provider yourself. Many extended health plans cover services from a Registered Psychotherapist, so it's worth checking your benefits documentation. A free fifteen-minute consultation is available before you commit to anything, so you can ask questions and get a sense of whether working together feels right before spending a dollar.

The most direct way is to book a free fifteen-minute consultation through the contact page. During that call we talk about what you're looking for, I answer any questions you have, and we decide together whether to proceed. I respond to all enquiries personally. There's no intake form to fill out before we speak, no referral needed from a doctor or anyone else, and no waitlist for the consultation itself. From there, first sessions are usually available within a week or two depending on scheduling. Evening appointments are available Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday until 9pm, and midday appointments are available on Wednesdays, so most working schedules can be accommodated without taking time off.