Approach

I have provided services at the Arlington | DC Behavior Therapy Institute, UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services, Capital Institute for Cognitive Therapy, Georgetown University Counseling and Psychiatric Service, Community Connections Trauma-Informed Care, Donald Delaney Eating Disorders Clinic (Children’s National Medical Center), Neuropsychology Associates of Fairfax, New York State Psychiatric Institute (Columbia University Irving Medical Center), and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, among others.

My approach to treatment planning is holistic, integrative, personalized, compassion-focused, and identity-affirming. I ask clients about their psychological, physiological, and sociocultural well-being that provides a holistic (mind-body-socio-spiritual) understanding of their healing needs. I have advanced training in and integrate a broad range of empirically-supported interventions (e.g., compassion-based, emotionally-focused, somatic, cognitive-behavioral, acceptance and commitment-based, dialectical behavioral, mindfulness-based, psychodynamic, interpersonal, mindfulness-based, etc.) geared toward the distinct concerns and goals of various populations so that healing is more personalized. When appropriate, I also integrate Eastern healing practices (e.g., Qigong, pranayama) to aid awareness, presence, compassion, and relaxation. Inherent within an integrative approach is the opportunity to practice flexibility and meet my clients’ diverse and evolving needs.

Multicultural Competence

I am multicultural and multilingual, and I practice within a framework that honors the importance of attending to each client’s unique values and identities. It is imperative that your therapist is compassionate, supportive, and identity-affirming. It is important that the (virtual or in-person) therapeutic space (“container”) feels comfortable, safe, and warm, and that you are not worried about having to explain your cultural background or your values to your psychotherapist.

Multiculturalism is complex, and context matters. As an Iranian-Swedish female immigrant, I have learned to draw upon my direct experiences with sociocultural and political challenges, and issues of identity, while consistently engaging in self-reflection and reducing my biases and blind spots by feeling into the concerns of others that are not immediately my own.

Culturally-dependent contextual factors affect the way we experience and express stress and distress. I find it essential to understand the context in which clients are experiencing distress and to normalize and validate that distress before encouraging acceptance or change. My sincere wish is to create a non-judgmental, flexible environment, where unwanted experiences can be communicated, ambivalence addressed, internal motivations investigated, readiness for change championed, and empowered values established. Committed actions follow and are reinforced.

Knowing that multicultural competence is not an end-goal, but rather an ongoing growth process, I aim to continue to strengthen my evolving multicultural competencies that honor the diversity of my clients.