The Personal is Political
I'm a first-generation Pakistani-American who grew up translating at parent-teacher conferences and explaining American culture to my family while never feeling fully American myself.
I became a therapist because traditional therapy kept missing the point. When you're carrying family trauma across oceans, when "boundaries" with immigrant parents isn't a simple self-help book solution, when your mental health is directly tied to systems of oppression—you need something different.
MSW from Columbia, researching how migration affects family mental health across generations. Pre-licensed clinical social worker under supervision in New York, while building alternatives to the medical model. Research suggests increased mental health challenges across immigrant generations—people need to know this is documented, not just felt.
"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." — Rumi
This work chose me long before I chose it. Every client who sits with me is also my teacher, showing me new ways healing happens when we stop trying to fit into boxes that were never built for us.
How I Work
I practice from a liberation psychology framework, which means I believe your individual struggles are connected to larger systems of harm. We can't heal in isolation from the world that shaped our wounds.
My approach draws from:
- ✦ Narrative therapy and story reclaiming
- ✦ Somatic and body-based healing
- ✦ Family systems and intergenerational trauma
- ✦ Cultural responsiveness and decolonized practices
- ✦ Community healing and collective care
I work with the understanding that you are the expert on your own life. My job is to walk alongside you as you reclaim your story and build the life that feels true to who you are.
Training & Credentials
- Master of Social Work (MSW), Columbia University
- Pre-licensed Clinical Social Worker (under supervision)
- Trauma-Informed Care Certification
- Cultural Competency in Mental Health
- Narrative Therapy Training
- Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
- Community Mental Health Specialist
- Ongoing supervision and consultation
Beyond Individual Therapy
The People's Healing Collective exists because I believe healing is both deeply personal and inherently political. We can't address mental health without addressing the systems that create mental unwellness.
This means:
- ✦ Sliding scale fees so money isn't a barrier to healing
- ✦ Free community groups because healing happens in relationship
- ✦ Working with abolition collectives on mental health alternatives
- ✦ Advocacy for policy changes that support mental health
- ✦ Training other therapists in liberation-focused practices
"Sometimes healing means naming the systems that hurt us. Sometimes it means building alternatives. Always, it means remembering that you don't have to earn your rest anymore."