Private Psychological Consultation for Executives, Physicians, and Complex Partnerships
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Shaifali Sandhya, PhD

Multicultural Therapy for Individuals, Couples, and Global Families

 

Psychotherapy for the Multilingual, Multiracial, and Multicultural Living between cultures is rewarding, but it can also be overwhelming. Whether you are a first-generation immigrant, a global expat, a refugee, or returning “home” after years abroad, your sense of identity and belonging may feel stretched. For many, this shows up in relationships—with a partner, within family, or even in how you relate to yourself.

  

    •    Individuals often carry the weight of balancing careers, language, traditions, and expectations from their birth culture.

    •    Couples may discover that cultural values, family obligations, or even daily habits create unexpected friction.

    •    Even when both partners share the same cultural or religious background, differences in upbringing, generational expectations, or socioeconomic pressures can still cause conflict.

 

If you recognize yourself in these patterns, you are not alone. Seeking therapy or couples coaching is not a sign of failure—it’s an investment in building a healthier and more connected future.

 

Common Challenges Multicultural and Expat Clients Face

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    •    Struggling to balance traditional family values with personal independence

    •    Adjusting to life abroad, far from extended family and familiar support systems

    •    Navigating intercultural or biracial relationships, where different values, languages, or religious beliefs intersect

    •    Feeling pressure from the idea that “marriages are forever” while coping with disconnection or conflict

    •    Coping with assimilation stress, identity confusion, or difficulty communicating across cultural expectations

 

These challenges can feel isolating, especially when culturally fluent therapists are scarce. That’s why we provide a safe, supportive space to explore identity, culture, and relationships with someone who understands.

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Specialized Support for Urdu and Arabic-Speaking Clients

 

For many South Asian and Middle Eastern individuals and couples, therapy must be sensitive to religion, gender roles, cultural history, and family expectations. Dr. Shaifali Sandhya offers therapy that reflects this understanding. She provides culturally informed support for:

    •    Second-generation Muslim young adults balancing traditional values with modern identity

    •    First-generation professionals navigating careers, gender roles, and family expectations

    •    Couples struggling with infidelity, infertility, or intimacy concerns

    •    Parents seeking guidance for children facing academic or mental health challenges

    •    Husbands and wives working to realign their intimacy, spirituality, and values

 

Your Therapist: Dr. Shaifali Sandhya

 

Dr. Sandhya is a US- and UK-trained psychologist, with over 20 years of experience working with multicultural families around the world. She has:

    •    A doctorate from the University of Chicago

    •    An M.A. from the University of Cambridge

    •    Academic expertise on the global family and lived experience interviewing families worldwide

    •    A warm, practical approach that translates complex ideas into tools you can use immediately

 

She works with clients online via Zoom or in person. 

 

What to Expect in Your First Session

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    •    Length: 50 minutes (a standard therapeutic hour)

    •    Process: You and/or your partner will share your story, goals, and concerns in a safe, structured space.

    •    Approach: Dr. Sandhya may ask clarifying questions, highlight patterns, and suggest options for ongoing work.

    •    Next Steps: You can choose a tailored 7–12 week journey focused on communication, healing, and growth.

 

Feeling nervous? That’s normal. Many clients arrive unsure of what to say. Dr. Sandhya’s warmth and experience will help guide the conversation at your own pace.

 

How Therapy and Coaching Can Help

 

Therapy is more than just talking. It helps you:

    •    Build communication skills such as active listening, perspective-taking, and reframing

    •    Explore family history and cultural influences that shape present struggles

    •    Learn techniques to reduce conflict and strengthen intimacy

    •    Rebuild trust after infidelity or betrayal

    •    Navigate fertility issues, postpartum depression, or other life transitions

    •    Find alignment around values, money, parenting, and extended family

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Our Philosophy

 

Strong relationships are not accidents—they are co-created through effort, listening, and compassion. We help individuals and couples cut through the noise of rumination, negative filters, and cultural pressures to rediscover clarity and connection.

 

Whether you are:

    •    A third culture kid adjusting to life abroad

    •    An expatriate couple facing distance from extended family

    •    A multicultural or biracial couple navigating differences   

    •    Child of immigrants wishing to understand the impact of personality versus culture

    •    A multicultural or biracial couple navigating differences   

    •    Or an individual seeking clarity on identity and belonging

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…this is a safe space to pause, reflect, and reimagine your story.

 

Ready to Begin?

 

You don’t have to navigate cultural complexity and relationship stress alone.

 

Request  a consultation

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VIGNETTE

*names/identifying details have been changed

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"I just want to be a normal college kid but then my eyes happened...."

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When Adib, 20-years old was in his first semester at college, he realized he "had trouble listening" "would overthink" and experienced "social anxiety where I would have trouble talking to girls." His parents are first-generation immigrants from Pakistan who worked hard to open many grocery stores around the country; his father who had battled with depression too, told Adib, "You just need a positive mindset," or "you need to wake up at 6 am everyday, and then you watch, things will get better" or "I am tired everyday too, you just have to pick yourself up and keep moving." When home-grown remedies did not work and after much valuable time was lost, Adib's parents took him to a psychiatrist who prescribed him Effexor, a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) commonly prescribed for depression. Although his mood improved but his energy level continued to sag. "Mentally and physically I was always exhausted," says Adib. "I would try going to the gym to workout to improve my self-esteem, but that left me more tired." In the meantime, Adib's situation was deteriorating. Now, his eyes were drying up, he wasn't producing "any tears" and Adib was unable to get out of bed. Suspecting something else was going on, his third semester at college, he sought out a specialist who diagnosed him with Sjogren's syndrome, an autoimmune disease where your immune system attacks parts of your own body by mistake. In Sjogren's syndrome, it attacks the glands that make tears and saliva. Feeling overwhelmed with varying diagnoses from different specialists, Adib is seeking therapy to figure out healthy tools to manage the growing stress in his life. 

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Andrea: A Love Story With Drinking To Manage Untreated Sexual Abuse

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When Andrea was eighteen years old and in her senior year, she was raped and nearly beaten to death. Battered and in a shock, she went in and out of consciousness intermittently to realize that strangers, were speeding her in their car to the closest emergency room. At the hospital, "I was propped up like a ragged doll by strangers who found me naked and bleeding. No rape kit was given to me and the cops made it look like I was to blame." When she came out of the hospital, Andrea started to change. Previously gregarious and optimistic, in school she had been a valedictorian and played basketball for her college; after her rape, she "didn't sleep for two weeks," "was scared," "didn't care about things" and started to believe it "really was my fault." It was then the drinking started. For only with the help of a drink - or several - Andrea believed she could be who she once was -- uninhibited, happy, loving, and charismatic. Her trauma went untreated for a couple of years, even as her depression grew and the love affair with alcohol cast a dark spell on her life. It was the death of her best friend four years after the incident that caused her to seek a therapist but it did little to stem the tide of self-destruction that had already begun. Ten years after the rape, a couple of stints in rehab centers and alcohol-free for a year, Andrea now seeks therapy to understand how she can get rid of her self-loathing and mistrust in men; how she can halt the power struggles with men who end up using and abusing her; understand why her toxic past lovers continue exert influence on her; and, how to transform a devastating past to reclaim her personal power. 

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Charlotte: Long-Term Relational Impact of Childhood Incest and Sexual Abuse

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Charlotte has been in a same-sex relationship with her partner of four years. She describes their relationship as "unhealthy" with "frequent bouts of jealousy," "on-again-off-again" and one that is punctuated by "vicious arguments." Difficulty in focusing at work and considerable anxiety with occasional panic attacks are some precipitating circumstances for her to seek therapy. During the course of therapy, Charlotte reveals a pattern of molestation by a series of providers during the age of three-to-twenty one years, and domestic violence and substance abuse by her parents. Some goals that Charlotte outlines for herself are to acknowledge how early childhood abuse manifests itself in long-term trauma; how to overcome her guilt, shame and self-blame; understand how it impacts  her current relationship dynamics, and how her deep-seeded feelings of "being broken might be leading to self-sabotage or commitment issues."

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Sania: Understanding Herself and Her Interfaith Relationship as a Second Generation Muslim-American

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Sania is 30-years old, a medical resident, and a second generation Muslim-American whose parents immigrated from Palestine, she feels like "I'm a mess," and "lost." Sania is engaged to her long-term Caucasian boyfriend, also a medical resident, who converted to the Muslim faith two years ago. Despite having a "strong" relationship with her fiance Sania feels "numb," "unable to take any strong decisions," and feels she has different values about faith, family, and God that are affecting her relationship with herself. On one, hand, Sania believes, "As a second generation Muslim one's values may be quite different from one's parents' as their values seem to be frozen in time." But on the other, she struggles with the belief that despite converting to Islam, her fiance subscribes to the religion in the same manner that she does. "I don't want my husband to drink but I don't want him to do it for my sake," she says. They have never had sex with each other as it is against Sania's faith. An additional complicating factor is that her family does not know she is engaged. While her fiance believes that the "religious aspect" is holding Sania back, Sania in reality, lacks the ability to forge trusting relationships due to complicated family dynamics. She tells her fiance, "I'm a manipulative person. Why do you want me to string you along?" Together they are caught in a codependent dance that is intoxicating at times, mostly, destructive but with the right intentions to form a meaningful relationship.​

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Valerie: Dealing With Mom's Unexpected Death 

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When Valerie's mother died suddenly of a heart attack, she was grief-struck, and could not imagine a future without her. She was pregnant at that time and says, "I had so many questions I wanted to ask mom."  "I wanted to ask mom, 'Are you happy with the life you have?,'; 'Are you ready to go?,'; 'What do you think will be a good name for my baby?'

 

Valerie is 38-years old, Korean-American, and an architect. Feeling her pain acutely in the aftermath of her mom's passing away, Valerie gradually sunk into a deep sadness, lacking the motivation to get out of bed in the mornings. Other times it was "surreal," she felt her mother's physical presence and upon realizing it was in fact, her imagination, "I felt waves of sadness I just couldn't shake off or shrug off." Her productivity at work suffered and she avoided going to the Church lest she ran into any of her mother's friends who "reminded me of mom." "The mom-and-daughter- relationship is the only one where you can just be, where you don't have to perform or pretend to be someone you are not," shares Valerie. Since it has been difficult for Valerie to accept help, she also found herself struggling with "the concept of time," how it felt like just yesterday that mom was in the hospital." She sought therapy as could not grieve without blaming herself for the subtle signs, she believes she missed regarding her mother's illness. Initially skeptical of therapy, as Valerie found herself sharing more in a safe setting, she felt her anger and guilt at herself eroding, and found herself in a place where she could harness her mother's special love for her personal growth.

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Jamal: Dealing With Anger and Panic

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Jamal is 26-years old, Palestinian-American and a high school teacher. After graduating from a midwestern University with a major in Economics, he decided to teach students in Ramallah, Palestine, in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem. In the US, Jamal had been a college athlete, obtained a high GPA, and had a lot of friends. Living in Ramallah was not easy, and Jamal's behaviors started to change and faced with the starkness of harsh daily life, he grew less confident, less sociable, and more lonely. He began to experience anger, violent nightmares, and memories of his father's death in Palestine when he was five years, resurfaced. He quit his job and returned home only to discover alienation from a life, friends, and family he had once held dear. He seeks therapy to assist him in figuring out how to cope, understand what aspects in particular of his experience escalated his dysfunction to help him be better invested in his future. 

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