🇳🇱 Rotterdam
Netherlands
A city built with its hands, that does not do politeness
Rotterdam is not Amsterdam. It is a port, a working city, modern, and impatient with appearances. The local saying is do not talk, work. For some Iranians that bluntness is liberating and for others it is cold.
A city that does not understand pretence
Rotterdam was destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt, and that has stayed in the character of the place: modern architecture, a skyline full of towers, and a culture that takes pride in working rather than in having a history.
People here are blunt even by Dutch standards. Taarof means nothing, and maybe means no. For a newly arrived Iranian the first months can feel like meeting a wall with no feeling in it. Many people say afterwards that they prefer it: you know where you stand.
Rotterdam is one of the most multicultural cities in the Netherlands. Being foreign draws less attention here than in a smaller town, and at the same time, among that many immigrant communities, the Iranian one can feel small and scattered.
The huisarts, GGZ, and the practical route
The official route is the national one: the huisarts, then the POH-GGZ, then if necessary a referral into specialist GGZ and a wait that runs to months. The annual insurance deductible applies as usual.
If you want to take that route in Farsi, you effectively have no option. Online Farsi-language therapy needs no referral, involves no wait, and does not ask you to explain your culture before you can start.
What Farsi-speaking newcomers in Rotterdam find hardest
Rotterdam bluntness, and how easily it reads as coldness
GGZ waits, and no Farsi-speaking therapist available
An Iranian community scattered inside a very multicultural population
Work pressure and a do-not-talk-work culture
Housing costs and a tight rental market
Distance from family, and keeping in touch across it
Somewhere you do not have to be brief and efficient
In a culture that prides itself on brevity and getting on with it, having one hour a week where you can talk at length, messily, and without reaching a conclusion, is worth something in itself.
Emotral's therapists speak Farsi, sessions are online and confidential, and you can start this week.
Farsi-speaking therapists available to you
Every Emotral session is online, so these therapists — wherever in the world they live — are available to Iranians in Rotterdam, and you see the session time in your own local clock.
Lena Ebadi
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Individual Therapy (Adults)
Dr. Mojgan Shariatpanahi
Individual Therapy (Adults), Family Therapy, Couples Therapy
Dr. Jalal Khademi
PhD in Psychology, Depression, Anxiety & Panic Attacks
Dr. Fatemeh Mesgarian
Analytic Psychotherapy, Individual Therapy (Adults), Individual Counseling
Dr. Farzaneh Abroshan
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Schema Therapy, Group Therapy
Dr. Farzad Rasoulof
Schema Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)