Exhausted from relationships, caregiving, and being the responsible parent and adult in the room for decades? Grown children moved back home? Parenting your grandchildren? If you’re carrying the weight of everyone else’s needs and wondering when it will be your turn, you’re not alone — and it doesn’t have to stay this way. I believe every person has the capacity for personal growth, and one of the best outcomes in therapy is watching a client become the best version of themselves. I am here to facilitate that transformation. With over twenty years of experience working as a psychologist in hospitals and community agencies — and as a BCIA Certified Neurofeedback Clinician — I bring a deep clinical foundation to walk with you through your journey and provide the tools necessary for lasting change.
Common struggles I help clients work through:
- Feeling exhausted from decades of being the responsible one — the fixer, the caregiver, the adult in the room
- Adult children moving back home, and the strain that puts on your marriage, your finances, and your sense of your own life
- Raising your grandchildren when you expected to be entering a new, freer chapter
- Feeling emotionally disconnected from your partner, even when you love them
- Repeating the same conflict cycle over and over with no resolution
- Facing divorce later in life, after decades together, when everything you built together is suddenly in question
- Struggling to reconnect with your partner after retirement, when the structure and identity work once gave you are gone
- Caring for a partner through illness, and grieving the relationship you had while showing up for the one you have now
- Feeling caught between two cultures, or between your family’s expectations and your own life
- Navigating an interfaith or intercultural relationship where your families don’t understand each other
- Carrying the stress of immigration, acculturation, or building a life far from home
- Trauma responses — shutting down, overreacting, or feeling unsafe — that hijack your relationship
- Feeling like you’ve “talked through” everything in therapy before, but your body still reacts the same way
- Struggling to name or ask for what you actually need from a partner
- High-conflict dynamics that leave both people exhausted and unheard
Because I care about your holistic well-being, I prioritize self-care and self-love in our sessions. My work centers on helping people build a deeper connection with their own emotions so they can strengthen their bonds with the people they love. By addressing the underlying stories that shape our emotions, thoughts, and behaviors, we can identify — and break — the emotional cycles that keep you feeling stuck and overwhelmed.
Do you need a therapist who speaks Farsi? I am fluent in Farsi and Dari, and I offer bilingual therapy services for Persian and Afghan clients who want to work with a clinician who understands their language and culture firsthand.
Neurofeedback Therapy: Brain-Based Healing for Lasting Change
Have you done years of talk therapy but still feel stuck in the same emotional patterns? That’s often a sign the issue isn’t a lack of insight — it’s a nervous system that hasn’t learned a new way to regulate itself. As a BCIA Certified Neurofeedback Clinician, I use neurofeedback (NFB) — a non-invasive, evidence-based brain training technique that shows you your own brainwave activity in real time — to help your brain build healthier patterns of regulation from the inside out. Unlike traditional talk therapy alone, neurofeedback works directly with the biology underneath your emotional reactions, giving you tools that go deeper than insight and into how your nervous system actually responds under stress.
I integrate neurofeedback into my work with individuals and couples to help you:
- Calm a nervous system that’s stuck in fight-or-flight, even when you know “logically” you’re safe
- Reduce reactivity in high-conflict relationship dynamics
- Heal trauma stored in the body, not just processed in the mind
- Improve focus, emotional regulation, and sleep
- Strengthen the brain’s capacity for intimacy, patience, and connection
Neurofeedback pairs especially well with relational therapy for clients who feel like they “know what to do” but can’t seem to do it in the moment — because the pattern lives in the nervous system, not just the thought process.
Specialization in Multicultural & Intercultural Therapy
There are many contexts to my identity: I am a female immigrant from the Middle East, a wife, mother, and daughter. As a world traveler fluent in Farsi and Dari, I bring a global perspective to my practice. I have extensive experience working with individuals and couples who have immigrated to the U.S., as well as intercultural and interfaith couples. I understand the unique pressure of navigating multiple identities and the complexity that arises when different faiths or cultural backgrounds merge in a relationship. I am dedicated to helping you explore these nuances in a space that is patient, respectful, and culturally informed.
Navigating Later-Life Transitions
What happens to a marriage when the kids are gone — or back home — the career winds down, or a diagnosis changes everything? Some of the hardest relational transitions happen in the second half of life. Maybe your grown children have moved back in, or you’re raising grandchildren when you thought that season of parenting was behind you. Maybe retirement has stripped away the roles and routines that once gave your day-to-day life its shape, leaving you and your partner to renegotiate who you are to each other. Maybe illness has quietly turned your marriage into a caregiving arrangement, leaving little room for grief, resentment, or intimacy to be spoken aloud. And for couples who separate later in life, grey divorce brings its own singular losses — a shared history, a shared identity, an imagined future — that don’t resolve the way a younger divorce might. I help couples and individuals name what’s shifting, grieve what’s been lost, and decide — together or apart — what comes next.
Specialties
- Neurofeedback (NFB) Brain Training
- High-Conflict Couples & Ineffective Relationship Habits
- Grey Divorce
- Couples Facing Partner Illness or Retirement
- Adult Children Returning Home & Grandparents Raising Grandchildren
- Immigration & Acculturation (Individuals and Couples)
- Interfaith & Intracultural Relationships
- Anger & Stress Management
- Trauma-Informed Care
- Women’s Issues
- Bilingual Services: Fluent in Farsi and Dari
Education & Credentials
- Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy, National University, San Diego, CA
- BCIA Certified Neurofeedback Clinician
- Master of Science in Clinical Psychology, Azad University, Tehran
- Over 20 years of international clinical experience in hospital and community settings
If you are interested in talking with me or would like to schedule an appointment, please do not hesitate to reach out by emailing maryam@relationship-center.com or calling 757-788-2800 ext. 617
Rates
| New Client Consultation to discuss how Maryam can help you | Free for 15 minute session |
| Initial Assessment for Individuals | $175 for 75-minute session |
| Individual Therapy | $150 for 55-minute session |
| Initial Assessment for Couples | $185 for 75-minute session |
| Couples Therapy | $175 for 60-minute session |
| Late Cancellation | Full Session Fee for cancellation within 24 hours of appointment |
| No Show Appointment Fee | Full Appointment Fee |
Payment
Cash, check and credit or debit cards are accepted for payment.
Insurance
While insurance is not accepted at this time, Maryam is happy to provide you with receipts and documentation, upon request, to submit to your insurance carrier for reimbursement. Services may be covered in full or in part by your health insurance or employee benefit plan. Please review your coverage carefully, and consult with your insurance provider.
