Khojesta is a Registered Clinical Counsellor. She specializes in working with non-normative people including gender-diverse, neurodivergent, and non-monogamous individuals, intimate networks and families. Her work focuses on identity exploration, expression of self, immigration, parenting, depression, anxiety, and trauma. She operates from an anti-oppressive, trauma-informed, strength-based, cooperative, and empowering therapeutic lens. She has almost 10 years of experience working in front-line crisis and mental health services across the developmental lifespan including children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly.

I was born in Afghanistan, and my family fled to Moscow as refugees when I was two years old because of war and ethnic genocide. My family immigrated to Alberta when I was seven years old. I grew up in a Muslim family with strong religious beliefs, strict social norms, and ongoing intergenerational trauma. I felt confused by the differing cultural values, beliefs, and norms in my home and the outside world. I struggled with gender discrimination at home and racial discrimination among my peers. I felt alienated, isolated, and alone because I did not feel like I belonged anywhere.

Developing my personal and cultural identity felt like grasping for straws in the dark because I had no support to help me figure out what an intersectional identity looked like for me. My identity development was further complicated by the tremendous amount of conflict that I experienced with my family and the Afghan community because my authentic self was not welcome in those spaces. I spent many years trying to hide the different parts of myself to fit into various spaces such as my queerness in the Afghan community or my ethnicity in the Canadian community. I engaged in a personal healing journey with the help of numerous counsellors over the last decade to bring together the disjointed parts of myself into a holistic and authentic identity that is unique and celebrated by me.

My experiences have led me to focus on working with people who feel alienated from themselves, their loved ones, and the world around them. I am passionate about supporting individuals to explore the multiple facets of their identity, such as the intersection between their gender and culture, and to feel confident expressing their authentic selves in all the spaces they occupy in their lives. I strive to create a nonjudgmental, accepting, positive, and warm therapeutic environment so that clients can feel safe and empowered to explore their unique identities and develop self-acceptance.

I am an Approved Counsellor for the Crime Victim Assistance Program through the B.C. Ministry of Justice.

Individual Counselling: $140/session (plus GST) 

Relationship Counselling: $150/session (plus GST)