About Dr. Ashwin Mehra

Detailed Profile

To grow and to heal is a choice we can make. If you are reading this, you have already taken a step in that direction. You may be wondering whether therapy can help you take a few more. These steps can lead in many directions—toward doing better, achieving personal goals, reducing distress, managing difficult emotions, recognizing unhelpful patterns, addressing relationship challenges, coming to terms with the past, or seeking clarity around life’s difficult questions. Everyone enters therapy with unique expectations. My role is to support you in taking meaningful steps toward meeting yours.

I offer an integrative approach to therapy that avoids a one-size-fits-all model. I completed my PhD in Clinical Psychology through an integrative program at St. John’s University in the New York City area. My training and clinical work in New York allowed me to develop a deep and broad understanding of psychological conditions and the people who experience them. I work with adults, adolescents, children, and seniors, tailoring my work to the unique challenges that come with different life stages. I provide individual, couples, family, group, and parenting therapy, selecting the format that best meets the client’s needs. I have also conducted psychological assessments and testing for cognitive functioning, psychological and personality traits, adaptive and behavioral concerns, and learning disabilities. My range across the lifespan and my assessment experience allow me to approach each case with nuance and balance.

I have a wide scope of expertise in treating psychological issues. I have extensive experience in the treatment of anxiety and mood disorders, including depression, anxiety and panic attacks, PTSD and dissociative disorders, bipolar disorder, OCD, social anxiety, phobias and seasonal depression. I also have significant experience with alcohol and substance abuse, internet and related addictions, personality disorders, relationship conflicts, schizophrenia and psychoses, gender and sexual orientation challenges, eating disorders and body image issues, insomnia and health related psychological issues. I work with children and adolescents for treating conditions such as ADHD, oppositionality, emotional and behavioral disturbances, executive functioning and communication deficits or relationship and identity formation issues. As many people experience more than one problem at the same time, I believe my wide areas of expertise assist in developing individualized treatment plans to address all the concurrent issues in a systematic manner.

Therapy is best understood as a collaborative process. At the start of therapy, the therapist and the client work together to develop a shared understanding of the struggles faced by the client, and how therapy could help deal with them. I utilize an integrative approach, which can include specific techniques from psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral (CBT), mindfulness-based, dialectical-behavioral (DBT), internal family systems (IFS), acceptance and commitment (ACT), motivational interviewing (MI), attachment-focused, trauma-focused, existential- humanistic, client-centered, transpersonal, somatic, Polyvagal, and body-aware approaches, among others. However, I believe that the best approach is one that feels “at home” to the client, and this itself is identified in a collaborative manner. Progress and goals are then periodically evaluated, with reference to meeting the expectations from treatment. I am also committed to culturally sensitive care and hailing from Mumbai, India, I am especially aware of the South Asian cultural context of mental health, and can provide therapy in English, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu with an understanding of Marathi and Gujarati.

My many years of experience in public hospitals and private practice settings in Toronto, New York City and Long Island, New York have augmented my credentials as a clinical psychologist. I have worked at the Centre for Interpersonal Services (CFIR) in Toronto and at Nassau University Medical Center, Long Island Federally Qualified Health Centers, Queens Hospital Center, Reflective Psychology Associates, TERRAP Anxiety and Phobia Care, Kew Gardens Center for Psychotherapy and the St. John’s University Center for Psychological Services in New York. Along with these substantial experiences of providing psychotherapy and psychological assessments, I have also engaged in varied research and teaching activities, as well as regularly supervised research assistants, psychology interns and externs, and medical residents.

In my endeavour to highlight the relevance of mental health issues in the general community, I have participated in media interviews and conducted workshops aimed towards greater destigmatization of mental health. I was interviewed for a Canadian South Asian TV Channel (Canada One) conducted in Hindi and Urdu on the topic of mental health stigma in the South Asian community, aired in September 2023. I conducted a teacher training seminar on the topic of Emotional Communication and Emotional Regulation for Children at the Arya Vidya Mandir school in Mumbai, India, in August 2023. I was interviewed for a Life magazine article titled “The Cost Of Caring” on the theme of dealing with loss and grief due to COVID-19, published in Canada in March 2021. I was also interviewed for a Maclean’s magazine article titled “Students Are Lonelier Than Ever” on the theme of loneliness and isolation in young adults, published in Canada in October 2019. I hope to continue to contribute towards a greater acceptance of mental illness and evidenced based and culturally aware strategies for addressing mental health issues.