Therapy in Urdu, Hindi or English with an Urdu speaking therapist in New York

Many bilingual people find that they can talk about difficult events in English quite calmly, almost as if they happened to someone else. Then a single phrase in their mother tongue brings the feeling flooding back. That is not a problem to avoid. It is often exactly where the healing work needs to happen.

With a therapist who understands both languages, you don't have to choose between being understood and being accurate. You can explain the logistics of your life in English and the emotion of it in Urdu. You can quote your father exactly, rather than translating him into something gentler or harsher than he was.

Most of Rubina's multilingual clients don't stick to one language. They move between English and Urdu, or Hindi and Punjabi, sometimes in the same sentence. That is how many South Asian families actually talk, and it is how therapy can sound too.

If you grew up speaking one language at home and another at school, you may feel you don't speak either one "properly." That is very common among children of immigrants, and nobody will correct your grammar here. Your Hinglish or Urdu-English mix is exactly fine. There is more on that in-between feeling on the page about therapy for children of immigrants.

One of the most meaningful things a bilingual therapist can offer is a family session where every person can speak in their strongest language. An adult daughter might talk in English while her mother answers in Punjabi, and both of them are fully heard. Nobody has to act as the family translator, which is a role many children of immigrants have carried since childhood.

Elders often find it a relief to speak with someone who understands their references and their values. They may have spent decades in New York without ever being asked how they are actually doing. Rubina approaches them with the respect their age and experience deserve.

Speaking the language is only part of it. Rubina also understands the context the words come from — the family roles, the unspoken rules about what can be said and to whom, the weight of a parent's sacrifice, and the way certain topics are only ever hinted at. That understanding comes from growing up between cultures herself and from more than fifteen years of work with South Asian families.

As one example, the phrase dil halka karna — to lighten the heart — describes much of what therapy can feel like. You talk, and something heavy becomes a little easier to carry.

Rubina works with clients of every background. You don't need to be South Asian to work with her, and you don't need to speak Urdu or Hindi. If you do, it is simply one less barrier between you and the help you deserve. Learn more about her work as a South Asian therapist in NYC.