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Dhara Shah is a licensed psychiatric social worker and therapist with over 20 years of experience in the mental health field. She is a passionate advocate for mental health and emotional well-being, dedicated to supporting individuals and families through life’s challenges with compassion, respect, and understanding.
Her professional work spans individual and group therapy, counselling, crisis intervention, disaster response, and holistic health and well-being. Over the years, Dhara has worked with a wide range of organizations including non-profits, corporate organizations, government ministries, health authorities, educational institutions, and community-based organizations in both Canada and India.
Areas of Practice
Alongside her full-time work, Dhara has maintained a global private practice, supporting clients from Canada, India, and the United States through virtual counselling services. She works with individuals, couples, and families experiencing a wide range of emotional and life challenges, including:
- Anxiety and stress
- Depression
- Trauma and PTSD
- Abuse and recovery from violence
- Grief and loss
- Relationship challenges and couple counselling
- Prenatal and postpartum emotional health
- Counselling during fertility treatments
- Adjustment and support for new immigrants
- Life transitions and personal growth
Dhara believes that mental health care should be accessible and inclusive. Her practice welcomes individuals from all cultural backgrounds, races, genders, communities, and financial circumstances.
As a practising social worker with a health authority in British Columbia, Dhara can also guide clients to community services, government programs, and available support systems. She can assist individuals with navigating disability applications, community resources, and mental health services.
Therapeutic Approach
With over two decades of experience across diverse cultural and professional settings, Dhara brings a deeply compassionate and integrative approach to therapy.
Her work is strength-based, trauma-informed, and client-centered. Drawing from her experience working in both Eastern and Western contexts, Dhara has developed a unique ability to understand the complex biological, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of well-being.
She uses an eclectic and integrative therapeutic style, selecting approaches that best support each client’s unique needs, goals, and life experiences.
Therapeutic Modalities
Dhara uses an integrative approach that may include the following evidence-based and experiential therapeutic modalities:
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Internal Family Systems (IFS)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Person-Centered Therapy
- Narrative Therapy
- Mindfulness-Based Therapy
- Expressive and Creative Arts Therapy
- Rhythm and Drum Circle Therapy
- Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
- Strengths-Based Therapy
All services are delivered within a trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and client-centered framework.
Spirituality & Mindfulness
With guidance and mentorship from respected spiritual teachers and gurus, Dhara’s therapeutic approach is also inspired by the spiritual wisdom of Jain philosophy and Buddhist psychology.
These traditions emphasize compassion, self-awareness, and inner balance as pathways toward healing and personal growth.
Drawing from Jain teachings, her work incorporates the principles of compassion, non-harm, and kindness toward oneself and all sentient beings. These values support empathy, ethical living, and deeper connection with oneself and others.
Influenced by Buddhist psychology, Dhara also integrates practices that encourage understanding the nature of the mind.
Through mindfulness and reflective awareness, clients are supported in observing their thoughts, emotions, and patterns with greater clarity.
This process helps individuals explore the underlying causes of emotional suffering and develop healthier responses to life’s challenges.
Mindfulness practices and reflective inquiry are used to cultivate the “wise mind” — a balanced state where emotional awareness and thoughtful understanding work together to guide decisions and actions.
These spiritual perspectives are integrated gently and respectfully, supporting clients who wish to explore deeper meaning, self-understanding, and compassionate ways of relating to themselves and the world.
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