Meet Mahla

Mahla Rahiminejad, she/her

MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING INTERN

In person in Brooklyn, NYC | Virtual in NY State

Welcome.

If you've ever felt like you had to make yourself smaller, adapt too much, stay in a role that no longer fit, or keep moving while something inside you felt stuck, I feel you.

I work with adults navigating anxiety, OCD, trauma, identity, relationships, and life transitions. I’m especially interested in how culture, family expectations, identity, belonging, and the systems around us shape the way we move through the world, as well as creative blocks, career changes, and figuring out how to live and work in a world that’s changing quickly around us.

In our work, we can get curious about what feels stuck, what you've been carrying, what has helped you get this far, and what could feel different moving forward. My hope is to offer a space where you can be yourself, make sense of what you’re experiencing without judgment, and feel more at home in your own life.

  • Before training as a therapist, I spent nearly a decade working in technology, building products and experiences people use in everyday life. Some of the rides you've shared or music you've listened to online may have touched something I worked on along the way.

    I loved the creative side of that work and the chance to make things with other people. Over time, I became more interested in work that was more personal and relational, which eventually led me toward counseling.

    I still carry a lot from that chapter with me: curiosity, creativity, and an appreciation for how much can change over the course of a life.

  • I was born and raised in Iran and moved to the U.S. for my first master's in computer science. I'm a cisgender woman, an immigrant, and someone whose life has moved across cultures, careers, and coasts. I also spent years as a woman in tech, learning how to find my place without losing sight of who I was.

    My life has been shaped by cultural change, a collectivist upbringing, independence, curiosity, creativity, education, and making things with my hands. All of this has made me curious about how we change, make sense of what we’ve inherited, and build lives that feel more like our own without having to leave every earlier version of ourselves behind.

WORK WITH MAHLA

FOCUS AREAS

Adults, individuals, and groups

  • Trauma, complex trauma, and PTSD

  • Anxiety, including social anxiety, phobias, and OCD

  • LGBTQ+ concerns, gender identity, and transition

  • Identity, belonging, and self-esteem

  • Immigration, cultural adjustment, and cultural grief

  • Grief and loss, including experiences shaped by technology and digital life

  • Sexual abuse, assault, and gender-based violence

  • Emotional abuse and neglect

  • Life transitions and career changes

  • Creative blocks, creative identity, and questions around work and purpose

TRAINING + APPROACH

I’m currently completing my MA in Mental Health Counseling and Wellness at NYU and work under clinical supervision.

My approach is integrative and trauma-informed. I believe each person is unique, so rather than fitting you into one particular way of doing therapy, we’ll figure out together what feels most helpful for you. Depending on your needs, our work may draw from psychodynamic, somatic, experiential, and behavioral approaches.

Additional training:

  • Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy: An Experiential Introduction

MY CREATIVE OUTLETS + WORKS I LOVE

I'm happiest when I'm making something, and what that looks like changes all the time: sewing, painting, jewelry making, felting, writing, or building a small app because an idea got stuck in my head. I love moving between making things with my hands and figuring things out with my brain.

Music and dancing are also a big part of my life. I'm usually one of the first people on the dance floor and one of the last to leave. I love traveling, getting lost in new places, connecting with people from different parts of the world, and hearing the stories that shaped them.

Give me a good book, a blank page, a new place to explore, or someone talking passionately about the thing they love, and I'm happy.

You can find some of my work and inspiration at mahla.me.