About Ala Sharifi
Ala Sharifi is a psychologist (Psycholoog NIP) based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She works online, in English and Persian, and a session can move between the two languages.
- Registered psychologist (NIP)
- English and Persian
- CBT-based, with ACT
- More than 7 years of experience
- Graduate of VU Amsterdam
Who she works with
She works with people who have moved abroad for study, work or family, recently or many years ago. People often come to her at a turning point: a new job or degree, a relationship, becoming a parent, or a difficult stretch that has gone on too long.
What people often bring
- ADHD symptoms
- Anxiety and panic
- Depression
- Relationships with others
- Coping with life changes
- Low mood
- Self-criticism
- Perfectionism and burnout
- Adjustment and migration
- Fear of abandonment
- Attachment difficulties
She sees adolescents as well, in sessions arranged together with a parent or carer. She also works with parents who want to understand and support their child better, in sessions for the parent.
How she works
Her work is grounded in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). She also draws on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and compassion-focused approaches, and uses them flexibly, depending on what you bring and what has helped you before.
First, understanding
Together you look at when the difficulty shows up, what you think and feel in those moments, and what has kept it in place.
Then, practical steps
Together you choose what to try in everyday life, look back at how it went in the next session, and adjust at a pace that suits you.
Background
Ala's grounding is scientific as well as practical. She is a graduate of the research programme in cognitive neuropsychology at VU Amsterdam, and her published research is close to the topics clients usually bring with them: ADHD, attention, self-regulation, emotions, family life, migration and burnout at work.
She has more than 7 years of experience, and brings a researcher's habit of asking what helps and why: approaches with evidence behind them, adapted to the person in front of her.
She has also lived through migration herself. Starting again in a new country is something she knows from her own life as well as from her work.
Education and research
Research master's in cognitive neuropsychology
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
MA in psychology
Published research
On ADHD, executive function, emotion regulation and parent training, in international journals.
Credentials
Professional registration
NIP (Nederlands Instituut van Psychologen)
Registered psychologist, bound by the NIP professional code.
Psycholoog NIP, registration number 251989
Memberships and listings
APA (American Psychological Association)
Membership number C2203873605
It's Complicated
Listed therapist.
In her own words
Most of the people I see are living somewhere other than where they grew up. That shapes things, though not always in the obvious ways, and often later than people expect. The practical work of moving gets done, and then the quieter loss underneath it becomes visible.
I work in both English and Persian, and sessions move between them. For some people a first language is where the difficult things live. For others a second language puts enough distance there to make something sayable for the first time. Neither is the right answer in advance; it is worth finding out together.
My approach is conversational rather than protocol-driven. We work out what is actually happening before deciding what to do about it. If what you need is something I do not offer, I will say so and help you find it.