Get To Know Dr. Nirmeen
Dr. Nirmeen Rajani is a Clinical Psychologist with over 15 years of clinical experience, Relationship & Parenting Expert, Generational Healing Advocate, and mother of two. She specializes in anxiety, depression, complex trauma, and emotional and behavioral challenges. She works with children, adults, couples, families, and organizations.
She is the founder of Family and Child Roots & Wings, a community-based organization offering workshops and emotional well-being programs for children, adults and organizations. The Roots & Wings Workshops are grounded in the belief that healing happens in relationship—and that growth is most powerful when it’s nurtured in community. These workshops create co-learning spaces where individuals sit side by side, each exploring their inner world, building emotional intelligence, and practicing co-regulation—not in isolation, but in the heart of their own communities, surrounded by others who are healing, growing, and supporting one another.
Dr. Nirmeen Rajani received her masters and doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She did her doctoral internship at Boston University School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center's Center for Multicultural Training in Psychology, where she provided clinical services to children and families from under-served communities and high school students. Further, she completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Heartland Alliance Marjorie Kovler Center, where she worked with refugees and asylum seekers who are survivors of political torture.
Dr. Rajani is a Clinical Psychologist with extensive experience supporting children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families across diverse settings, including primary care, hospitals, schools, community mental health centers, and outpatient clinics. She collaborates with medical professionals, attorneys, community organizations, and corporations to provide mental health services, consultations, and prevention programs. Her work in developing and implementing mental health programs has earned her recognition, including a Humanitarian Service Award from Illinois Secretary of State for her culturally sensitive outreach to underserved communities. Dr. Rajani’s therapeutic approach is evidence-informed and integrative, drawing from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Narrative Therapy, and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy. She works through a strengths-based, trauma-informed, and socially conscious lens, with a deep commitment to cultural humility and systemic understanding. In addition to conducting psychological assessments, she provides individual, group, and family therapy, and is fluent in Hindi, Urdu, and Gujarati.
Dr. Nirmeen’s Approach to Individual & Family Therapy
At the core of my therapy approach is the belief that healing happens within relationships, and that every person’s story, culture, nervous system experience, and emotional reality deserves space, dignity, and understanding. My work is deeply trauma-informed and culturally responsive, recognizing that individuals and families do not exist in isolation; they are shaped by intergenerational experiences, migration stories, cultural expectations, attachment patterns, systemic stressors, and the emotional environments in which each person was raised.
In the initial stages of therapy, a significant focus is placed on building rapport, safety, and trust within the therapeutic space. Individuals and families are guided through establishing goals, expectations, and a shared understanding of the therapeutic process. In Family Therapy, each person is intentionally given time and space to share their perspective of the family system, their emotional experiences, and the patterns they notice within relationships. This process helps slow down reactive cycles and allows individuals to feel seen and heard, often in ways they may not have experienced within the family dynamic.
The work integrates elements of Internal Family Systems (IFS), including helping individuals identify and understand the different “parts” of themselves that emerge within family interactions — such as protective parts, wounded parts, critical parts, or caregiving parts. Rather than pathologizing behaviors, the focus is placed on understanding what role these responses serve within the family system and how they may have developed as adaptations to stress, trauma, or relational pain. Families are encouraged to move from blame toward curiosity, compassion, and increased self-awareness.
The approach also incorporates principles from the Gottman Method, particularly around improving communication, emotional attunement, conflict management, repair attempts, and strengthening emotional connection within relationships. Individuals are taught to recognize patterns of escalation, defensiveness, criticism, withdrawal, or emotional flooding, while developing healthier ways to express needs, tolerate discomfort, and respond to one another with greater empathy and regulation. A strong emphasis is placed on helping individuals feel emotionally safe enough to communicate vulnerably without fear of shame, dismissal, or attack.
I also incorporate trauma-informed, attachment-based, and culturally responsive strategies into the therapy space, while integrating somatic and nervous system-focused work to help patients better understand the connection between their emotions, body sensations, stress responses, and lived experiences. My approach emphasizes creating a safe, attuned, and collaborative environment where patients can build insight, strengthen emotional regulation, process difficult experiences, and develop practical tools for healing and daily functioning. I draw from evidence-informed approaches while remaining deeply mindful of each patient’s developmental, cultural, relational, and individual needs.
Integral to the therapeutic process is ongoing collaboration and feedback. Sessions regularly include check-ins regarding what is and is not feeling helpful, whether therapeutic goals continue to align with the individual’s/family’s needs, and how they are experiencing the work emotionally. Therapy is viewed as a collaborative and evolving process rather than a rigid model, allowing space for flexibility, reflection, accountability, and growth over time.
Ultimately, the goal of therapy is not perfection or the elimination of all conflict, but rather the creation of a more emotionally aware, connected, and resilient family system — one in which individuals can communicate more authentically, repair more effectively, and better understand both themselves and one another.