
Somatics.with.Zena
ZenaSomatics
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Somatics.with.Zena
ZenaSomatics
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Somatics.with.Zena
ZenaSomatics
Wellbeing & Trauma Healing
Now Available Online
"... one day, your pain will become your cure..."
Rumi
About Somatics with Zena
Skillful, creative trauma-informed & embodied, Zena offers a safe intentional space to welcome and allow the healing that wants to happen.

About Zena
She recogized early on in life that core issues in mental and emotional health are effectively addressed through moving the body, and particularly through energy-attuned and somatic practices like yoga, qi gong, & tai chi. Zena has beem a regular practitioner of these ancient movement traditions for many years and is a certified practitioner of contemporary trauma-healing modalities, particularly Somatic Expereincing created by Dr. Peter Levine, for which she is also an international training assistant, Arabic translator and session provider for students-in-training at all levels.
Further specializations she pursued are in the fields of Integrated Pre-Natal and Peri-Natal Dynamics, Neuro-Affective Touch, Body Mind Centering, Bodynamics Foundation. She is keen on working with people who are managing chronic conditions and auto-immune syndromes, as she is passionate about helping them discover a better, more energized, calm and attuned relationship with their bodies.
In 2024, Zena moved to Dubai and co-founded BMY - Body Mind You.
Somatics with Zena
Somatic Experiencing
A trauma-healing process developed by Dr. Peter Levine, an award-winning American body-based pyschotherapist. The program is a 3-year training as a starting point, with subsequent masterclasses and opportunities to keep refining the subtleties of the skills.
Over the years, Zena has assisted on regional and international SE trainings in Europe and the Arab world. Is a certifed session provider for SE students at all levels - Beginner, Intermediate and Advance. She also attended Masterclasses with Dr. Peter Levine in Switzerland on 'The Interplay between Developmental Trauma and Shock Trauma' and
She is on the Arabic translation team and scholarship committee at the Egypt School of Somatics in Cairo.
Yoga
Yoga is an ancient physical, mental, and spiritual practice originating in India that aims to unite the body, mind, and spirit. Derived from the Sanskrit word "yuj" (to yoke or unite), it combines physical postures, controlled breathing and meditation to improve overall health, reduce stress, and achieve inner peace.
Zena was introduced to yoga while through two dear mentors, Deborah Felmeth and Tasnim Kassem, while in her home town of Damascus. With their encouragement and mentorship, she enrolled to become a certified yoga teacher in 2009, by the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram in Austria. Her preferred approach to teaching and sharing the benefits of yoga where it is most needed is the gentle approach. During a ten-year period, she co-created and co-facilated as yoga for trauma workshops for refugees as part of the UK-based charity Trustee of Tools for Inner Peace.
Qi Gong & Tai Chi
From the worlds of Traditional Chinese Medicine and martial arts come the ancient practices of Qi Gong (Chi Kung) and Tai Chi. Qi Gong remains a more private and mentorship-guided process, maintaining the old ways of apprenticeship and self-discipline. Zena has learned from several highly qualified teachers including Sifu Amira Chouaib in Beirut and Sifu Yasser Bilgrami in Dubai. These practices help deepen connection to the source of vitality, power and wellbeing, while relaxing and toning the body at the same time.
Integrated Prenatal & Perinatal Dynamics
This focus of trauma-healing caters to the earliest wounds, or 'imprints', of Birth Trauma. In these early stages of existence, energies or deeply engrained to the core and subconscious, often emerging as pre-verbal, procedural patterns that need help find their completion. They can be related to pre-conception, womb-time, birth, infancy, and toddlerhood. In the pre-verbal years, primitive reflexes and defensive response are close to the relationship with life itself. Under the guidance of pioneering practitioners in the field, Kate White and Lois Tresize, Zena became certified in IPPD - Integrated Prenatal and Perinatal Dynamics, an advanced somatic training for working with adults seeking to heal their earliest embodiment and attachment processes.
Touchwork
Touch is probably the first language of all the sense, where even the water in the womb is a skin-felt experience as well as an internal undulation. Ancient traditions have known the profound power of healing through touch and modern science confirms the vital role of using one's hands to sense and connect with the body's experience to provide healing. Zena's practice is informed by SE Touch, as well as Neuro Affective Touch as trained by Dr. Aline La Pierre.
Approaching touchwork somatically is to work with an intention of restoring safety; it is not massage/muscle kneading, nor physiotherapy/mobility training, but a neurological and cellular co-regulation. Touch is the primary language through which one is welcomed into the world, pre-words and pre-thought.
Zena's training is also informed by the foundations of bodymapping as taught by Bodynamics - with Ditte Marcher, Kalliopi Zorzou and Kristina Marcher - and by Neuro-Resilience Excercises as taught by Relational Trauma Therapis Kolbjorn Vardal.
What Would You Like?
Interested in a Community Initiative?
Yoga for Trauma
Trauma-informed yoga is a gentle and accessible way to regain a sense of wellbeing in body and mind. Practicing in group creates a sense of community which is also a profound resource when dealing with trauma. If you would like to include this offering for your community, get in touch!
Qi Gong in the Park
Learning ancient practices of natural energy cultivation might seem challenging in the fast-paced vibes of city-life, yet, we carry nature within us, and through the mindful movement of qi gong, the healing powers of nature can be awakened to create more balance, flow and power, improving health and immunity overall.
Recommended
Collaborations for Healing
Partnering with fellow healers, therapists, life-coaches, artists, musicians, educators and/or social workers to offer enriching experiences that includes somatic education and embodied practice for health and wellbeing, and particularly for healing trauma, individually and collectively.
Contact Me
Your queries and messages are welcome.
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