A trauma-healing process developed by Dr. Peter Levine, I was introduced to this method while on a visit to California and I undertook my Somatic Experiencing training in Spain (2015 - 2018) starting my practice later that summer. Somatic Experiencing (SE) is more than just a technique, a science or a skill, but a way of relationship to life itself.

Over the years, I'm proud to have been an assistant on several regional and international SE trainings. I am a certifed Session Provider for SE students at all levels - Beginner, Intermediate and Advance.

I am also a member of the Arabic Translation team for the SE trainings that have taken place in Cairo since 2019 and coming soon in Dubai. Proud to be a member of www.seps4palestine.com & www.egyptschoolofsomatics.com

Yoga came into my life through two dear friends, Deborah Felmeth and Tasnim Kassem, both of whom mentored me in various ways and we collaborated together in Damascus, my home town. I became a certified yoga teacher in 2009, by the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram in Austria and was particulalry eager to teach communities where self-care was needed, helping social workers and humanitarian aid workers to release stress and regain a connection to their body and breath. I found yoga practice to be a safe and structured path that helps people to regain their sense of sovereignty and joy.

Teaching a gentle approach to yoga has combined well with my trauma-healing training to also become adapted for the benefit of people with auto-immune diseases or those recovering from illnesses.

I am also a Trustee of Tools for Inner Peace, a UK-based charity dedicated to offering yoga classes and trainings in conflict zones and underserved neighborhoods, particulalry refugees, asylum seekers and communities living in extreme poverty.

If you would like to support this grassroots and volunteer-run initiative, you can do so here: www.tools4innerpeace.org

From the worlds of Traditional Chinese Medicine and martial arts come the ancient practices of Qi Gong (Chi Kung) and Tai Chi. First introduced to me by Deborah Felmeth, long-time student of Master Lee of Sheng Zhen Qi Gong, these noble traditions help cultivate life-force energy for health and longevity. Unlike Yoga, Qi Gong remains a more private and mentorship-guided process, maintaining the old ways of apprenticeship and self-discipline. I'm lucky to have met several highly qualified teachers including Sifu Amira Chouaib in Beirut and Sifu Yasser Bilgrami in Dubai. For me, these practices are profound. They help deepen connection to the source of vitality, power and wellbeing, while loosening up and toning the body at the same time.

As my trauma-healing practice gradually grew, I became more interested in learning about healing the earliest wounds, or 'imprints', as they are called in the 'Birth Trauma' field. These are pre-verbal, procedural patterns that can be related to pre-conception, womb-time, birth, infancy, and toddlerhood. In the pre-verbal years, primitive reflexes and defensive response are deep, very close to the relationship with life itself. Under the guidance of pioneering practitioners in the field, Kate White and Lois Tresize, I became certified in IPPD - Integrated Prenatal and Perinatal Dynamics. This advanced somatic training adds more depth and nuance to working with adults in relation to earliest attachment and the embodiment process of coming into being.

The role of touch is profound in communicating with the body messages of calm connection and healing. Ancient traditions have known this and modern science confirms that there's a healing response in using one's hands to sense and connect with the body's experience. My practice is informed by SE Touch, as well as Neuro Affective Touch for healing earliest wounds, as trained by Dr. Aline La Pierre. The language of touch is the earliest nurturance, the earliest way of learning whether or not one is safe and welcome in the world. Developmental traumas can revolve around sustenance neglect, emotional neglect, priveleged neglect, misattunement and outright abuse, as well as medical trauma caused by illnesses or injuries or the medical set-ups needed for various procedures.

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 language that touches on deep emotions, attachment processes and internal rhythms. In our earliest years of life, touch is the primary language through which healing is recieved, pre-words and pre-thought.

My 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.

Last but not least, the ancient wisdoms of qi gong and certain adaptations like jin shin jyutsu help acquire an awareness of internatal energy flows through touch as well, with the aim of cultivating energy balance and promoting emotional, physical and mental health.