I grew up swimming competitively, trusting my body to hop curbs on my bike, get me all the way up a tree faster than my friends and cousins, and execute any ridiculous dance move I imagined on rollerskates. Inside, (in Winter), I would be reading Anne of Green Gables or writing my own series, creating a picture frame out of watercolor and posterboard, setting up storylines for an entire world of dolls and toys with friends, building a town out of LEGOs with a tree in the center of each building, playing flute and piano, practicing ballet, or acting, which was my first major in college along with film. Now, if I am inside, I'm either sleeping, tending my houseplants, or singing to the most playfulest little kittle cat! I still cook Lebanese dishes to feel connected to my family of origin, and I still make music mixes for friends.

Your Body is Good! I started declaring this on Instagram in 2014, physically, emotionally, and spiritually sick from the narratives created for me about my body. The impact this simple statement, “your body is good,” had on my friends and internet strangers was profound; were we allowed to believe this? Purity Culture and white patriarchy would say no. When I left Los Angeles in 2018 to develop some stability, I started to realize how traumatizing these systems had been. This led me into the therapy field at the beginning of 2019 in hopes of developing a deeper understanding of trauma and the effect of trauma on the body and memory.

Recovering from injury, I started listening to The Trauma Therapist Podcast at dawn, watching spring arrive while learning to walk again under the trees in my dad’s new neighborhood. Discovering the somatic aspect of therapy catalyzed my own healing and began to solidify the approach I would take with clients. I studied this more in-depth through certification in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy, which offered tools like Somatic Parts Work (or embodied Internal Family Systems). Yet any theory or modality I could offer to clients is incomplete without addressing the ways systems of power and control like religion and racism have individually and systemically affected us within our bodies, and how the messages we have learned and internalized are operating in our lives. And out of any theory or modality I could possibly study, I will always learn the most from my clients themselves.