About 

I grew up on Wah-Zha-Zhi & Kadawdáachuh lands in an Ozark Mountain town. My mother raised me steeped in protests against the occupation of Iraq, for Palestinian liberation and environmental justice, and in the history of Black resistance and art. Though the South gave me an appreciation for moving slowly and seasonal rhythms, the broader context of whiteness made me hungry to find a place where I could experience a deeper sense of belonging to recover from the alienation of white supremacy. 

 

My path led me to social justice movement-steeped Oakland, California where I graduated from Mills College with a BA in Ethnic Studies, a field formed by Black and Brown student-led protest movements in the 1960s. ​

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"I feel, therefore I can be free.” - Audre Lorde

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Over my decade in Oakland, I worked to produce arts-based social justice programming; supported Arab refugees and survivors of domestic violence; worked on local and national campaigns to end surveillance and racial profiling; and served as a cultural strategist and network weaver at a transformative movement building organization. Through my journey I learned how spiritual and personal growth is at the root of cultivating healthy relationships and Beloved Community, and ending intergenerational cycles of systemic harm. 

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The depth of apocalyptic suffering that my Syrian community is living is one of the hardest truths I have had to grapple with in my life, and the key to my heart-opening journey to becoming a healer. Finding a spiritual practice, sitting long meditation retreats and doing a decade of personal healing work supported me deeply. These experiences helped me to become intimate with the root causes of suffering within myself, and to recognize how these same causes, on a macro-level, create the institutions that harm Black and Brown bodies. I came to see that when we have access to enough safety, support, and resources to sustain awareness of our own suffering with compassion, we can open to the suffering of others. We can interrupt intergenerational cycles of harm. We can deeply transform ourselves and our world. And we each hold within us the medicine for our collective healing, more abundance of it than we might even imagine. 

 

The holistic healing modalities and lineage practices from which I benefit include somatic work, Theravada Buddhist mindfulness meditation, Muslim dhikr & prayer, herbalism, dreamwork, and energy healing (I'm certified in the Syntara System method). I trained as a transformative facilitator, a doula, energy healer, and an instructor of trauma-informed mindfulness meditation. Teachers and mentors I have worked with directly and am deeply grateful for, include: Mushim Patricia Ikeda, Will Kabat Zinn, James Baraz, Norma Ryuko Kawelokū Wong Roshi, Niralli D'Costa, and Gitanjali Laila D'Costa Hemp. 

 

Through my practice and study, I commit to creating containers for healing and safety that align us with our most beautiful selves, repair wounds caused by systemic oppression, and restore harmony and peace (“Weyam wa Salam”) to the earth, ourselves, and each other. 

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