Helping people, organisations and communities navigate power, deepen belonging and cultivate more equitable ways of leading, working and being together.
My work sits at the intersection of leadership, identity, power, belonging and justice.I support individuals, organisations and communities to navigate complexity, transform conflict, strengthen relationships and create cultures where people can thrive.
Drawing on trauma-informed, anti-oppressive and somatic approaches, I create spaces where people can engage honestly with challenge, reconnect with what matters, and move towards meaningful and sustainable change.
My role is not to provide quick fixes or easy answers.
It is to help people ask better questions, see more clearly, and cultivate the courage, awareness and relationships needed for transformation.
My Story
My journey into this work has not followed a straight line.
A British Syrian, I was born in London and raised in Damascus, Syria. My early career was in science. I hold a Master’s degree in Biotechnology, have pursued a PhD in Immunology at the Université de Montpellier II, and have spent several years teaching immunology at university.
Science taught me curiosity, rigour and systems thinking. It taught me to look beneath the surface, to pay attention to relationships and patterns, and to remain open to complexity.
The events that unfolded in Syria profoundly shaped both my personal journey and my professional path. Like many Syrians, I found myself grappling with questions of identity, belonging, power, conflict and collective trauma.
Those questions eventually led me into peacebuilding, leadership development, coaching and facilitation.
Alongside my professional work, I became involved in community organising, civil society leadership and initiatives supporting dialogue, participation and social change. I later pursued another doctoral research at the University of Winchester, exploring identity, belonging and peacebuilding among Syrians living in exile.
Over time, I came to realise that many of the challenges faced by individuals, organisations and communities share common threads. Questions of power, visibility, belonging, leadership, conflict and care show up everywhere.
Today, these questions sit at the heart of my practice.
What Shapes My Practice
My work is informed by several interconnected strands:
Science and Systems Thinking
My scientific background continues to influence how I approach complex challenges. I am interested in relationships, patterns, systems and the often unseen dynamics that shape behaviour and outcomes.
Lived Experience
As someone who has navigated multiple cultures, identities and experiences of migration, I bring a personal understanding of belonging, exclusion, adaptation and resilience.
Somatic Practice
Our bodies hold valuable information about how we experience ourselves, one another and the world around us. My work draws on somatic approaches that help individuals and groups access deeper awareness, wisdom and choice.
Power Awareness and Social Justice
Power is present in every relationship, team and system. Rather than ignoring it, I help people develop greater awareness of how power operates and how it can be exercised more ethically, consciously and equitably.
Community and Collective Care
I believe that transformation rarely happens in isolation. Some of the most meaningful change occurs when people are able to learn, heal, imagine and grow together.
This belief is reflected in both my professional practice and my work as co-founder of Makani Cambridge, a community organisation dedicated to creating spaces for belonging, culture, wellbeing and collective care.
What I Believe
The following beliefs underpin my work.
Leadership is relational, not positional.
Power is always present and becomes most dangerous when it goes unnamed.
Conflict, when approached skilfully, can become a source of growth, learning and transformation.
Belonging cannot be manufactured through policies alone. It emerges through relationships, trust and shared responsibility.
Accountability and care are not opposites. Sustainable cultures require both.
Diversity without equity can reproduce harm.
Joy is not a distraction from serious work. It is often what sustains it.
Transformation is not something we do to people. It is something we co-create together.
Qualifications and Professional Development
I bring together academic, professional and lived experience from multiple disciplines and sectors.
Highlights include:
- PhD research in Immunology
- Lecturer in Immunology, University of Damascus
- PhD research in identity, belonging and peacebuilding among Syrians in exile
- Certified Transformational Coach
- Certificate in Business and Social Justice, University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)
- Certificate in Embodied Conflict Resolution
- Certificate in Working with Somatic Wounds
- Certificate in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy
- Certificate in Mind Body Coaching
- More than 4,000 hours of facilitation, coaching and leadership development across sectors and communities
I have worked with charities, community organisations, public institutions, funders, leadership networks, businesses and grassroots groups across the UK and internationally.
Beyond Work
When I am not facilitating, coaching or designing programmes, you will usually find me gathering people around food, dancing Dabkeh, tending my garden, exploring questions of belonging and liberation, or creating spaces where community can flourish.
Because beyond all the roles and titles, I remain deeply interested in what helps people feel seen, connected and fully alive.
And that, ultimately, is what my work is about.
Enabling you to see and be seen.