Shyma El Sayed (she/her)

I focus on how childhood abuse + attachment wounds show up in our sense of self, relationships, and quality of life. I work with survivors in understanding their nervous system responses to triggers and help regulate that through mindfulness, breathe work, and other polyvagal exercises (such as EFT or tapping). I am also trained in the specialized areas of EMDR, Hakomi Therapy, and Psychedelic Assisted Integration therapy all to support releasing trauma from somatic and unconscious patterns.

Loss brings up so many attachment wounds. Whether it's a living loss or a death, it informs how we orient towards the missing pieces of our life. I have experience with the very unique grief that comes with losing a parent and losing a loved one to suicide. In addition to supporting the waves of emotions that flow in grief, I also explore suicidal thoughts, depression, existential questions, and curiosities about spirituality + the after life that naturally surface in the grieving process.

I love supporting people in finding + igniting their best selves. We were born with an inner gold that got tarnished through the socialization process, oppression, and other woundings. In connecting with our most authentic self, I believe we can find happiness and satisfaction. This includes our life purpose, healthier relationships, a satisfying career, meaningful work + creativity. My work with Psychedelic Assisted Therapy supports this exploration as well.

This is my foundational training. I use this approach to understand how the individual makes meaning of their life. It also helps build curiosities about more complex and diffuse issues of death, the after life and how that informs our spirituality. Existential framework provides a beautiful baseline of meeting an individual and understanding is further cultivated through the various lenses of cultural identity, power/oppression, and relationships/attachments.

Hakomi Therapy gives me a frame work to explore mindfulness, body awareness, and unconscious patterning and processes. It helps access the inner child, missing experiences, and trauma often stored in a the recesses of our body. It's a powerful, yet gentle exploration that centers the client's autonomy.

I have trained with Bessel Van Der Kolk + Licia Sky in understanding how the body keeps score of trauma, which has inspired further training in EMDR, EFT ( Tapping), Psychedelic Integration Therapy and Hakomi or mindfulness based practices. My approach is to focus on how the body remembers + stores trauma and to use techniques to help regulate the nervous system and release what no longer serves the individual in the present day.