About

This is the story behind why my practice is rooted in—

  • healing trauma and addiction  

  • understanding and transcending challenges connected to relationships (family, love, sex) and identity (gender, cultural, spiritual) 

  • offering special support to those who identify as women, LGBTQ+, minorities, newcomers, Middle-Eastern, Arab, Muslim, and war refugees

Biography

My continuously unfolding journey towards reconnecting with my authentic self to cultivate peace, joy, and harmony in my life.

Childhood during the Lebanese Civil War

Nisrine was born on August 31st, 1973 in the mountain village of Bhamdoun in Lebanon. She is the fifth child in her family with three elder sisters, one older brother, and one younger sister. Nisrine was two years old when the multifaceted Lebanese Civil War erupted. Her village was destroyed and her family had to shelter in the basement of their apartment building in Beirut. Nisrine was nine years old. The conditions in the basement were so difficult that she preferred to live alone in their fifth floor apartment — risking being bombarded at any moment. 

High School in Texas, USA and Geneva, Switzerland

Born into a loving but codependent, enmeshed family, mired with dysfunction, patriarchy and misogyny. Her mother fell ill several times throughout the war years and left to receive cancer treatment in the US. In 1989, at the age of 16, Nisrine and the rest of her family were able to reunite with her in Texas. In 1989, the family moved to Switzerland. Nisrine studied in high school in Geneva.

American University in Beirut, Lebanon

The year after the war ended in 1991, Nisrine and her family returned to Lebanon to the destroyed city of Beirut, which was experiencing the beginning of rebuilding roads, buildings, and infrastructures. She passed her international baccalaureate and started attending the American University in Beirut. During her studies, she suffered from mental health issues and began to do therapy. She graduated with a degree in Social & Behavioral Psychology.

M.S. in Psychology at the University of Bristol, UK

Nisrine got into a Master’s Program in Psychology at Bristol University. Her father accepted after she took him to their religious leader and they agreed that she would stay with a Muslim family. While in Bristol and later London, Nisrine got to explore her gender identity, finding community amongst gay and transgender groups.

Ten years in Lebanon 

For the next ten years, Nisrine lived in Lebanon where she helped with the family carpet business — an environment that was difficult and enmeshed and led to her experiencing some mental health issues. Then she moved back with her parents when her mother fell ill again with cancer. Her mother died two weeks before she turned 30. Her death caused her father’s mental and physical health to deteriorate and though Nisrine had the opportunity to migrate to Canada, she decided to stay with him. But when the 2006 Lebanon War erupted, she had to leave everything and drove through the bombardments to the Syrian border. For the next two weeks, she waited for a flight to Canada where she finally landed in June 2006.

New Life in Toronto, Canada

Nisrine took an active role amongst her community as soon as she arrived in Toronto. She put her expertise in the service of women and children shelters,  supporting newcomers and the local Muslim LGBTQ+ community, as well as fundraising for war relief in Lebanon. She kept traveling back and forth to Lebanon to visit her father who passed away when she was 42. After a five-year relationship with a Palestinian woman ended, Nisrine started to explore intimate relationships with men for the first time and came to identify as heterosexual. It is at that time that she came to a deeper understanding of addiction and how it manifests through romantic love and sex.

Heal with Nisrine

With the pandemic, Nisrine started to work online — a blessing allowing her to extend her impact beyond her physical presence. It was also at that time that she joined a Muslim Sufi spiritual group and started to learn to have a safe relationship with God. Rich with so much experience and understanding, Nisrine is now focused on helping as any as she can through therapy, support groups, and corporate consulting. Nisrine lives between Canada and California where she is working on writing her memoir — Finding My Inner Oasis.