Rawan Alhusseini Mental Health Professional / Life and Relationship Coach
Rawan is an Arab Canadian globe trotter, a third culture kid and an internal martial arts advocate. She has been working with adults, children and youth for 18+ years in both Canada and the Middle East. She graduated from Dalhousie university with a Bachelor of Science in Therapeutic Recreation/Recreation Therapy and obtained her post-graduate certification in the field while working at the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation & QEII Health Sciences Center, in Halifax, Canada. Rawan is also currently completing a Professional Life Coaching Diploma from Kun Coaching Academy (expected graduation date, November 2023), enhancing her skills as a life-coach. Since 2008, she began studying the profound effects of play on children and human behavior. As part of her training, she became a personal apprentice to world renown play specialist Dr. Fred Donaldson (founder of Original Play) and accompanied him and his team on many trips to Lebanon’s refugee camps to work with children victimized by war. She integrated this technique as well as her background in martial arts in her work as a Recreation Therapist. Rawan believes that play is essential to learning new patterns of behavior and to healing from trauma, that the body holds the answers, and that repetition builds endurance in establishing healthier patterns of behavior, by developing new neural pathways in the brain (neuroplasticity). After moving to the UAE in 2014, Rawan took on roles at several therapy centers working alongside a team of multidisciplinary therapists to assist children and their families with their therapy, educational, behavioral & life-skill goals. She has also acted as a mental health Recreation Therapist at Sensation Station Intervention and Therapy Centre (in Dubai) and has run one of the UAE’s first work-inclusion programs for youth with disabilities, helping them find internships and/or employment. She has also delivered KHDA approved (UAE’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority) teacher training, conflict resolution workshops at schools and educational guidance to high-school students. In addition to having a wide range of experience in both the educational and medical/therapy sectors, her scope of practice includes play-based behavior modification, conscious parenting, special education, learning support and environmental assessment and intervention programs. Her approach is person-centered so that her clients are partners in the healing journey. Her approach teaches that moving beyond limitations and “recreating” oneself is a continuous journey of reflection, awareness, self-honesty, action, acceptance of responsibility and compassion for self and others. Rawan recently moved to Egypt where she will continue to practice as an independent therapist, a life coach, a change maker in schools and supporter of young people in the community. Her expertise and areas of interest cover the following:
-Guidance and support through life’s transitions (moving countries, going to university, career changes, loss of a loved one, adulting, becoming a refugee, disability).
-Helping children develop the innate skills they were born with. -Exploring family dynamics and the parent child relationship.
-Building self-esteem by exploring strengths, interests/hobbies and accepting challenges.
-Developing emotional regulation skills for school aged children, teenagers and adults.
-Bullying, sibling rivalry, conflict resolution and understanding the bully/victim archetypes.
-Working with withdrawn/shy, highly competitive and/or aggressive children.
-Guiding families of children with developmental disabilities (ASD, ADHD, PANDA’s and mild speech & language delays).
-Helping youth find their calling, providing educational, college and career coaching based on grades, goals, personality and strengths.
-Mindfulness, Somatic Thinking, Embodiment Practices, Behavioral Activation, Kinesiology, Breathwork, Art & Music Therapy and Qi Gong/Tai Chi.