Welcome

If navigating your personal and/or professional roles involved putting your real challenges “on mute”, you may at some point sense how overall health, bodily sensations and loss of connection with what really matters to you, will find ways to “speak on behalf of” your unspoken stress.

I have lived and witnessed that even with access to  quality care, awareness, skills and resources for physical health; unaddressed or “skillfully masked” chronic stress can be a disorganizing force that stands in the way of  real and sustainable wellbeing.

Even after years of misaligned or fragmented care, injuries, chronic stress, carrying genetic vulnerability or intergenerational patterns; when the aligned conditions are in place, a new sense of health, relational vitality and real aliveness can emerge often beyond what people  imagined was possible for them.

I hope when people join me, their intentional engagement, can help break those old cycles where attempts would be made to only “manage” the physical symptoms, while the suppressed psychological stress is left to silently feed many more imbalances.

With the help of your own strengths, your counseling and therapy with me can aim at long-term health, sustained psychological wellbeing, and mindful navigation of experiences including:

• Trauma (single incident, ongoing, intergenerational, systemic or complex trauma)
• Grief
• Loss
• Anxiety & Panic Attacks
• Chronic Stress related to professional and/or personal roles
• Depression
• Relationship Difficulties
• Sleep disruption
• Unsustainable Lifestyle
• Physical Manifestations of Psychological Stress

You can expect to co-craft your experience with me based on your needs and goals. You can also expect to be regularly invited to share your feedback and questions to co-facilitate a human to human connection and a steady movement towards therapeutic outcomes.

I remain deeply grateful for working alongside teams of clinicians and dedicated educators who showed intentional care for therapy participants and for one another. While completing my Masters of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Portland State University, I offered individual counseling sessions in the Community Counseling Clinic. Later, I offered individual and group therapy sessions and facilitated psychoeducation groups  at The Center For Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) at PSU.  

^{-Advanced EMDR Protocols: Early Interventions for Groups and Community Members Following Acute Stress, Traumatic Experiences and Critical Incidents}  

^{-Integration of EMDR Specialized Protocols and Advanced Therapeutic Modalities with a Focus on Performance Enhancement in Professional, Athletic and Academic Settings} 

^{-Somatic Trauma Therapy Certification}

^{-Integrative Complex Trauma (CPTSD) Treatment with EMDR, IFS and Somatic Approaches} 

 ^{-Integrated Treatment of Chronic Pain and Chronic Health Conditions Utilizing Advanced EMDR Approaches} 

^{-Certified Integrative Mental Health Professional}

^{-IFS Therapy for Clinical Challenges: Trauma, Anxiety, Attachment Injuries and Addiction}

^{-Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Interventions for Chronic Pain} 

^{-Clinical Anxiety Treatment: Applied Neuroscience for Treating Anxiety and Panic}

^{-Interpersonal Neurobiology Informed Approaches for Attachment and Relational Trauma}

^{-Grief: Evidence Based Approaches to Care Across the Lifespan}

I see us as humans; within the contexts of our lives and as parts of larger structures and systems that impact our health.

Effectively working with the origins of current imbalances without “reliving the pain” of past distressing events can happen at an accelerated or a slow pace. 

Each person's hopes, capacities, strengths and vulnerabilities are considered before selecting the format and therapeutic modalities to be integrated into a collaboratively crafted care plan. 

 While working within a relational, integrative and culturally attuned framework, the following therapeutic modalities and interventions can be used: 

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), somatic interventions, mind body integration techniques, internal family systems (IFS), mental health education,  motivational interviewing (MI), solution focused brief therapy (SFBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), structural family therapy and emotionally focused therapy (EFT).

I acknowledge health disparities and invite clients to co-explore possible ways to exercise their own sense of agency to navigate systemic and psychological barriers to wellbeing.

• Chi Sigma Iota Counseling Academic & Professional Honor Society
• National Board for Certified Counselors - Registered as Noha Mostafa Balboul 
• Oregon Board for Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists (C9005) - Registered as Noha Mostafa Balboul
• Oregon Counseling Association (ORCA) 

A bit about the path..

In 2001 and after a period of challenging transitions, I started to practice and study mindfulness based mind body modalities with the intention to discover new self care tools.

While keeping mindfulness movement as a practice and a hobby,  I served as an instructor and professional skills trainer where I taught and coached adults who were engaged in intensive professional development programs to actualize their career goals. Then, in 2007, with a hope to help people access effective tools to enjoy the process of optimizing physical and psychological resilience, I started a mindfulness based movement studio in Cairo to offer individualized trainings and education for different abilities and diverse cultural backgrounds. It was a uniquely refreshing opportunity to work with group members from different parts of the world including Africa, Asia, Europe and the US as we cultivated a deeper sense of collective wellbeing through commitment and intentionality.

Whole Person Health and Wellness Focused Counseling

What started it all..

My interest in how the body and mind connection can be leveraged to promote sustained physical and psychological health, started in 1999 as I was writing a paper on that topic during my undergrad years at AUC.

As a certified teacher of mindfulness based somatic approach since 2010, I customized mind-body tools so that people with different abilities, physical limitations and cultural backgrounds can use them as relatable, accessible and sustainably powerful self care tools.

I have worked with professionals and families from around the world to cultivate enjoyable and consistent habits that aim at optimizing health and protecting against lifestyle chronic diseases. A background offering education and health coaching on nutrition, self nurturing sustainable strategies and joyful movement informs my current integration of a whole person mental health care lens in my therapeutic work as well as in my consultations and trainings for clinicians.