Farah Salem A.
LCPC, MAATC, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing
I am here to support you with your unique struggles. I believe therapy through consistency and ritual will encourage and create, in you, growth and self compassion. My goal is to help you access your internal and external resources, identify your strengths, and use them to reach your full potential.
The therapeutic dynamic is a space to practice building healthy bonds so one can implement this learning in their day-to-day relationships with others. I am eager to support you in practicing boundary setting, for yourself, and others. To find assertive and healthy ways to communicate your authentic truth. Together, working within your window of tolerance, I will help you identify your strengths. Increase your ability to tolerate, cope and better handle the hard moments life presents us. I am passionate about celebrating you reclaiming your autonomy, embodying your sense of agency and taking ownership of your story.
I am a bilingual art therapist and counselor practicing from a cross-cultural understanding, and providing services in both English and Arabic. My focus in clinical counseling includes a collaborative, insight oriented and somatic-centered approach which incorporates Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Mindfulness and Art Therapy tools, to facilitate a mind-body connection in a non-judgmental safe processing space. My multidisciplinary clinical interests also include Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Motivational Interviewing, incorporating an eco-psychology lens, developing, and implementing self-regulation tools to calm the nervous system.
My approach is centered within an intersectional feminist and social justice lens, a trauma-informed approach, client-centered and a relational-cultural framework. I have offered my services in clinical and community-based settings. My clinical and communal experience includes working with groups, families and individuals experiencing anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, domestic, sexual and gender-based violence survivors, religious trauma survivors, refugees, and immigrants. My areas of expertise also include supporting women, individuals struggling with family estrangement, or living in exile, international students, Arab-Americans and Arab Immigrants, Multicultural, Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) and BIPOC community members.
Outside of my clinical work, I also offer virtual and some in-person workshops, organizational and personal expressive sessions and professional consultation. Please navigate to these pages to learn more.
In my free time, I enjoy making my own artwork, spending time doing outdoor activities, hiking and climbing, and preserving indigenous healing practices of my lineage which focus on body-centered healing within a reciprocal relationship with the earth.
Professional Training:
MA in Art Therapy and Counseling: School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor: IDFPR
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Certified: EMDR Institute
Somatic Experiencing (Certification in-progress): Somatic Experiencing International
40-Hour Illinois Domestic Violence Training: Between Friends Chicago
Wisdom of the Body Training: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute
Online Art Therapy Training: Red Pencil International
Training in foundational understanding Dialectical Behavioral therapy (DBT)
Facilitating Across Difference: National LGBTQ Institute on Intimate Partner Violence
Adolescent Sexual Health and Being an Askable Adult Training: School-Based Health Alliance
Domestic Violence Teen Services Training: Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Immigrant Child and Youth Mental Health Training: Illinois Coalition for Refugee Mental Health
Motivational Interviewing Training: DASC
Supporting Clients in Grief From Theory to Practice
Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy Training: DASC