Sima Basel

Sima is dedicated to helping people reconnect with themselves and live in deeper alignment with their ecosystem. As a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, she centers her practice in holistic healing modalities and trauma theory grounded within Jungian Psychology. As a certified Permaculture Designer, she also finds her inspiration from the healing power of Earth and the interdependence of community. She finds that a fusion of these approaches create a deeply personal and unique approach to overall wellbeing. Sima has spent the last decade as a researcher at New York University, developing social and emotional intervention programs for refugees living in Sierra Leone, Niger, and Lebanon. She merges evidence-based approaches to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of wellness programs. Sima is a Compassionate Inquiry practitioner and offers trauma-informed private therapy sessions that focus on unearthing unconscious dynamics and trauma wounds,

Work Experience

Clinical Psychologist
2022-Present Private Practice- Dubai, UAE
  • Conducting outpatient psychotherapy sessions and tele-consultations for anxiety, depression, and a range of emotional, mental, and behavioral concerns.
  • Providing Integration Therapy to support holistic mental health.
  • Utilizing Compassionate Inquiry to uncover underlying psychological patterns.
Board Director - Arab Psychedelic Society
2021-Present
  • Leading initiatives to promote education, research, and dialogue on the therapeutic use of psychedelics within the Arab community.
Program Manager, Human Subject Research
2019-Present New York University - Abu Dhabi, UAE
  • Designing experimental research tools for the Social Science Experimental
 Laboratory.
  • Ensuring research ethics compliance, and the safety and welfare of human research participants in accordance with the ethical principles of the Belmont Report and all applicable country law, institutional policies, and federal law and regulations.
Clinical Caseworker
2018-2019 Doctors of the World - London, UK
  • Facilitated clinical intake assessment sessions with vulnerable service users (e.g., refugees, undocumented migrants, human trafficking victims) at a walk-in clinic in East London.
  • Assessed health, emotional, and social needs of individuals, as well as safeguarded them through the appropriate health services and advocated on their behalf to the National Health Service (NHS) affiliates.
Global TIES for Children Research Associate
2014-2018 New York University, New York
  • Designed educational and emotional intervention programs to support children’s learning and well-being in refugee camps in Lebanon, Niger, and Sierra Leone.
  • Identified and assessed reliable, culturally relevant, and cross-contextually comparable measures to assess children’s social-emotional processing skills in conflict-affected countries.
  • Developed tools and systems to monitor the implementation and quality of the social-emotional intervention programs.
  • Examined the fidelity of implementation and research progress by traveling to research sites in Sierra Leone & Niger with the support of International Rescue Committee (IRC).

Skills

Fluency in Arabic, English, Russian

Professional License
# CDA-PL-0001356

Professional certificate in:

  • MDMA-Assisted Therapy by MAPS
  • Compassionate Inquiry Method by
 Dr. Gabor Maté
  • Traumatic Stress Studies by Trauma Research Foundation
  • Permaculture Design Course by Practical Permaculture Institute of Zanzibar (PPIZ)

Educations

Royal Holloway, University of London

2018-2019

Master of Science, M.Sc., in Clinical Psychology

Harvard University, USA

2013

Trauma Risk Assessment Training at the Laboratory for Clinical and Developmental
Research

Mount Holyoke College, USA

2010-2014

Bachelor of Arts, B.A. in
Psychology & Anthropology

Clinical Experience

  • International Rescue Committee (IRC)
  • Doctors of the World, UK
  • Medicos del Mundo - Ukraine Mission
  • UNICEF Syria & Sesame Street