Reem Shaheen, MA, LMHC | Counseling Psychologist & Dance Movement Therapist
Psychological well-being requires more than symptom management; it demands the thorough integration of mind, affect, and somatic experience. Throughout my two decades of practice, I have consistently observed that while insight-oriented talk therapy provides invaluable structural clarity, intellectual understanding alone rarely dismantles deeply embedded emotional survival patterns. When trauma, compulsive behaviors, and relational stress take hold, the body retains the physiological imprint. My practice brings together the diagnostic rigor of Western clinical psychology with the non-verbal depth of dance and movement therapy, treating the individual as a unified, complex system.
Academic Rigor & Specialized Clinical Foundations
I hold a Master’s Degree in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness from New York University (NYU) and am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) and active member of the American Counseling Association (ACA). My foundational clinical training was completed at the Center for the Study of Anorexia and Bulimia (CSAB) within the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy (ICP) in New York, where I focused on the intricate psychological and somatic underpinnings of severe eating disorders, body image pathology, and complex bodily dysregulation.
To establish full clinical mastery in somatic integration, I completed the comprehensive post-graduate requirements for the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) Alternate Route at the 92NY Harkness Dance Center in New York. My movement therapy training was conducted directly under the primary pioneers and master figures of the discipline, including Dr. Miriam Roskin Berger, Corinne Marquart, Judith Bunney, Amber Gray, and Bonnie Bernstein.
Further extending my clinical scope into complex behavioral pathology, I completed specialized post-graduate clinical training with Paula Hall on sexual addiction and compulsive relational disorders. Combined with advanced training in chemical dependency, substance abuse, and trauma-informed nervous system regulation, my clinical background equips me to navigate highly complex, layered diagnostic profiles that demand specialized intervention.
Two Decades of International Clinical Practice
Over the past 18+ years, I have established and sustained private practices across four major global centers—New York, Cairo, Dubai, and Athens—as well as maintaining a global online practice serving clients across the GCC, the UK, and Europe. Working within diverse cultural landscapes has given me an acute understanding of cross-cultural psychology, executive strain, identity dislocation, and the unique psychological burdens carried by high-profile and high-functioning individuals.
My practice specializes in working with high-functioning populations facing multifaceted, overlapping challenges where a single diagnosis rarely captures the full picture, including:
- Complex Trauma & PTSD: Structural processing of developmental trauma, attachment ruptures, chronic childhood neglect, emotional abuse, and complex survival adaptations.
- Substance, Sexual & Behavioral Addictions: Specialized clinical intervention for chemical dependency, alcoholism, sexual addiction, compulsive relational cycles, codependency, and behavioral loops.
- Executive Burnout & High-Achiever Strain: Addressing perfectionism, chronic workplace stress, imposter anxiety.
- Mood Disorders & Severe Anxiety: Treatment for Clinical Depression, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), acute panic pathology, obsessive patterns, and chronic emotional dysregulation. • , isolation in leadership, and existential exhaustion among corporate leaders and public figures.
- Grief, Loss & Life Transitions: Navigating profound bereavement, high-conflict divorce, identity shifts, mid-life re-evaluation, and international relocation/dislocation.
- Relational & Attachment Dynamics: Resolving chronic interpersonal conflict, severe intimacy fears, toxic relational patterns, and intergenerational family trauma.
Therapeutic Modalities & Methodology
My clinical approach draws from psychodynamic theories of attachment, object relations, and relational psychoanalysis, balanced by person-centered frameworks and somatic movement principles. Through the strategic integration of talk therapy and movement, we engage both the analytical mind and the body's implicit memory—releasing somatic constriction, rebuilding emotional clarity, and fostering sustainable psychological resilience.
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