Counseling Services
About
Trauma-informed therapy for anxiety, trauma, and identity stress, with a culturally grounded approach.
Serein Counseling supports adults who are high-functioning on the outside but feel overwhelmed, anxious, numb, or exhausted on the inside. You may be carrying chronic stress, childhood trauma, attachment wounds, or the weight of family pressure and survival roles. For many clients, identity and belonging are part of the story too, especially for Arabs and people in the diaspora navigating third-culture identity, intergenerational dynamics, and cultural grief.
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We offer evidence-based therapy that includes both the mind and the body. Anxiety is not just overthinking. Trauma is not just a memory. These patterns live in the nervous system, shaped by what you have had to hold, suppress, and adapt to in order to stay safe, loved, or accepted.
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Our work is trauma-informed and culturally responsive. Depending on your needs, therapy may include EMDR, somatic and polyvagal-informed approaches, IFS-informed parts work, and practical tools for anxiety, boundaries, and daily functioning. The goal is not to “fix” you. It is to help you feel safer in your body, clearer in your relationships, and more grounded in who you are.
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Serein Counseling provides culturally responsive, trauma-informed care through an anti-oppressive, decolonial, and anti-Zionist lens. We understand that anxiety and trauma are shaped by personal history, and also by the systems and narratives people are forced to live under. You will not have to translate your culture or censor your reality to be supported here. We aim to offer a therapy space where your identity, grief, and values are treated with respect and clinical care.
Our Expertise
We can help you with:
Trauma Healing
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Childhood trauma / C-PTSD
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Attachment wounds + relational trauma
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Emotional neglect + parentification (“I had to be the strong one”)
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Religious shame + spiritual trauma
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Hypervigilance, dissociation, numbness
Identity & Life Transitions
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Third-culture identity (“between worlds”)
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Cultural grief, moral injury, collective stress
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Family pressure, enmeshment, guilt-based roles
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Code-switching + shame cycles
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Boundaries that don’t break the relationship
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LGBTQ+ issues (identity, coming out, transitioning, religious-based shame)
Anxiety Disorders
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Chronic worry + overthinking
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Panic, health anxiety, “always on” body
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OCD tendencies + intrusive thoughts
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People-pleasing, perfectionism, fawn response
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Somatic anxiety (tight chest, stomach knots, racing mind)
ADHD Coaching
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Focus, follow-through, executive function
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Overwhelm + emotional dysregulation
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Routines that support nervous system health
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Work/school performance + burnout prevention
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Accountability that’s compassionate (not rigid)
About Micheline
Hi, I’m Micheline Maalouf, LMHC.
I’m a Syrian/Lebanese therapist and the founder of Serein Counseling. I specialize in trauma and anxiety, and I work with adults who are high-functioning on the outside but feel overwhelmed, exhausted, or stuck on the inside. Many of my clients have spent years carrying responsibility, managing family dynamics, and pushing through stress. Their minds are busy, their bodies feel tense or shut down, and rest can feel impossible.
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My approach is trauma-informed, culturally grounded, and nervous-system focused. I believe anxiety is not just overthinking, and trauma is not just a story you tell. These are patterns that live in the body, shaped by what you have lived through and what you had to become in order to stay safe, connected, or accepted. In therapy, we work toward more than insight. We build felt safety, self-trust, and practical change.
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I work with adults from many backgrounds, and I have deep experience supporting Arabs and people in the diaspora who are navigating third-culture identity, cultural grief, intergenerational pressure, and the in-between experience of belonging everywhere and nowhere at once. You will not have to translate your culture here. We make room for the full context, including family roles, community expectations, and the invisible rules you grew up with.
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Depending on your needs, our work may include EMDR, somatic therapy, IFS-informed parts work, and skills-based support for boundaries, relationships, and daily functioning. My goal is to help you feel steadier in your body, clearer in your relationships, and more connected to who you are, not just who you learned to be.
