Migrant group Support work
with Lara wehbe
online
Are you part of the Lebanese and Palestinian diaspora?
Join me for a group support series Online.
Through creative writing, story-telling, somatic practices, and group emotional release work, this space is curated to help you navigate the challenges of migration, no matter the reasons you moved for, and no matter when, to be witnessed by others who share the same emotional weight.
To register, kindly fill out the intake form by clicking the button below.
The Challenges of Migration
People face a wide range of complex challenges.
The movement of migration is way more complex than just moving from one country to another. But migration is rarely just a physical journey. It’s a transition that carries experience of rupture, uncertainty, grief, adaptation, or loss of safety that affects generations to come.
You’ve probably experienced:
survival and adaptation of unfamiliar systems and bureaucracy, language barriers, financial insecurity, anticipations and uncertainties of visas, finding employment, whether you’ve migrated by choice or by force.
immense grief for leaving family and friends, as well as the loss of cultural rituals.
rebuilding your life from scratch, through finding and rebuilding support networks that feels like you are not abandoning who you are.
code-switching and difficulty expressing yourself authentically
adapting to new cultural expectations and social rules that are different from your own.
questioning your identity, belonging, or a longing to reconnect with their heritage
pressure to succeed, to sacrifice to make it worthwhile, which leads you overworking, overachieving, hyper-vigilant, suppressing your own needs because other people's survival feels more important.
If this is you, then I am so glad you are here!
The Lebanese & Palestinian Diaspora - The Why Behind This Work
I am Lebanese who migrated to Scotland, with a strong passion of working with people who have experiences of migration no matter their culture, religion, or birthplace.
I am focusing my work now as a starting point on Palestinian and Lebanese diasporas because these communities have experienced an immense amount of stress from years of war, displacement, occupation, political violence, and forced migration.
Additionally, most major migration and displacement forecasts currently expect global migration pressures to keep increasing overall during the next decade, although rates will vary by region and type of migration. In the UK and worldwide, there is support available, mostly for the extreme cases, but many organisations and researchers say it is not enough for the scale and complexity of need.
There is little to no support for those migrants with experiences that are quieter. I know it from my own experience, there was nowhere to go when I needed it support the most. This is my WHY behind this work.
I can create the spaces that I needed, and I am so grateful that I can!
Group Sessions for Migrants
About
I am opening therapeutic group spaces, online and in-person, to support those with experiences of migration of different walks of life.
For this round, this space will be dedicated to people from the Lebanese & Palestinian diaspora. If this is you, and you have experiences of immigration, whether first, second, or third-generation migrants. If you have struggled to adjust, no matter how long it has been, the imprint of this movement is still carried in your body.
These spaces are for the people whose experiences of migration from these countries that are less visible, whose stories often go unnoticed, but no less real.
Together, we will explore the themes that live within us: home, belonging, and the cultural polarisation within, and other common themes I covered here. This is a space to be witnessed by others who share the same emotional weight.
This is also a space that caters to your emotional process. We will tend to our collective grief, feel our rage and helplessness, and combat loneliness through community.
I want to explore with you how migration expresses itself through the lens with which you see yourself and the world. How it shapes your sense of home, belonging, and safety. How we hold the polarity of cultures within us, and whether we can build a unifying bridge through. How migration lives in your body. And how we can navigate a polarised world together.
This makes them particularly important communities for understanding the somatic imprint of migration, for example, how experiences of displacement, loss, rupture and adaptation may be carried and expressed through the body over time. My work explores how these experiences can shape the ways people feel safety, belonging, connection and threat in their bodies, while also creating space for somatic approaches to healing and resilience
What to Expect?
You can expect:
a space for story telling. Storytelling can be healing in trauma spaces because trauma often fragments our experiences. Sharing a story in a safe and attuned environment can help create meaning, and restore connection, voice, and a sense of shared humanity.
a creative writing process with words meant to awaken the themes we will be covering.
a growing community of people building a sense of home together. Sessions of shared stories, and spaces for group emotional releases and somatic practices that meet whatever themes arise.
a space to express and connect with your mother tongue, as I speak three languages and am able to hold space for people who speak in English, Arabic, and French. There is nothing more powerful than to share our pains in our mother tongue. The part of me that speaks my mother tongue is screaming to be heard.
a group emotional release at our last session and group somatic therapeutic approaches throughout our work together.
a WhatsApp community to stay connected with others on the same journey.
About the Sessions:
This is a series of 4 sessions starting November 2026. Each session will last about 2 hours. I highly recommend you join the full series. Each session explores a different theme, and together they build on each other, making the experience deeper, more meaningful, and more beneficial than attending individual sessions.
We will be in communication to decide what days / times suits the group.
What is The Exchange For These Sessions?
I want to make this work affordable, and want to offer a sliding scale.
The value for each session is
Standard Ticket £100 for the 4 sessions
Supported Tickets - £80 for 4 sessions
Bring a Friend Ticket - £60 each for 4 sessions (£120 total)
Pay it Forward Tickets - If you are feeling extra generous and would like to support others, you are more than welcome to pay it forward for an added £20.
Why I Can Help
My Experience of Migration
I moved from Lebanon to Scotland initially for my studies, but the experience of migration has shaped my life long before that. I have moved countries, homes, and languages. Displacement is something I know intimately in the body as it is a story of my family lineage, and my own.
Migration lives in my blood and bones. It has taught me about rupture, adaptation, grief, resilience, belonging, and the complexity of building home within myself when the ground beneath me kept changing.
If you are interested to read more about my experience, find the button to my Substack article “Home is a Question; A Transgenerational Perspective of War and Migration Through Stories from my Body.” below.
Transgenerational trauma and epigenetic studies
Whether you are 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation migrants, the imprint of migration still lives within you.
There is growing research suggesting that severe stress and adversity can influence how our genes are expressed, including across generations.
A longitudinal study of 1,507 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon found that greater exposure to war was associated with changes in patterns of DNA marks (Smeeth et al., 2024). Research from the Dutch Hunger Winter found long-term biological effects associated with prenatal famine exposure decades later (Tobi et al., 2014).
This means that, you don't have to have directly experienced the original trauma for its effects to influence you, but neither are you destined to carry them forever!
There are many ways to support adaptation and repair, we will be exploring some of them
How I can Help
I offer somatic therapy and emotional release. I have worked with clients worldwide to help them navigate multitudes of challenges, of which challenges from migration.
If you are interested to learn more about the modalities I work with, kindly click the button below.
Testimonials
Practical Questions
What is the intake form used for & Why is it important that I complete it before joining?
Each person comes to these spaces with different migration experiences, cultural backgrounds, languages, nervous system patterns, and reasons for migrating. The intake form helps me better understand your story, needs, preferences, and lived experience so I can place you in groups that feel supportive, resonant, and aligned with you.
The form also includes reflections based on the Needs Dimension that I work with, which explores our core our core wound and the relevant somatic imprints held in the body. This helps me understand how to best support you within the group space, including the themes covered above, and the wounds, adaptations, or survival patterns that may be present.
Completing the form also supports the wider research and exploration I am doing around migration, displacement, identity, belonging, and intergenerational experience. All information is approached with care, sensitivity, and confidentiality
What If I can’t Make all the live calls?
I would recommend you join the live sessions to get the most out of the experience, allowing you to fully engage with the group and the process. However, all calls will be recorded and you can access the recordings and resources if you cannot make it live.
When will the calls take place?
Once the group is formed, I’ll have a better idea of where everyone is joining from and can use this to determine the dates and times that work best for the group.
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The work continues, and you are more than welcome to join again
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A temporary WhatsApp group is created for participants to stay connected, share reflections, and integrate their experience with others between sessions.
If additional support is required, 1:1 sessions can be offered as a more personalised container to work more deeply and safely
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Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable. This is because a significant amount of preparation goes into each session, including reviewing each individual participant’s screening survey to ensure appropriate group fit and support.
This level of preparation is essential to holding a safe and well-supported space for everyone involved.
Other FAQ
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