Co-founder

Dr. Samar Zebian received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from Western University (Canada). She received the International Triandis Award for her dissertation research on the cultural basis of mathematical thought. Upon returning to her native Lebanon in 2000, she was appointed as an Assistant and Associate Professor and held the position of Program Director in the Psychology Departments at the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University for 17 years. 

In 2018, she transitioned into a second career in wellness, mentoring, and mental health advocacy. At the beginning of this career transition, she trained as a Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) teacher with Chris Germer at Centrum Voor Mindfulness in Amsterdam. She leads MSC courses in Lebanon and abroad and in NGOs, universities, health care settings, and in the community. 

In addition to her work in the field of compassion, Samar was trained as a solution-focused brief therapist, and a spiritual mentor and is currently learning the Way of Council by way of sitting in Council circles and apprenticing. She has spent the last 4 years of her life practicing and learning about nature bathing/therapy. All of this learning and exploring converged in 2018 when she co-founded, with Nadine Saidi, Beit Insan - a community-led humanistic center for transformational healing. 

Co-founder

Nadine Saidi (MCouns) received her Masters and diploma in Counseling and Psychotherapy in 2016 from the University of Edinburgh. Her program, being one of the best programs in the world of counseling and psychotherapy, awarded her a distinction status for her therapeutic work. In Edinburgh, she worked as a therapist at the University of Edinburgh and a prominent counseling center simultaneously. She is trained in the dialogue between the person-centered and psychodynamic approaches. Her healing and community work in Lebanon has evolved beyond person-centered therapy to be something she and her collaborators call being-centered, which is grounded in liberatory humanism. 

In 2016, the call to go back to her native Lebanon was strong, as she felt she was a change agent in the well-being field given her knowledge, teachings, and natural abilities as a healer. She went on to work with several organizations as a therapist as well as a consultant in building humanistic therapeutic structures that step away from the colonial, capitalist, heteronormative, diagnostic, and pathological narrative of well-being.

Nadine is also co-creating a therapeutic philosophy/framework (Being-Centered) around the authentic Self, web of interbeing, and one’s relationship to the existential, which is inspired by her dialogues with Dr. Samar Zebian, the more than human world, her work with clients, and her own healing journey.

In 2018, Nadine co-founded Beit Insan with Dr. Samar Zebian. For her, Beit Insan is the reason she came back to Lebanon, a dream in the making, and something she feels will deeply shift the way we approach mental health and well-being in Lebanon. Nadine also facilitates nature bathing experiences for individuals and groups who wish to find healing with the more-than-human world and reconnect to their innate family and nature within. She is also part of a podcast called “Being-centered” which delves into the new story of being.

In her everyday life, Nadine is also a raja yoga meditator, a committed family member of the human and more-than-human world, an experimental cook, and an intuitive singer.

Bindi is wild at heart, known for her dedication and courage to be unapologetically her authentic self. She enjoys walks in nature, adventures, play, meeting new friends, and cuddles. Bindi has a deep love for freedom – in fact, her reward rather than being food is freedom. She has taught those around her the importance of embracing authenticity, and allowing and accepting fully the ‘unstoppable force to be’.

Nature, our more-than-human family, is appreciated for its bewildered spirit, truthful expression, and loving containment. It subtly encourages the rewilding of self and reconnection with the natural self. It helps quiet the shattering mind and opens space for reunion with the web-of-interbeing and our original home.

Our family of clients have been the backbone of all that we have become/ are becoming at Beit Insan. Their openness and bravery to invite us on their healing journey and share their hearts with us has been deeply touching, transformative, and moving. We hold deep gratitude for each and every one of them, and have been guided by their inner wisdom and expression.

There are thousands of names for that eternal Presence that has loved and accompanied us through life and in the founding and development of Beit Insan. We know of no better way to acknowledge that Presence except by remembering our original selves, our authentic relations, and practicing ecstatic union with Source-for all of these fold back on one another and liberate us.