At Olive Branch Wellness, we believe in the power of therapy to heal, transform, and empower. Our mission is to provide compassionate, culturally sensitive, and trauma-responsive care that honors your lived experiences. Whether you're navigating life transitions, struggling with anxiety or depression, working through trauma, witnessing genocide,or exploring your identity, we are here to support you.
We offer individual, couples, family and group therapy, as well as consultation and supervision for professionals and organizations. Our approach is anti-oppressive, decolonized, LGBTQIA+ affirming, and deeply rooted in empathy and curiosity.
You deserve a space where you feel seen, heard, and valued. Let’s begin this journey together.
Our Team
SABA AQEL, LCPC (FOUNDER)
IBRAHIM SHALABI, LPC (PSYCHOTHERAPIST)
YARA SHADID, LSW (PSYCHOTHERAPIST)
EMILY ISEINI (ADMIN MANAGER)
Therapeutic Approaches
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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured, evidence-based approach that helps clients process and heal from trauma, distressing memories, and negative core beliefs. EMDR supports the brain's natural healing process through bilateral stimulation (like eye movements), reducing emotional reactivity and fostering resilience.
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An insight-oriented approach that explores how early experiences, unconscious patterns, and relational dynamics shape current thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. This therapy supports deep self-reflection and helps clients uncover and shift longstanding internal conflicts- residing in our conscious and unconscious.
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Trauma-Informed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
A practical and supportive method that identifies and challenges unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviors. When applied through a trauma-informed lens, CBT respects the impact of past trauma and emphasizes safety, empowerment, and emotional regulation.
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Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based approach that blends acceptance and change. DBT teaches skills in mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness—particularly helpful for those navigating intense emotions or relational challenges.
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A culturally responsive, intersectional approach that honors each client’s unique identities and lived experiences. This framework integrates multiple modalities and centers empowerment, collaboration, and critical awareness of the sociopolitical systems impacting mental health.
Welcome to Olive Branch Wellness in Chicago, Illinois. We recognize that true emotional well-being cannot be separated from the environments and systems we live within. As therapists, we do not view ourselves as the 'experts' of your life; rather, we are collaborative partners dedicated to holding space for your healing, resilience, and liberation.
As a Palestinian immigrant, female-owned psychotherapy practice, our mission is to cultivate a healing environment that is decolonized, anti-oppressive, and deeply grounded in intersectionality. We believe therapy must honor the wholeness of your story and identities, actively challenge systemic structures that perpetuate harm, and center safety, agency, and community empowerment. Our practice is trauma-informed, identity-affirming, and proudly inclusive of QTBIPOC, LGBTQIA+, immigrant, and first- and second-generation communities.
We approach our work through a liberatory and culturally sustaining lens. Drawing upon trauma-focused care, psychodynamic exploration, and intersectional feminism, we actively decenter the traditional, pathologizing medical model. Every session is rooted in collaboration, ongoing consent, and transparency, allowing us to explore your emotions, relationships, and identities within the context of the broader social and cultural systems you navigate. At Olive Branch Wellness, healing is not about 'fixing' or 'symptom management'; it is about reclaiming your narrative, reconnecting with your roots, and nurturing your inherent capacity to thrive.
OUR VALUES
