TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Patricia Nammour
Women empowerment and collective healing for economically challenged Lebanese women from Tripoli and Syrian refugee women facing trauma and displacement.
Syrian - Lebanese
Theater for Self-Expression & Storytelling: Utilizing non-verbal exercises, body awareness, and autobiographical theater to help women safely access, voice, and externalize their heavy realities without pressure.
Empathic Listening (Grammaire des Émotions): Grounded in emotional literacy frameworks to create a space where women felt deeply heard, validated, and seen by one another without judgment or unsolicited advice.
Co-Created Group Guidelines: Establishing clear, collective agreements on confidentiality, mutual respect, and active listening at the very start to ensure emotional safety and equality within the diverse group.
Restorative Circles: Facilitating structured circle practices to close sessions, allowing the women to safely share their feelings, process shared grief, and transition out of intense emotional work back into a sense of community connection.
Established Absolute Psychological Safety: 100% of the participants reported feeling genuinely safe, protected, and free from judgment within the space, allowing them to lower their defenses and speak openly.
Validation & Visibility: The women experienced the profound relief of being deeply heard and witnessed by their peers, breaking the heavy isolation caused by their displacement and economic hardship.
Restored Well-Being & Joy: Even amidst severe trauma and ongoing crisis, the participants reclaimed vital moments of personal well-being, laughter, and emotional relief through the creative process.
Deep Cross-Community Connection: The workshop successfully forged an enduring bond of solidarity between the economically challenged Lebanese women and Syrian refugee women, transforming a space of shared pain into a supportive, resilient community.
Program Creation & Conceptualization: Solely responsible for the artistic and pedagogical design of the workshop. This included adapting the theater and emotional literacy methodology to specifically fit the sensitive needs, trauma, and realities of Lebanese and Syrian refugee women.
Facilitation & Process Management: Delivered and facilitated the entire workshop series, ensuring the co-creation of group guidelines, managing intense emotional group dynamics, and maintaining a strict standard of psychological safety and restorative practice throughout.
Reporting & Evaluation: Authored the final evaluation and impact report at the end of the project, documenting the methodology used, participant outcomes, and key recommendations for future community-based trauma relief programs.
I have known Patricia since 2015 through L’Atelier du Jeu. We participated in many workshops together, where I attended as a participant while Patricia facilitated the sessions. At the same time, I was an active member of Sada Playback Theater, an artistic space in northern Lebanon dedicated to creativity, storytelling, and community engagement.
Later, I had the opportunity to co-facilitate workshops with Patricia, working with group of women. It was a deeply meaningful and successful experience. Throughout the process, we created a safe and trusting environment that encouraged participants to share personal and intimate moments from their lives. By the end of the workshop, the women reflected on what they had learned, the connections they had built, and the personal insights they had gained. Witnessing that openness and transformation made the experience truly impactful.