You don't need to be fixed.
You need space to feel.
Holistic art therapy and presence-based practice in Dubai — workshops and private sessions with a certified practitioner who has spent twenty years building cities, and now works on the people inside them.
What's running
Two ways in. The work is the same underneath — you make something, and it tells you something.
Small groups, materials on the table, something made by the end of it.
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Letting Go & Refocus
A facilitated session on what to put down before deciding what comes next. Delivered for teams and for open groups.
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AI, Sustainability & Future Cities
Cross-disciplinary work on what AI changes about a city and what it must not be allowed to flatten.
Private sessions with Nahla, in person or online.
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Own your Story
A four-session journey designed to deepen the connection between your mind, body, and emotions. Explore what truly matters to you, define your core values, and leave with a clear sense of purpose, direction, and a personal mission to guide you forward.
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Integrative Wellness Practice
Reconnect with your body and learn to understand and work with the stress triggers that affect your well-being. Designed to complement medical therapy, this program takes a holistic approach to support your healing journey.
Smart cities and inner lives are not separate worlds.
Whether the work is a policy or a healing session, it reconnects a system with the human experience at its centre. That is one practice, not two.
- Held, not fixed
- Certified Holistic Integrated Creative Arts Therapy — a method, not a wellness aesthetic borrowed for a workshop. You are not here to be repaired. You are here for space to feel, and the method holds when a session goes somewhere difficult.
- Dual expertise
- Twenty years leading innovation and policy work across the Middle East and Africa, alongside a personal journey through emotional healing and creative practice. The approach is not theoretical; it is integrated and lived.
- Irregular smoothness
- Nahla's own term for it: processes that flow, adjust and breathe rather than frameworks that stay rigid. Structure enough to trust, loose enough to follow where a session actually goes.
Start wherever
you are.
Most people arrive not quite able to say what they are looking for. That is a normal place to begin from, and it is what the first conversation is for — thirty minutes, free, with no preparation and no obligation.
Or take something with you.
Not everyone is ready for a conversation, and that is fine. There is a free e-book, and it costs an email address — nothing else follows unless you ask for it.
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The free e-book
Yours to read on a phone, at the end of a day, with nothing to prepare and nobody to meet.
People who have been in the room
Participants in their own words, and two of the rooms.
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Honestly, this course was so much more than I thought it was going to be. I came in thinking I was going to learn how to help others express themselves with art (which I did), but I learned so much more about the body and mind connection, and other art forms I can use. Nahla was a calming force, offering guidance and a safe space to just simply be.
H.C. Workshop participant
★★★★★
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I really recommend this workshop to everyone. It is very light yet very deep. It really helps you get in touch with your emotions, in a very soft way.
M.G. Workshop participant
★★★★★
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It was an eye-opening workshop that helped me find a starting point to know myself better, and to explore and prioritise my body, mind and soul wellbeing. Thank you for the amazing insights, and I am looking forward to attending more workshops by you.
H.F. Workshop participant
★★★★★
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This was my first time ever attending such a workshop. I realised how much art plays a pivotal role in therapy. It was also my first time making a vision board. The whole experience was amazing.
N.S. Workshop participant
★★★★★
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One of a kind experience, I felt appreciated and valued.
S.R. Workshop participant
★★★★★
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A different way of being and doing, in constructing a vision board, bringing the behaviours to life. It was light, engaging, and it touches your soul.
S.A. Workshop participant
★★★★★
Nahla ElBanhawy
A certified Holistic Integrated Creative Arts Therapy practitioner, architect, and facilitator at The Holistic Academy.
With over twenty years spent building businesses, advancing technologies and shaping cities across the Middle East and Africa, she now channels that same vision of transformation into the human journey — helping people navigate life's chapters with creativity, balance and self-discovery.
- Certified HICAT practitioner — Holistic Integrated Creative Arts Therapy
- Facilitator at The Holistic Academy
- Architect, 20+ years across the Middle East and Africa
- Speaker, Sikka Art & Design Festival, Al Shindagha