From War-Torn Childhood to Somatic Healing: A Lebanese Mother's JourneyFrom War-Torn Childhood to Somatic Healing: A Lebanese Mother's Journey
The Gris Alves‘s Podcast Tales of Recovery
Gris Alves talks with Lebanese coach Yasmin Beydoun about growing up in war, self-medicating to cope with trauma, and shifting into somatic healing and conscious parenting. The conversation follows her son’s autoimmune illness, their shared wellness journey and her current work supporting mothers and Arab women in healing old patterns.
59:02•20 Oct 2025
From War, Grief and Self-Medicating to Somatic Healing and Conscious Motherhood
Episode Overview
- Unresolved childhood trauma and emotional neglect can later show up as self-harm, substance use and constant self-soothing.
- Conscious parenting work often reveals that the real shift starts with the parent, not the child: “It starts with me.”
- Somatic practices, meditation and Compassionate Inquiry help bring stored trauma out of the body and into awareness safely.
- Diet, gut health and careful detoxing of medical side effects can support autoimmune recovery, alongside medical care.
- Basic wellness habits — sleep, movement, real food and supportive community — create the nervous system stability needed for emotional healing.
“Your body knows it has the wisdom and the capacity to heal itself.”
Interested in the personal battles against addiction? This conversation between host Gris Alves and trauma-informed coach Yasmin Beydoun brings together war, grief, motherhood and body-based healing in a way that many in recovery will instantly recognise. Yasmin grew up in Lebanon’s civil war, surrounded by collective trauma, emotionally unavailable parents and, later, sexual abuse that was minimised and denied.
She shares how that early pain morphed into self-harm, people‑pleasing, drinking, smoking and drugs: “I was self-medicating… I couldn’t sit with myself.” Her honesty around using substances to cope will resonate with anyone who’s ever reached for a drink, a joint or food just to quiet the noise. The episode tracks her move across countries, into corporate life, infertility struggles, the death of her baby Raphael, and parenting her son Leith while still carrying unresolved trauma.
When Leith developed rheumatoid arthritis at three and a half, weekly injections and severe side effects pushed Yasmin into a deep wellness search. She overhauled his diet, worked with functional testing, and watched him gradually reach medical remission. For her, “your body knows it has the wisdom and the capacity to heal itself” isn’t a slogan; it’s lived experience.
Now living in Portugal, Yasmin works with mothers and Arab women as a trauma-informed consciousness coach, trained in Dr Shefali’s conscious parenting approach and Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry. She stresses that parents who come to ‘fix’ their children quickly realise, “It starts with me. It starts with me.” Somatic work, meditation, community circles and everyday basics like sleep, food and movement are presented as practical foundations for emotional sobriety.
If you’re in recovery, parenting through pain, or carrying cultural and family expectations on your shoulders, this story offers companionship, body-based tools and a reminder that healing can be slow, messy and absolutely possible. What part of Yasmin’s journey feels most familiar to you right now?
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