Mental Health Responder

Sima Gatea

(she/her)

Canada, Germany

I am a facilitator, trainer, coach and community weaver with a passion for holding and igniting spaces of belonging and inspiration in community. I grew up in Canada in a mixed German-Iraqi family.

My journey started as a social entrepreneur, co-founding SINGA in Berlin (thanks to my first CXC summit in 2015!). This is where I brought my personal and family experience with migration together with my master’s in Transcultural Studies into the field, by building a vibrant community of newcomers and locals in Berlin. After years of developing inclusive programs and advocacy work, I designed and facilitated three high-level capacity building programs across Germany, Morocco and Canada to train leaders in migration/inclusion from public, private and non-profit sectors in self-awareness, inclusive and sustainable impact strategies.

This led me to train as a Transformative Coach in 2020. Feeling called to guide people through deeper personal transformation and healing led me to train in the trauma-informed psychosomatic therapy method, Compassionate Inquiryby Dr. Gabor Maté in 2023 and to begin studying Somatic Experiencing, by Dr. Peter Levine in 2026.

My Dalai Lama Fellowship year in 2020 helped to deepen my spiritual awareness and practice and ultimately informs how I show up in community and the place from which I hold space for others. My personal studies and practice in Sufi Psychology, deepened after living for the past year in Morocco, also increasingly inform my approach to community weaving and facilitation.

I am also the Secretary General of the SINGA Global Board of Directors; Dalai Lama Fellow Mentor; and therapist in training.

I am known to be extroverted and bring a high energy and sense of dynamism to groups. I love holding space for groups of all sizes and enjoy public speaking. At the same time, I compliment these qualities with my capacity for deep listening, grounding, sensitivity and compassion.

Experience

Languages: English, French, German

Event Types: Conference, Festival, Hybrid, Offline, Online, Panel, Retreat, Summit, Team Offsite, Training, Workshop

Audiences: Adults (36–64), External Stakeholder, Internal Stakeholders, Marginalised or vulnerable groups, Private Sector, Public Sector, Teens (13–19 y/o), Third or Fourth Sector, Young adults (20–35 y/o)

Certificates: CXC In-Person Facilitation Training

Thematic Areas
  • Trauma-informed facilitation
  • Mediation & Psychological Safety through Compassionate Inquiry and Somatic Experiencing
  • Community and network weaving
  • Identity, Homing and Belonging through the lens of somatics, sociology and spirituality
  • Sufi Psychology and Spiritual Facilitation
  • Migration, diversity and inclusion
    • Inclusive language, narrative change and strategic communications
    • Transculturality, unconscious bias and power dynamics
    • Co-creation and inclusive program design
  • Social entrepreneurship
    • Developing social impact strategy and Theory of Change
    • Scaling impact internationally
    • Collective impact & Smart Networks
LinkedIn

Testimonials

"Working with Sima has changed the way I now move through my life. She doesn’t give answers. She listens, holds space, and helps you hear what’s already inside you, even if it's been too quiet or buried to notice. In our time together, I learned how to notice what’s happening in my body and use that awareness to make decisions that feel genuinely right — not just logical or expected, but deeply right in a way I can feel in my body. Sima creates a sense of safety from the very first conversation. She helps shape and clarify your questions until they become something you truly want to understand. I recommend working with Sima if you're feeling stuck, if something feels off and you can’t quite name it, or if you want to feel more connected to yourself and your roles in life in a way that feels fully aligned.”

— Coachee and social entrepreneur, 2024

"Working with Sima has been a very grounding experience. She creates a space where you can be completely honest, about your fears, your doubts, your ambitions, and she always guides you back to clarity. Her mix of emotional intelligence and strategic insight helps you make decisions from a place of calm instead of pressure. And her mentorship goes beyond professional growth, it’s about becoming a more centred, confident, and intentional version of yourself. I couldn’t recommend her more."

— Coachee and social entrepreneur, 2024

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