During a trip to Jordan, our senior graphic designer, Grace Ogihara, sat down with Ansam Abu Sabha, a senior physiotherapist based in the region. 

Abu Sabha told Ogihara about how she took upon herself to build on her education and lean into her desire to support humanitarian efforts. 

Seeing first-hand the integration, Abu Sabha spoke to the connection between the mind and body and emphasized the importance of a trauma-focused approach in this work.

Beginnings in Physiotherapy

Abu Sabha graduated from Jordan University and jumped into working with clients, eager to learn what she could. 

“At first I wasn’t convinced about physiotherapy and wanted to study a different specialty. When I started to work with clients, I was always dreaming about humanitarian work,” she shared.

“There were a lot of stories about refugees at my previous job at a refugee camp, which made me want to continue in the humanitarian field. When CVT published the open physiotherapy position, I was interested in knowing more about trauma and how it affected refugees.”

Abu Sabha shared how wanting to learn more about the connections between physical, social and psychological impacts on survivors fueled her motivation to continue learning. This ultimately led her to CVT Jordan, where she’s been for over six years now.

Client Progress As Motivation

Though she was skeptical in the beginning, Abu Sabha shared that over time, after seeing the results it had for her clients and learning more about the connection between the mind and body, her love for the specialty of physiotherapy grew. 

“I love seeing success stories – the progress for clients,” Abu Sabha said.

”I deal with clients based on the principle ‘plant a tree today to use its shade tomorrow’, and this is exactly what I do with my clients – I ensure they understand what is happening to them and encourage them to be curious about their bodies.”

“This will positively impact their performance and interaction with others. By planting a seed within clients, I help grow a tree with strong roots that can provide shade to those around them.”

Daily Self-Care

Abu Sabha understands the importance of self-care in work like this, and spoke to her regular practice. 

“It’s difficult to see their trauma; listening to their stories makes me sad, but gives me vision to help them more,” Abu Sabha said, sharing how engaging in this work can be tough. 

A regular routine of self-care looks different for everyone. For an avid reader like Abu Sabha, it looks like getting to work a little early to read quietly in the car before starting her day.

A Glass Of Water For Healing

Prioritizing her own wellness and the positive moments where clients make progress help push Abu Sabha forward, but she doesn’t stop there. The physiotherapist shared that she does her best to ask herself how her work can further include people.

“I see a lot of the clients have challenges, just to belong in the society and community. Their trauma affects them, so they feel like they don’t belong here, their pain increases day by day, the pain becomes chronic, like cooking, picking up groceries… I want to enhance their belonging, acceptance in community and independence.”

Abu Sabha talks about the difficulty of seeing past the hurt that comes with your experiences when trying to reach healing. This is what she works on with the survivors she works with.

“We can compare the thoughts and pain we feel to a glass of water. If we are inside the glass, it will be challenging to understand what is happening within our bodies, and we will feel like we are drowning,” she said.

But, the physiotherapist said that if we are outside the glass, that leads to a fuller understanding of the trauma, including the cause and the impact. 

“We will be able to see the glass, the water, and where it is on the table,” Abu Sahba said.

The Hope For CVT Jordan’s Future

Abu Sabha said she hopes to stick around to support all refugees in Jordan through direct services. She spoke to the importance of trauma-focused therapies and the need to share information about it widely to benefit as many refugees as possible.

“How can we support other partners to work with CVT to increase awareness about trauma-focused physiotherapy? We have started, but [I want to] do more and to increase our services, not only Amman, but reaching refugee camps with our services.”

“There is no access to basic needs for clients sometimes. When we can give the same service to all clients, to take into consideration their trauma, serving people equally, as they are all valuable.”