Saman Essa comes to the Lucine Center with over a decade of experience working with immigrant and refugee communities. Her passion for this population began in high school, when she volunteered with Amaanah Refugee Services, helping single refugee women integrate in the community and achieve financial stability through their Transformed program. Since then, Saman has sought out opportunities working with various populations who have been resilient in the face of trauma and grief. Prior to joining the Lucine Center, she completed her pre-doctoral APA accredited internship at the Cincinnati VA, where she received extensive training in evidence-based treatments for PTSD through her rotations in the PTSD clinic and primary care mental health integration clinic. She also completed a minor rotation in pre-surgical health evaluations for bariatric and transplant candidates. Saman has previous experiences conducting social security disability evaluations and working at a college counseling center. She has also served as a clinician at The Alliance, an integrated community clinic providing mental health services to asylum seekers and refugees, and worked at a private practice for young children who present with anxiety and adjustment-related disorders.

Saman received her B.A in Psychology and World Cultures and Literature with a concentration in Middle Eastern Studies and a Masters of Education in Counseling at the University of Houston. More recently, Saman is a graduate of the University of Houston’s Counseling Psychology Doctoral program. She was a recipient of the U.S State Department’s Critical Language Scholarship and studied Arabic abroad in Oman. Saman is also fluent in Gujarati, Hindi, and Urdu. Saman lives in Spring, Texas with her husband. She enjoys spending time with her family, exploring many parks around the area, baking, and traveling to new places.