Our Team
Alab Sikat
Head of …
Alab Sikat is a Filipina ancestral practitioner, community organiser, and systems-change leader whose work is shaped by migration, identity, and the ongoing search for belonging. Rooted in Filipino ancestral lineage and shaped by her experience of moving to the UK as a migrant, her work explores the emotional, cultural, and embodied realities of integrating into systems that often overlook culture, the body, and collective ways of being.
She is the Founder of The School of Human Connection and Panubli Hilot, a London-based healing platform grounded in Philippine traditional medicine and ancestral bodywork, and serves as the London Ambassador for The Human Expansion School. Alongside this, she is the operations and systems change manager for a by-and-for charity supporting migrant women and survivors of gender-based violence.
Alab is currently completing the Integrative Somatic Therapy Certificate with Embody Lab, developed in collaboration with facilitators including Peter Levine, deepening her trauma-informed, body-based approach to individual, relational, and collective healing.
Florence Yilmaz
Head of Community
Florence is a proud Indigenous Filipino woman of the Igorot people and an advocate for migrant and women’s rights. Trained in business accounting, she has devoted her skills to supporting churches and community organisations. As a migrant in the UK, Florence co-founded the Filipino Domestic Workers Association, now a registered charity helping workers affected by exploitation and trafficking.
She is Bookkeeper & Head of Finance for the charity SEEAWA (Southeast and East Asian Women’s Association) and Direvctor of SEEAC, she combines financial expertise and activism to uplift Southeast and East Asian communities.
Gasat La Barbera
Community Director
Gasat is a men’s group facilitator and wellbeing practitioner of Sicilian and Filipino heritage, devoted to the evolution of men and masculinity. His work is rooted in deep curiosity about identity, emotional liberation and the complex intersectionalities that shape how men show up in the world. As an LGBTQIA+ facilitator, his lived experience deeply informs his commitment to creating spaces where men can explore vulnerability, truth, and belonging beyond traditional norms.
For over a decade, Gasat has trained with respected teachers and elders across the world, developing a grounded, trauma-aware approach to facilitation. He holds courageous, compassionate spaces where what is often left unspoken can be expressed, supporting men to reconnect with their emotions, autonomy, and integrity.
Through his work, Gasat advocates for a reimagined masculinity rooted in emotional honesty, fairness, and collective healing, contributing to healthier relationships, stronger communities, and more inclusive futures.
Nicholas Policarpio
Lead Facilitator & Program Director
Nicholas Policarpio is a somatic and trauma-informed facilitator, and serves as Programme Director and Lead Facilitator for The School of Human Connection. As a queer person, Nicholas grew up navigating judgement, silencing, and a lack of safe spaces to explore identity, embodiment, and emotional expression. These lived experiences profoundly shaped his path and commitment to creating the kinds of inclusive, affirming healing spaces that were not readily available to him earlier in life. His work is rooted in the belief that everyone deserves access to spaces where they feel safe in their body, free in their expression, and connected in their humanity.
Nicholas’ practice integrates somatic movement, breathwork, creative expression, and transpersonal psychology, blending Western therapeutic frameworks with Eastern traditions such as Taoist and Tantric practices. This integrated approach supports healing through the body, reclaimed voice and agency, and restored connection and belonging, particularly for racially marginalised and LGBTQIA+ communities.
Nicholas is also the founder of The Human Expansion School, an international somatic and wellbeing movement whose facilitators combine professional training with lived experience as migrants, LGBTQIA+ individuals, or survivors. This partnership provides The School of Human Connection with a strong foundation of trauma-informed practice, ethical delivery, and community-building experience.
Olivier Passebecq
Facilitator Support
Olivier collaborates with The Human Expansion School, offering grounded, heart-centered facilitation rooted in nervous system regulation, emotional intelligence, and relational healing. His path - shaped by practices like Nonviolent Communication (NVC), the Wim Hof Method, and Intelligence Relationnelle (IR Therapy) - has deeply transformed his life, and now guides his work supporting others into greater clarity, connection, and inner strength.