Exploring therapists’ experiences of using therapeutic interventions from Muslim perspectives for Muslim clients: Usefulness, contribution and challenges in the UK.
Abstract
Modern psychological approaches currently being used with Muslim clients in therapy have consistently been criticised for being decontextualised, Eurocentric, individualistic, reductionist and for not taking Muslim clients’ cultural and religious values into account (Amri, & Bemak, 2013; Carter & Rashidi, 2004). Hence a need for making use of models, techniques and therapeutic interventions based on Muslim perspectives for Muslim clients has repeatedly been expressed (Haque, 2004a; Helms, 2015; Inayat, 2007; Keshavarzi & Haque, 2013; Utz, 2012; Weatherhead & Daiches, 2010). Despite recommendations for using therapeutic interventions from Muslim perspectives with Muslim clients in therapy (Abu Raiya & Pargament, 2010; Haque & Kamil, 2012; Qasqas & Jerry, 2014), empirical research on these interventions has lagged behind (Abu-Raiya & Pargament, 2011). The aim of the current study is to provide more insight into how interventions from Muslim perspectives can be administered by Muslim therapists with their Muslim clients in therapy in United Kingdom. This study explored the experiences of six Muslim therapists who were all using interventions from Muslim perspectives with Muslim clients in their therapeutic practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed, and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), and from this three main themes emerged (i) Psychotherapeutic approaches, (ii) Journey of becoming a Muslim therapist (iii) Obstacles faced by Muslim clients and therapists. The implications for further research and therapeutic practice have also been considered.Type
Thesis or dissertationLanguage
enDescription
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of The University of Wolverhampton for the award of Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology.Collections
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Exploring therapists’ experiences of using therapeutic interventions from Muslim perspectives for Muslim clients: Usefulness, contribution and challenges in the UK.Modern psychological approaches currently being used with Muslim clients in therapy have consistently been criticised for being decontextualised, Eurocentric, individualistic, reductionist and for not taking Muslim clients’ cultural and religious values into account (Amri, & Bemak, 2013; Carter & Rashidi, 2004). Hence a need for making use of models, techniques and therapeutic interventions based on Muslim perspectives for Muslim clients has repeatedly been expressed (Haque, 2004a; Helms, 2015; Inayat, 2007; Keshavarzi & Haque, 2013; Utz, 2012; Weatherhead & Daiches, 2010). Despite recommendations for using therapeutic interventions from Muslim perspectives with Muslim clients in therapy (Abu Raiya & Pargament, 2010; Haque & Kamil, 2012; Qasqas & Jerry, 2014), empirical research on these interventions has lagged behind (Abu-Raiya & Pargament, 2011). The aim of the current study is to provide more insight into how interventions from Muslim perspectives can be administered by Muslim therapists with their Muslim clients in therapy in United Kingdom. This study explored the experiences of six Muslim therapists who were all using interventions from Muslim perspectives with Muslim clients in their therapeutic practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed, and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), and from this three main themes emerged (i) Psychotherapeutic approaches, (ii) Journey of becoming a Muslim therapist (iii) Obstacles faced by Muslim clients and therapists. The implications for further research and therapeutic practice have also been considered.
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Representing Muslims: Islamophobic discourse and the construction of identities in Britain since 2001Employing critical race theory as a theoretical and analytical framework, this thesis explores the nature, structure and purpose of Islamophobic discourse, and offers two central contributions to the scholarly debate on Islamophobia. First, it contributes to the literature on the nature of Islamophobia by analysing the form and structure of discourse that seeks to represent Muslims and Islam in a number of social and political sites. Second, the thesis addresses a significant gap identified in the scholarly literature, which has largely overlooked the purpose that Islamophobic discourse serves for those employing it. In order to address the nature and structure of Islamophobic discourse, the thesis analyses representations of Muslims and Islam in dominant national community cohesion and counterterrorism discourses; rearticulation of these discourses at the local level in the West Midlands town of Dudley; the use of Islamophobic discourse by the English Defence League; and the ways in which Islamophobic narratives were used to mark national boundaries in Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and France. I explain the convergence of narratives across these levels by extending Ghassan Hage’s theoretical formulation of racism as nationalist practices to Islamophobic discourse and argue that, as a cultural racism, Islamophobia can be conceptualised as upholding a system of Eurocentric supremacy, where Western subjects receive a better social, economic and political ‘racial contract’ and seek to defend these privileges against real and imagined Muslim demands. Whether employed for local, national or civilisational purposes, Islamophobia relies on the notion that space has been culturally compromised by Muslims and must be restored to authenticity by legitimate non-Muslim cultural managers. Islamophobia operates through a three-stage ideological process, and restores fantasised power to those who perceive Muslim cultural difference to be unacceptably changing the spaces in which they reside by representing Muslims as making incongruous demands of a territory, singling out a particular timeless value that is under threat, and reifying this value to an absolute. Through this process Muslims are put back in their place, while those employing this discourse experience a restoration of their cultural power to decide the values of a space.
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God in times of adversity: A mixed-methods study investigating the relationship between religious coping and identification on the trauma appraisals and world assumptions of Muslim refugees/asylum seekersBackground: The Cognitive Model of PTSD highlights the importance of pre-trauma beliefs on trauma appraisals and coping mechanisms. Worldview-based models propose that traumas shatter fundamental world assumptions, resulting in a search for meaning. Religion provides one way of offering meaning for individuals during times of distress. This research aimed to link Religious Coping Theory with cognitive and worldview-based trauma models to investigate the role of religious coping and identification on world assumptions and trauma appraisals within a community sample of Muslim refugees/asylum seekers. Method: A sequential mixed-methods design was used. Quantitative questionnaires were initially administered to eighty four participants, followed by qualitative interviews with six participants. Results: Quantitative findings indicate that religious coping and identification did not explain substantial variance in trauma symptoms, appraisals and world assumptions. Exploratory analyses revealed significant correlations between questionnaire language and trauma symptoms as well as immigration status, trauma appraisals and world assumptions. Qualitative findings, in contrast, illustrate the significant influence of Islam on the trauma appraisals, world assumptions and coping mechanisms of participants. Islam seemed to be used to evaluate and deal with trauma experience within premigration, migration and postmigration phases of the refugee/asylum seeker journey. Conclusion: These findings illustrate the need for greater research on cultural explanatory models of trauma for this population. This study provides specific insight into how participants utilise Islam in appraising and coping with their trauma experiences through the various phases of their journey. Findings are discussed in light of limitations, research and clinical implications.
