ISLAMIC ONLINE UNIVERSITY

Islamic Counseling
PSY 102 – Module 17 - 29

1/1/2013

These notes are based on the lectures provided by IOU for this course. I hope you find them beneficial
InshaAllah. If you find any mistakes please contact me at [email protected]. Please remember us in
your duas. Was Salaam
Contents
Module 17: Solution focused therapy ......................................................................................................... 2
Module 18: Post-modernist theories cont: Positive Psychology and Narrative Psychology ....................... 8
Positive Psychology: ...................................................................................................................................... 8
Narrative Psychology – view of human nature: .......................................................................................... 12
Module 19: Integrative Behavioral Couples therapy (IBCT) ....................................................................... 16
Module 20: Marital Therapy with Muslim Clients: Pre-Marital Counseling ............................................... 19
Module 21: Marital Therapy: ...................................................................................................................... 21
Module 22: Family Systems Theory ............................................................................................................ 24
Module 23: Group Therapy:........................................................................................................................ 27
Module 24: Ethics in Psychotherapy:.......................................................................................................... 36
Module 25: Common Psychosocial Issues for Muslims in the West .......................................................... 40
Module 26: Islamic Counseling Techniques ............................................................................................... 43
Module 28: Collaborative Care ................................................................................................................... 46
Module 29: Current State of Islamic Psychology: ....................................................................................... 48

Assalamu alaikum

The original notes were done by Sh. Ismail Kamdar. I made some addition and some formatting.

Was Salaam

Bibi
Module 17: Solution focused therapy

Basic philosophy
• Change is constant and inevitable – our body, our neurons, atoms, molecules change over time
and refresh and develop new ones
• This is a post-modern theory – nurturing the development of identity to which ever direction it
is without judgment, relativism
• Clients are the experts and define goals and therapy in congruent with their direction –
Rogerian idea. Client is expert on their own therapy
• Future orientation – history is not essential, doesn’t focus on the past or repressive memory
• What is the problem now and how what steps and strategy can we take to move forward 
focused on solution – focus on the problem to solve it not just to explore it
• Can be brief – 6 to 12 sessions
• Emphasis is on what’s possible & changeable, do something different – very action oriented
o Emphasizing what is possible to change
o If old habits are not working, let’s look at new ways to do things
• Short term and usually only a small amount of change is needed
o Subjective – people view “small” in different ways
• Clients want change – reason why they are present
• Current solutions ARE the problem (the methods they are trying to fix their problems aren’t
working).
o Client probably tried everything possible with no solution so turn to others (counselor
for help)
o Need to help them come up with new solution
• Exceptions = differences that make a difference (behaviors, perceptions, thoughts and feelings
that contrast the complaint) – focus on what they haven’t tried or have been avoiding
o Things that they haven’t tried are the things that would probably make a difference
o Ask what they tried and what they did not tried and why
• Problems are maintained by doing more of the same or expecting no change

Solution Focused
• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it (don’t change something that is working for someone)
• Once you know what works, do it more
• If it doesn’t work, do something different

Solution Focused Therapy

• Acknowledge distress – show empathy, understand them, change could be difficult
• Focus on success – solution talk
• Talk solutions, not problems
• Techniques – miracle question, scaling question, client goals

Basic Assumptions
 • Clients have resources and strengths to resolve complaints – kind of like expert role
o Client have the ability to solve problem
• Change is constant – finding and directing change
• The therapist’s job is to identify and amplify change and how change is necessary
• It is usually unnecessary to know much about the complaint in order to resolve it – details not
necessary
• It is not necessary to know the cause or function of a complaint to resolve it
• A small change is all that is necessary (a change is one part of the system can affect change in
another)
• Clients define goals – where are we going, what do we want to d?
• There is no right way to view things – different views may be valid in conflicts resolutions.
• Focus on what is possible and changeable, rather than what is impossible and intractable

Milton Erickson
• Client centered
• Permission – give clients permission for who they are; give them positive feedback, and that
they are a good person
• Validation (Understand and empathy) – any response or behavior is valid (Not according to
Islam, we understand their behavior, but not validate Haraam behavior)
• Observation
• Utilization – make use of what clients bring
• NLP, Human Givens, Strategic, Solution Focused

3 types of clients
• Visitors – no complaints, along for the ride, complimented and given no tasks. Need a little
reassurance, appreciative
• Complainants – going along to placate and appease, complain, distant, observant and
expectant – given observational and thinking tasks
o Come in and complain, they expect things to be given to them, they want others to
change and they are not very willing to change
o They will think differently but most likely will not do anything about it
• Customers – do something – want to change, given behavioral tasks
o They would go out and actually try to change

Client’s Goals
• Important to the client
• Small, realistic and achievable
• Concrete, specific and behavioral
• Presence of something, rather than absence
• Expressed as beginnings, rather than endings
• Requiring hard work
Interviewing Ideas
• Past successes
• Pre-session changes
• Exceptions
• Miracle question
• Scaling questions
• Coping questions
• Reframing

Typical First session

• Opening: social introductions, structure session – what are the goals of today’s session? How
would you like to use this session? Develop an agenda
• Collect Complaints – learn more about the problem
• Rank complaints – prioritize
• Discuss exceptions – were there instances when you did not had this problem – incidences
where they dealt with the problem successfully

Session Structure
• Miracle question process
• Exceptions/ pre-session changes
• Identify goals
• Scales: situation now, willingness to fix problem, confidence
• Anything else/ break
• Closing message

Subsequent sessions
• Less time spent on complaints
• More time on exceptions and solutions
• Opening: What’s different this week from last
• Exceptions: elicit, recognize, discuss, amplify
• Scaling: accentuate any improvements (what level of distress with this problem)
• Therapeutic break – time for reflection and consider the task for next week
• Compliments and summary, tasks and homework (strategy you want them to try)

Questioning
• Be respectfully curious
• Ask questions as part of a conversation
• Not asked as a list of question
• Questions are the main intervention, not to gather information – with the intent to help them
gain insight
• Constructive questions generate new experience about possible solutions, client strengths and
capabilities
• Problem focused question: how long have you been depressed?
 • Solution focused: What would life be like if you weren’t depressed

Types of questions
• Goal setting questions
• Miracle questions
• Exception questions
• Coping questions
• Scaling question

Identifying Goals:
• What are your goals?
• How will you continue to accomplish goals
• How will you know when you got what you wanted from therapy
• What will be different
• Who will notice
• What will they notice?
• These help them develop their own goals

Miracle Questions:
• Dr Jonathan E Adler “What would be different if all your problems were solved?” – miracle
question
o What prevents you from reaching that goal
o Are there ways that you can steadily remove obstacles?
o Questions that lead the client themselves to accomplish and set their goals

Erickson’s crystal ball – (beginning of Video C)

• He asked clients to look into the future and see themselves as they wanted to be, problems
solved, and then to explain what had happened to cause this change to come about.
o Looking to the future imagining self better and what did you do to get there
• He also used technique whereby he asked them to think of a date in the future, then worked
backwards, asking them what had happened at various points on the way
• Other types of miracle questions: O’Hanlon’s videotape question (Video C 5:15), De Shazer’s
miracle question (sleep and when you wake up what will be different to tell you that the miracle
has taken place?) (Video C 5:25)
• What difference would you and others notice
• What are the first things you notice
• Has any of this ever happened before
• Would it help to recreate any of these miracles
• What would need to happen to do this? – signaling change

Five useful questions

• The miracle (magic wand) question
• Has anything been better since the last appointment? What’s changed? What’s better?
 • Can you think of a time in the past that you did not have this problem? What would have to
happen for that to occur more often?
• Scaling questions – on a scale of 1 to 10
• How do you manage to cope with everything that is going on? – if you cannot change the
situation you need to change how you can deal / cope with it

Assessment Questions
Identify problems and exceptions:

• When doesn’t the problem happen?

• What’s different about those times?
• What are you doing or thinking differently during the good times?
• Was there a time when you felt really good about yourself and what do you need to do to
recreate that time / experience?
• What do you want to change about the problem?

Coping Questions (current problems)

• How do you cope?
• What keeps you going? Positive question
• How do you manage day to day?
• Who is your greatest support? (might be a good idea to tap into that support) What do they do
that is helpful for you?
• This problem feels so difficult at the moment yet you still managed to get here today. What got
you here? – Noticing the good here - this means you can manage your life
• Sometimes problems tend to get worse. What do you do to stop it from getting worse?
• Behind each of these questions are statements.

Coping Questions (past problems)

• How did you get through that period?
• Who was your greatest support?
• How did they help?
• How did you manage to solve that problem in the past?
• Other people might have had more difficulty but you manage to survive. How did you manage
to achieve that?

Scaling questions
• One a scale of 1 to 10 – 1 being worst, 10 being after the miracle has happened
• Where are you now?
• Where do you need to be?
• What will help you move up one point?
• How can you keep yourself at that point?
Scaling Questions – standard
• On scale of 1-10 regarding achieving goals, where would you place yourself now?
• On scale 1-10, where would you place yourself today?

Scaling Questions – follow up

• What makes you think you got that far?
• What things have you done already that got you to this point?
• What do you think will move you one step further?
• What would be the first sign that you had moved one point further?
• Who would be the first to notice the change? What would they notice about you?

Exception questions:
• Tell me about the times when the complaint doesn’t occur or occurs less than other times
• When does your partner listen to you? (do more of that)
• Tell me about the days when you wake up more full of life?
• When are the times you managed to get everything done at work?
• Examining these positive instances and being able to replicate them

Exception Questions - Variations:

• When are the times when you came closest to…?
• When did you last wake up feeling quite good?
• When have you been able to stop yourself from doing…?
• Are there times when you expect to …. But you remember something that calms you down?

De Shazer’s skeleton keys

• Between now and next time, observe what works
• Do something different
• Pay attention to when problem happens and when there are exception to that problem
• Normalize – “a lot of people in your situation” – you are not the only one or the worst one in
this situation  you can get through it just like others  this gives hope
• Write, read and burn thoughts (burn the thoughts that are not working for them) – this is the
cognitive behavior element
• ALL INTERVENTIONS SHOULD GIVE HOPE, allow them to do something different, and keep
observing what is working and what is not working. Keep an eye on the solution

Module 18: Post-modernist theories cont: Positive Psychology and Narrative Psychology
Humanistic theory and solution focused therapy are both post modernistic theories

Positive Psychology:
• Trend and theme within psychology – not necessary a therapeutic strategy or technique
 • Movement that cut across theories – narrative therapy and solution focus therapy uses aspects
of positive psychology

Prevention of Helplessness
• Martin Seligman came up with Positive Psychology
• Concerned with avoiding human or learned helplessness and focused on happiness –
• How to strengthen individuals, how to make them and keep them happy. Reinforce those
trends. Looking at human beings as having the potential and already solutions to the problems
• positive view on human behavior and human being on the whole
• Early childhood is important but not a focus
• Invested in prevention – a primary mode of treatment for positive psychology – want to prevent
any disorder from coming about
• To prevent helplessness or a belief of helplessness
• Experiment – flies in covered jar. When lid removed they did not fly beyond it  they learned
that they could not exceed that ceiling (lid) despite it (barrier) being removed still feel helpless
• The best prevention for helplessness is early experience with mastery
• Regards early childhood as very important
• Based on life histories of people who were resilient in situations likely to cause helplessness
o Resilience needed to prevent helplessness
o Resiliency in their history– they were able to overcome previous trials and tribulation
• Self-Efficacy, competence already in existence, work on building it, served as buffer –
o Being able to utilized and build confidence
o Serves as buffer to helplessness - that person has strong self confidence and belief in
their own competence – avoid helplessness in their situations

Human Strengths
• Despite all the difficulties of life, majority of people manage to live with dignity and purpose –
o there is less disordered people than those who are doing well –
o look at the cup as half full instead of half empty (think positive)
• Positive psychology adopts a more optimistic perspective on human potential, motives and
capacities
• It is like humanistic psychology, without the techniques (empathetic etc) but with scientific
methods (humanistic don’t use scientific method)

Positive subjective states

• Positive emotions
• Happiness
• Satisfaction with life
• Optimism and hope
• Sources of energy and confidence
• Positive psychology is interested in bringing these states out of human beings – from Islamic
perspective – this will not suffice one for the afterlife (one can feel good and be doing a lot of
wrong – so do not transgress the limits of shariah)
A Brief history lesson
• Before WW2, psychology had better balance and focused on
o Treating mental illness, nurturing genius and talent,
o Studying normal life and happiness,
o Importance of relationships and group memberships,
o Leadership styles
o It was about helping a human being develop a balanced life
• After the war, the focus became treatment orientated,
o Focus on treatments for mental illness
o Soldiers were returning “combat fatigue” and PTSD,
o Money went into developing new treatments and dealing with depression and
psychosis,
o in 1955 drugs were introduced for the treatment of depression and psychosis
o Now went into treatment mode – into fixing problems. Mental health treatment

Education programs
• After war, more focus on helping children with developmental disabilities
• Gifted programs were encouraged but not funded - Exceptional children are on both ends of the
spectrum, nurture genius and talents needs to be nurtured
• Need to categorized children – who is gifted and who is not and put in their respective programs
• Dealing with PTSD - So became more assessment orientated, scientific and treatment
orientated – focus on mental retardation (effects of labeling where positive psychology taken a
stance – had they nurture genius and talents that would have been better than trying to
categorized individuals)

Expand focus
• Positive psychology wants to expand efforts to eliminate social problems such as drug abuse,
criminal behavior and mental illness,
• Studies the protective factors as well as risk factors, - look at what strengths individuals have
that prevent them from going into these situations
• Focus on positive emotions and traits that be used to combat problems
• Human beings are not all sick people they are good at heart – instead of asking what’s wrong ask
what is going good (strengths of individual) use these strength to fix the weak areas instead of
seeing them as a pathology and symptoms
• Movement in the post modernistic era.
• Islamically humans are seen as good natured (Fitrah) but struggle against their nafs and
shaytaan
o Within our dean we already have a balanced approach
o Human being seen as good natured but do have a pull (struggle with their nafs –
shaitaan as a test) – we will be held accountable for these
o Fix them and try to extract and develop the good within them

Risk and Protective Factors

 • Drug abuse risk factors – family history, negative peer influence, unemployment
• Protective factors – strong family values, positive peer influence, employment counseling
• Most people do not abuse alcohol, most gamblers can control themselves
• Focus on positives and hope rather than fear – there are lots of people who don’t use drugs and
have a good life

Shares the following ideas with Humanistic psychology:

• Abraham Maslow’s theory
• Positive instincts to fulfill human potential (kind of like the actualizing tendency)
• An internal strong motivating force to do good
• Be the best that they can be
• Self-actualization
• Client-centered therapy of Carl Rogers

Humanistic Psychology

Positive side Negative side

• Optimistic view of humankind • Non-scientific
• Human abilities • Philosophy rather than psychology
• Growth potential • Need evidence to support beliefs
• Healthy personality • Practical applications
• Pyramid of needs

Positive side of humanistic psychology according to positive psychology:

• Optimistic view of humankind
• Human abilities
• Growth potential
• Healthy personality
• Pyramid of needs

Negative side of humanistic psychology according to positive psychology:

• Non-scientific – Positive psychology wants to study the scientific aspect
• Philosophy rather than psychology
• Need evidence to support beliefs
• Practical applications

Emphasis on research in positive psychology:

• Most people adapt and adjust to life in creative ways
• Resilience: bounce back after loss, go beyond recovery, life takes on new meaning and focus
• Study this strength and resilience using scientific method (to find patterns of human being that
live and what characteristics contribute to that. Look at protective factors – how do people
bounce back and what characteristics make that happen
 • What makes life worth living
o From Islamic – the fact that one prepares for death and prepare to meet Allah
o Whosoever longs to meet Allah, Allah wants to meet them

Relationship with Maslow’s theory

• Fulfilling one’s potential sounds a lot like self actualization
• Maslow believed only a few people could reach self-actualization (goal of client centered to help
those who come for therapy reach that self actualization)
• Positive psychology has a wider view – most people reach potential (live meaningful life or at
potential and can become self actualized without client centered therapy)
• Average individuals hold potential
• Study regular people with large samples

Prevention over treatment:

• Positive psychology seeks to shift focus from treatment to prevention
• Help more people if we can prevent problems before they exist (primary goal), or intervene
before they get worse (secondary goals), treat them if necessary (tertiary goal)

Narrative Psychology – view of human nature:

• Assume that realities are socially constructed, there is no absolute reality – Muslims disagree
with that
• View people are healthy, competent, resourceful, and have the ability to construct solutions
and alternative stories to enhance their lives
• Help clients recognize their competencies and build on their potential, strengths and resources
• Even though we disagree with their view on human nature, can benefit from their techniques

Key concepts of narrative therapy

• Listen to clients with an open mind
• Encourage clients to share their stories
• Views human lives on narrative stories, everybody has a story
• Listen to a problem saturated story without getting stuck
• Therapists demonstrate respectful curiosity and persistence
• The person is not the problem, the problem is the problem ( they don’t see the problem within
the individual – eg not dealing with an angry or bad person but a person who is struggling with
anger or bad behavior

Therapeutic process in Narrative Therapy

• Collaborate with client to name the problem
• Separate person from the problem
• Investigate how the problem has been disrupting or dominating the person
• Search for exceptions to the problem ( kind a like solution focus)
 • Ask clients to speculate about what kind of future they could expect from the competent person
that is emerging (What behavioral changes do you expect? How do you expect to conquer this?)
• Create an audience to support the new story

Therapeutic Goals –
• Therapists invite clients to describe their experience in new language and facilitate the
discovery or creation of new options that are unique to them
o It’s a matter of perception and perceiving the positive and acting accordingly
o Treat others as though they are good they will behave good
• Example: treating students like they are dumb makes them perform badly in academics, treating
students as intelligent improves their performance

Narrative Therapist’s function and role

• To become active facilitators
• To demonstrate care, interest, respectful curiosity, openness, empathy, contact and fascination
• To adopt a not-knowing position that allows being guided by the client’s story (therapist is the
audience)
• To help clients construct a preferred alternative story
• To separate the problem from the people (instead of the person owning the problem)
• To create a collaborative relationship – with the client being the senior partner

Therapeutic relationship
• Emphasize the quality of therapeutic relationship, in particular therapists’ attitudes
• Client-as-expert, clients are the primary interpreters of their own experiences
• Therapists seek to understand client’s lived experiences and avoid effort to predict, interpret
and pathologize
• Will lead them to create their own stories

Therapeutic Techniques
• No recipe, no set agenda, no formula
• This approach is grounded in a philosophical framework
• Questions and more questions:
o questions are used as a way to generate experience, rather than gather information
o Asking questions can lead to separating person from problem, identifying preferred
directions and creating alternative stories to support these directions
o Shaping them through questions, interest, and engagement in the process
• Externalization and Deconstructions:
o Externalization is a process of separating the person from indentifying with the
problem (eg I am not anger; I am a person struggling with anger.)
o Externalizing conversations can lead clients to recognize times when they have dealt
successfully with the problem
 o Problem-saturated stories are deconstructed (taken apart) before new stories are co-
created

Externalizing exercise:
X is a trait or an emotion (anger, guilty, competitive, nitpicky etc.) – Fill in X with one of your emotions
and do this exercise
• How did you become X?
• What are you most X about?
• What kind of things happen that typically lead to your being X?
• When you are X, what do you do that you wouldn’t do if you weren’t X?
• What are the consequences for your life and relationships of being X?
• Which of your current difficulties come from being X?
• How is your self-image different when you are X?
• If by some miracle you woke some morning and you were not X anymore, how specifically,
would your life be different?
• The above questions makes it feel that X is part of you – internalizing

After answering / doing the above exercise

• Note the overall effect of answering these questions. How do you feel? What seems possible in
regards to this trait or emotion? What seems impossible? How does the future look in regards to
this?
• Now, let go of what you have just been doing. Take the same quality or trait that you worked
with above and make it into a noun. For example, of X was competitive, it would now become
competition, angry would become anger. In the following. Questions where we’ve written a Y
fill in your noun. Answer each of these questions to yourself.
• What made you vulnerable to the Y so that it was able to dominate your life?
• In what contexts is the Y most likely to take over?
• What kinds of things happen that typically lead to the Y taking over?
• What has the Y gotten you to do that is against your better judgment?
• What effect does the Y have on your life and relationships?
• How has the Y led you into the difficulties you are now experiencing?
• Does the Y blind you from noticing your resources or can you see them through it?
• Have there been times when you have been able to get the best of the Y? Times when the Y
could have taken over but you kept it out of the picture?
• The above questions makes it feel that Y is not part of you – you have the power to get rid of it –
externalizing

Second set of questions (Y) were intentionally externalizing – make it outside - noun – make it its own
being outside of you. Bring out the strength in the person
First set of questions (X) implies that you are that trait and that trait is part of you
A good question to ask someone is “Why would you do that to yourself?” – externalizing
Therapeutic Externalizing Question:
• Who was in charge at that moment, you or the problem?
• Who sides with the problem?
• What has X tried to get you to do lately that you didn’t want to do?
• How does X (guilt, anger etc) get between you and your husband?

Additional Therapeutic techniques

• Search for unique outcomes – successful stories regarding their problem
• Creating alternative stories –
o assumption is that people can continually and actively re-author their lives
o Invite clients to author alternative stories through unique outcomes
o An appreciative audience (therapist) helps new stories to take root:
 “How did you manage to do this? Can you give me some idea of what it took? –
appreciating the client – stamp the good they have done
 Did you almost chicken out? How did you keep going? – showing interest in
their story
 Were there things going on in other areas of your life which helped you to take
these steps? – recognizing their techniques
• Questions need to be tailored to your own style
• Documenting the evidence –
o Therapist write and send a letter/email to clients regarding their strengths and
accomplishments, alternative story, and unique outcomes or exceptions to the
problems – stamping the good, showing appreciation
o This is very powerful - to receive a letter with feedback and constructive criticism that
reinforces the positives they have and how they can use that to enhance some of the
difficulties they are having

From a multicultural perspective

• Contributions – fits with diverse worldview, clients provide their own interpretations of life
events
• Limitations – diverse clients may expect therapists as a expert instead of client-as-expert

Summary and evaluation

Contributions:
• Client-as-expert (not knowing position)
• View people as competent and able to create solutions and alternative stories
• Do not support the DSM labeling system
• A brief approach is good for managed care
• Studies provided preliminary support for the efficacy of solution focused brief therapy
Module 19: Integrative Behavioral Couples therapy (IBCT)

• Research proves that this method has a lot of benefits

• CBT is putting an increasing emphasis on acceptance based strategies which led to IBCT
• Big emphasis on assessment –
o couples therapy viewed as inappropriate when domestic violence involved
• Previously, couples therapy focused more on problem solving which led to blaming on the
therapist that taking one sided perspective , IBCT is less directive
• Acceptance based therapy is Design for less directive approaches while doing the work and
fixing the problem
• Look at what is the problem and conceptualized – CBT big on assessment, look at client what
their thinking is like – takes couple as one body as opposed to them individually

Goals of IBCT
• Improving communication –
o Acceptance based as opposed to problem solving – married couples probably not
communicating in an appropriate manner – so no resolution
o Slow down communication – which happens quickly esp. during conflicts – people make
interpretation of what others saying and quickly get into argument, emotions etc. Also
bring in other issues in one argument- everything happen so fast…
o IBCT - Allowing couples the forum to communicate and understand each other while
role of therapist is to directively facilitate that communication
o have one party mention their perceptive and ask other to reflect - teaching them
empathetic reflection
o don’t allow them to respond just tell them to give a summary and go back to the other
and ask if he got it correctly… to see if they understand each other.
o many couple problem is misunderstanding or misinterpreting the other spouse
• Increasing intimacy – reinforcement erosion –
o over a time, poor communication erodes positive energy and this leads to loss of
respect, dislike and falling out of love which leads to lack of intimacy
o While improving communication - removing the negative aspects and add/increase the
positive – move towards a healthy marriage again
• Accepting and understanding differences – empathy – two people coming from different
backgrounds will definitely have differences, understand the other’s perspective
o People from different background would have differences
o Need to humble self and accept and understand where the other person is coming from.

Conceptualization
• In assessment want to conceptualize the couple
o What are the destructive themes that are emerging in the relationship
o Do an analysis of these themes – begin to conceptualized what the problems are
 o After understanding what their problems are then you intervene
• The theme is a description of the couple’s primary overriding conflict,
• Some common themes are:
o Closeness vs distance – some may need their own space (distance) while others may
want to be closer.
o bilateral power vs unilateral power – traditional power struggle (wife may want to have
a say in decision)
o family oriented vs individual (private) oriented – one may want to do things as a family
(vacation as family) while other want their private time to do their own thing
o All this is on a continuum
o When there is a miss-match between these theme – problems can occur – want to
conceptualized these

Polarization process
• Describes the interactions that occur – the patterns of their thoughts, words and actions that
arise in their conflicts (can think of this as the situation, automatic thoughts or beliefs and
reactions)
• Therapist wants to see what create the distance between them – what polarized the couples
• Conceptualizing the pattern between each of their thoughts
• Thoughts emerge, then words (saying things to each other) then they do things to each other

Mutual Trap
• This is the experience that most couple experience prior to seeing a counselor
• Is the unsatisfactory and unhelpful outcome of the conflict that leaves each person feeling
STUCK or trapped and unable to resolve the conflict. Hence, a cycle of repetition of the conflict.
(they don’t realize what is causing the conflict)
• Couples are not able to conceptualized the problem – they cannot see the reinforcement
erosion –The couples can’t see the communication gaps, nor their problem with their intimacy,
• They may understand portion but not see how all this is contributing to a cycle – a destructive
cycle of behavior that leave them to feeling stuck or trapped
• The problem is that they feel what they are doing will help their problem – but using the same
technique is making the problem worse – so they feel stuck and blame the other partner

IBCT Intervention
Techniques for building acceptance:
• Empathetic joining – helping each person to understand and have empathy for the other’s
perspective (communication strategy – so they able to understand where the other person is
coming from)
• Detachment from the problem – helping the couple to describe and discuss the problems
without placing blame on one another. The problem becomes ‘it’, instead of ‘you’
o Example - Recognize that communication is a problem and it needs to rectify – this way
they do not become defensive
 o It’s not your partner is the problem nor you – but it is the problem that is the problem –
poor strategy employed we need to look at different strategy / ways to make it better
• Tolerance building – helping each other to see the positive aspects of the other’s behavior or
perspective, looking at how the differences complement each other, finding ways to be resilient
when the other displays the negative behavior
o We are usually focus on the negatives of the other person – so have to learn to look for
the positive in each other
o Builds more tolerance and gives more energy to be able to resolve the relationship

Strategies for behavior change:

• Behavior exchange – identify positive behaviors that each person can do for the other,
regardless of the other’s behavior. (that is, one’s commitment on doing positive cannot be
dependent on the other’s commitment to do the same) – in order to be successful in a
marriage, have zero expectations – so when the person does something you are happy and you
are thankful
o We need to be humble – not have pride to change until other change
o Do it because this is the correct thing to do – do it to please Allah
o This change the dynamics – if both are selfless then both will appreciate the changes of
each other
o They both make the commitment to change with the therapist – not with each other.
o In Islam – let the couples make this commitment / promise with Allah and remind them
to make duas
• Communication training – to increase both listener and speaker skills
• Problem solving training – to learn how to identify/define problems, increase solution
possibilities, evaluate the solutions and discuss outcomes
o Suggest, offer advice solutions – but don’t do it all the time and for them to be
dependent on you – offer suggestions when they are stuck
o Goal is communication building, intimacy and tolerance building. Acceptance and
understanding differences

Other approaches to Integrate

• John Gattman’s four horsemen. It presents a positive predictor of divorce in up to 85% of
couples’ cases. These are four main causes of divorce (in stages, sequence):
1. Criticism – both criticize each other
2. Contempt – sigh, or roll eyes communicating to the other person that what they are
saying is non-sense
3. Defensiveness – more entrenched in their views - now both parties are physiologically
elevated and both going at each other – neither one can see the other’s perspective.
They are both upset and angry with each other. No one want to walk away from the
fight
 4. Stonewalling (usually men do this) – reinforcement erosion makes it worse – so stop
talking. Too stressed out cannot continue the conversation. Women do it in a different
way – they hyperventilate, cry and can’t look at the other person and walk away.
• Every couple has problems, need to find compromises
• All marriages have difference between the spouses; the differences between the good and bad
ones is that the healthy marriage have worked out a manner or sequence in dealing with those
problem areas so that they are not so problematic anymore. They have accepted the
differences. It’s ok not to come to a resolution.
• Example – if issues with in-laws  they come to a way of dealing with this issue that is effective
– they have unspoken rules

• Reinforcement erosion – couple in beginning has positive energy and you get rid of these 4
qualities then can solve the problem and mend the relationship

Module 20: Marital Therapy with Muslim Clients: Pre-Marital Counseling

Session 20 – Slides 1 to 7 – Premarital counseling

Pre-marital considerations –
• Divorce statistics among Muslims in the west is slightly less but similar to normative population
• Lots of problems for young married couples
• 50% of marriages end in divorce for an average American
• 67 % likely hood divorce in a 40 year life span of marriage
• 25% of marriages which take place before age 25 actually survive
• Major problem is in choice of spouse and how to choose the right spouse
• Dilemma over arranged vs choice marriages and an ability to reconcile between the two
• Traditional Muslims want arranged marriage, modern Muslims wants choice and pre-marital
relationships
• Choice marriages – based on cultural notions in forced manner not considerate of context nor
shariah  challenges and difficulties for Muslims – young Muslims want this way
• First generation participants had a higher marriage rate, were more likely to be married within
the same generational level and same ethnicity, and the lowest percentage of marital age gap of
less than 5 years
• Marriage between immigrants and western Muslims leads to culture clashes (clash of ideas,
customs, expectation, personality and how they approach marriages is different)
• Most first generation marriages stay within their ethnicity – second generation have inter-racial
marriages (more connected to those who are Muslims (of different ethnicity) than to those with
same ethnicity)

Arranged Marriages vs Choice Marriages

• Choice marriages – founded on the idea is to get to know spouse before marriage, have a
relationship prior to marriage, know their values, thoughts, how they are at home etc. in this
case cohabitation should work but studies show this is not the case
• Cohabitation prior to marriage fairs worse for the success of a marriage (Lemme, 2006)
• Cohabitation can lead to divorce - choice marriages founded on this principle of cohabitation
has no basis.
• Arranged marriages seem to yield higher in their scores of love in the long term than choice
marriages (Gupta & Singh, 1982; Yelsma & Athappilly, 1988)
• Choice marriages is sometimes mostly based on lust not love
• Some studies find no difference between the two –shows that arrange marriages can be
successful and choice marriages are not preferable over arrange marriages.
• These statistics help in dealing with youth who believe in marriage based on love
• Asian American Indians report higher levels of marital satisfaction then both Asian Indians and
Americans
• Asian American youth tend to co-operate and consider their families views while demanding
more autonomy than they are afforded. This results in the re-creation of their culture leading to
positive marital satisfaction rates. (balanced between the forced marriage on Indians and
freedom of Americans, combines the good of both) – they don’t blindly follow either
• Two stages of love – passionate and companionship love.
o Love before marriage is passionate and clouds our decision making processes.
o There are many goals and values that need to be worked out before marriage which
people in love overlook
o If you are selecting based upon emotional reasoning you may be making a clouded
judgment – your love for something blinds and deafens – Hadeeth
• We need to find someone similar to us, the more similar the better chance of the marriage
working
• Arranged marriages are indented to match based on similarity
• Literature shows that - The person who is more similar to you will yield the best marital
companion – less synchronizing necessary because have similar values, habits, language, culture,
family match  more similarity – better chance marriage may last
• Opposites don’t attract. It may be the case in the beginning but it does not last long
• Marital Satisfaction among women who harbor values of traditional marital roles are resistant to
the dip in marital satisfaction that takes place among women who hold egalitarian views about
marriage after the birth of the first child
• In the West, marriage tends to take a dip after the birth of the first child due to the women’s
belief that the man needs to equally look after the child as they do – they women feel they
husband need to wake up as much as they wake up at night and do equal - these expectations
are not realistic
• Men don’t have same amount of patience like women, nor do they have the same level of
nurturing
 • Women with traditional belief in marital role – take on the role as a mother – and they don’t
expect their husband to help. If husband help they are happy, if they don’t help it is not a
problem like the case of the Western women.

Premarital counseling
• Parents should look for spouses with similarities but at the same time not for them spending too
much time together alone. Allow them the opportunity to get to know each other in halal means
• Ask questions, values, goals, what marriage means to them. Look for compatibility between the
two
• Needs of child should be met plus within the Shariah
• Make healthy decisions that would lead to healthy marriages
• Society based upon community, community based upon families and families are based upon
marriages and marriages based upon individuals
• Work on individuals and families to build a good society
• Set guidelines from Islamic perspective as to how to handle conflict. Conflict resolution – use
Quran and Sunnah to arbitrate between them or go to a righteous pious learned scholar
• Attempt to live within in the sunnah and the principles of Islam not just the fatawa (not just
what’s permissible) but try to create Rahma (mercy) between the couple in this relationship
• Recognize their personality variables and factors – administer a personality test – Neo-pi-R
online test. To see how their personality matches

A Balanced Approach
• Romantic passionate love vs rationality
o Saying from the Prophetic and defeaning tradition with Islam: “You love for a thing
causes is blinding and defeaning.
• Similarities tend to increase liking and the self-serving bias is shown to increase marital
satisfaction.
o The more similar, the more involvement
o Individuals are matched in arranged marriages in similarity across many domains
• Parents need to assist but the youngsters need to interact enough to check for compatibility
without crossing the line
• Doing a personality test for both potential spouses can help work out their compatibility

Module 21: Marital Therapy:

Education about the counseling process –
• Many Muslims don’t understand what a counselor does. Explain in a language they can
understand – let them know what “counselor” means. Better not to use the word
‘psychotherapist’
• Socializing them to the counseling process – tell them what you do and what to expect
• Normalizing counseling – it isn’t abnormal or bad to go for counseling, there is nothing wrong
with you for going for counseling, your marriage isn’t the worst,
 o Externalize the problems – make the person feel that they can change, modify the
problem. If it is internal – they feel the problem is them and they cannot succeed.
o Externalize it and let them know that there are techniques to dealing with the problem
o many others go through similar experience – they are not alone
o today a happy marriage is the exception to the rule, rather than the norm
• Not arbitration like a lawyer – counselor doesn’t give fatwa either,
o doesn’t deal with legal issues, or don’t deal with custody issue
o good to go through the goals of counseling with the couple – if using IBCT model inform
them of the goals - increase communication, acceptance building, increase intimacy
o Advice is good but not the main thing in counseling – you would not be telling then who
is right and who is wrong.
o You are not solving all their problems but you will help them to solve their problems
• Active guide – not passive, going to give them techniques, show them how to do things, how to
communicate
o Process orientated not content
o May talk about Gattman’s four horsemen – criticism, contempt, defensiveness,
stonewalling
o Intake session is intended to screen out if therapy is a good fit for them – if it is a legal
issue and you cannot deal with it then you have to let them know
• Forum to increase self-awareness – understand your own issues and have certain things bother
you
o You will help them to be more aware of themselves and their actions and how that
contribute to the marriage
o Be aware of the cycles
• Process oriented

Taking personal responsibility

• Responsibility of change lies with them – do not expect miracles to happen
• Forum for information, advice, help towards steps to change

Islamic Ethics
• Integration of a religious framework –
o many Muslims won’t attend counseling because they prefer religious guidance
o Session of Rights and responsibilities on the different spouses – from a Sheikh
o How do they fit in – what are they doing what are they not doing
o discuss rights and responsibilities of the spouses and discuss where they are falling
short in this
• Have resources on hand – collaborative care
o Fiqh issues related to marriage –
 child custody, validity of divorce, khula, domestic violence
• Deen can be used as a powerful source to dispel faulty cognitions
o Re-educate about roles and responsibilities in relationship
  Obstacle – they may challenge you and you are not a religious authority –
potential for power struggle. Their challenge is more of an issue of them being
resistant to change / suggestions
 Bring up the theme / process of what is going on
 Share your logic as to why you are saying what you are saying
 Defer to the scholars – be tentative with your language
o Marriage according to Taqwa, not Fatwa – adorn your marriage based on usool, rahmah
and the Sunnah
 Not focus on permissibility only – or rights and responsibilities only– good to
have consultation
 Collaborative decision
• Don’t fall into the trap of saying who’s right and wrong
o Will fall in imbalance situation – the person may feel you are taking the other person’s
side
o Most issues are relational and appear religious. This is the surface issue (the content)
o Try to understand and find the core/underlying issue
o The biggest issue: NOT being heard - leading to inability to compromise. Empathy does
not equal agreement.
o We want to rectify the marriage so that it is conducive to following Quran and Sunnah
o Need to hear them out, many times the problem is lack of communication and not
disobedience
• Ask about sexual intimacy – even though it is taboo, this needs to be done strategically
o Level of Sexual intimacy can be diagnostic of the current state of their relationship
o It can be the issue or a result of other issues
o Not engage for long period of time – serious problem in relationship
o Good intimacy but with some issues – then there is lots of positive to work with
• Help undo reinforcement erosion. Help them redevelop or even develop positives in
relationship.
• Sometimes lack of intimacy is caused by other problems, sometimes it is the cause of the
problems, sometimes the wife just does it to fulfill obligation without love. Loving intimacy
indicates positive energy in the marriage. If the man just fulfills his needs on his wife, this would
cause problems. Men and women have different sexual needs. Often it is the men who are
unable to sexually fulfill their wives. May have to isolate the couples and counsel them
• Roles of duty to each other
• Easier to act upon shariah if you have love for your spouse
• Use shaping – little increment of times together – start with just 10 minutes together talking
(some spouses don’t talk with each other because they are too busy, too tired etc.)
• Many Asian Muslims do these things as duties, instead of out of love and this causes problems
• Sometimes they just need to take up time to talk to each other everyday
• If husband and wife don’t want to spend time together, it’s a sign of a bigger problem.
Module 22: Family Systems Theory

Major Difference between Individual Model and Family Systems Models

• Psychology focus for a long time on the individual – a contrast between the east and west
• An individual model sees problems as residing within an individual i.e. psychopathology
• A family systems model sees problems as being imbedded within, and created by a family
structure, i.e. intergenerational or present day context.
• An individual, living within a context of a family, if they are acting out or suffering with a mental
illness, it could be because the family itself is dysfunctional. Aspect of that system continues and
perpetrates that behavior.
• People don’t act in isolation, families contribute to our behavior and way of thinking
• An individual is part of a system (family system) and that system has an effect on his or her
behavior – this is the major difference between individual psychology and family system
psychology
• Families operate as a system. Just like any other system, there are patterns, structures, rules
and roles that are played out in order to maintain this system. Each family is unique in the
dynamics that are developed in forming this system.
• Everyone in the system contributes towards the success/problem of the entire system
• Just like a business is a system and any disruption could psychologically affect the workers.
Families function similarly. Same applies to country systems and a variety of other systems.
Nothing happens in isolation.
• A system is a series of inter-related, interdependent, interconnected parts whose whole is
greater than the sum of its parts eg a car – every single part contribute to definition of a car
• Systems thinking have its foundation in the field of system dynamics, founded in 1956 by MIT
professor Jay Forester. (looking at computer systems)
• The approach of systems thinking is fundamentally different from that of traditional forms of
analysis. Traditional analysis focuses on separating the individual pieces of what is being studied.
In fact, the word “analysis” actually comes from the root meaning “to break into constituent
parts”. Systems thinking focus on how the object to be studied interacts with the other parts of
the system of which it is a part.
• Bateson’s Mind – Relationships (groups) have a mind also. It regulates behavior within and
between the members of the system under observation, and with interactions with those
outside.
o The system itself has a mind of its own
o Each of the individual member feels like this family has a mind of its own - combination
of behaviors of all individual creates a direction as if it has a mind of its own

Systemic Concepts
• Holen – one smaller piece of the system has all the information needed to reconstruct the larger
part system.
 • A group of smaller subsystems whose purpose is to reproduce themselves with as much
integrity of the larger system as possible.
o Holen is like DNA. Could be like an offspring. Children replicate what their parents do
o We internalize a lot of what our parents has given us
• Systems are regulated by cybernetic principles, feedback, either negative (don’t change) or
positive (change). Eg: Children tend to emulate their parents even if they say they won’t. Islamic
example: the name your parents give you effect your behavior
o Homeostasis – like to maintain the system as it is

Feedback loop – (Cybernetics)

• Information is processed, compared against the setting that has been established, and maintains
the behavior of the organism (couple, family, kinship, culture, nation, etc) by giving messages to
either continue the course change, or to stay within the established parameters.
o Homeostasis – like a thermostat comes on to maintain the comfortable temperature -
family do things to stay within their comfortable set norms
o Families develop patterns which may be good or bad and don’t like to change, are afraid
of change. We need to evaluate patterns and see what function they serve, and decide if
change is good or bad.
o Families develop pattern – Patterns may or may not be functional – and change is scary.
o Child act out when family has problem, when no problem child does not act out
o Aspects of the system heightened in order to compensate for the discrepancy between
the way the pattern was set for the family should be
o Sick child –ask to see the entire family, what are their patterns
• A common problem arises. Where the roles and patterns of the marriage or a family have not
been negotiated or agreed upon. Often due to the differing personalities of the individuals
within the family and the roles that they play, patterns emerge within the family and become
the norm.
o Problem – sometimes patterns are not developed consciously
• The patterns may be dysfunctional or unsatisfactory to some of the members within the family.
• Important to note that families are RESISTANT to change.
• Once these patterns develop, they serve a purpose, and if a member attempts to rock the boat,
there will be consequences from other family members to maintain the pattern EVEN IF it is
dysfunctional.

More Systemic Thinking

• Open systems (involve others with family issues) VS close systems (private, don’t talk about their
problems to others)
• Homeostasis – tendency for systems to return to the previous state
• Homeodynamic – tendency for systems to remain in the same form while evolving to the next
logical type (slow change without rocking the boat too hard)
 o More functional in that you can evolve from a current dysfunctional stage to a more
functional stage in a logical manner without having a drastic change – can be achieved
through incremental change
• Change is not difficult, change is inevitable
• Systems are considered processors of information or energy.
• Systems are either open or closed. Information either gets in or not. (open systems are more
open to therapy; closed system more difficult to get in )
• Systems thinking are not linear, as cause and effect, but are circular, recursive and multi-causal.
Within living systems, linearity is curbed by the system’s internal process.
• From a systemic point of view, a symptom is a sign that the system is in need of, or in the
process of change. It is not necessarily pathology. Family therapists don’t like to think in terms
of psychopathology.
• All family therapy models view flexibility as essential to healthy family functioning.
o If rigid – child can run away
o Symptoms are signaling that need to try something else – be more flexible

Dimensions of families:
Target dimensions –
1. Meaning:
• What are the family values?
• What the goals of the family?
• When others look at your family, what will they see?
• What are the beliefs in relation to marriage?
• Answering these questions, brings meaning to the family

2. Emotion:
• How is emotion regulated?
• Who is allowed to show emotion and who is not?
• What types of emotion are permissible or impermissible? Eg: Husband cannot be sensitive
• How is it expressed?

3. Power:
• What is the hierarchy, if one?
• Who makes the decisions and/or what kind of decisions?
• Who is the gatekeeper? (gatekeeper is one who decides who can come into the family etc)
• How is power utilized? Eg: emotional coercion

Access Dimensions
1. Space:
• What are the boundaries? Who is allowed to have privacy? Do husband and wife have some
privacy?
• How much privacy is permitted? – do you close doors in the rooms?
 • What boundaries exist between your family and others? (extended family, friends, others)

2. Energy:
• What are the things that fuel you and your family? – is it deen, going on vacation, listening to
lectures, spending time with children, what are the positive things?)
• What things are draining? – Too much stress, fighting, in-laws etc.
• When are you energized, how often? – Develop ways of creating the positive energy in the
family.

3. Time:
• Clocking – What are people’s schedules? Do they have one? Eg: scheduling family time
• Synchronizing – how do you or don’t you synchronize? Eg: When leaving for an outing, who is
the first to get ready and out?
• Orienting – Past, Present, Future
• Is your spouse/parent
o past oriented (focus on tradition, how things used to be, talk about memories) – may
want to spend all the money now, having vacation now
o present oriented (live each day for each day, moment by moment),
o Future oriented (focused on goals, next steps, living for a better tomorrow)
• Personality orientation – acceptance, complementary and striking a balance – sometimes can be
present orientated, sometime past orientated and sometime future orientated
• We have to be complimentary of each other.
• Be self aware of our orientation as well as our spouse’s orientation

Conclusion
• This is a good way of looking at things, and very islamically acceptable.
• Individuals make families and families make community and community make nations
• Look at it as multifaceted and as patterns as opposed to blaming on one individual
• Understanding systems helps us understand the complexity of our community, and we won’t
oversimplify problems.
• System theory is good approach

Module 23: Group Therapy:

• Humans have been grouped since beginning of time, humans are social by nature
• Groups have a power dynamic very different from that of individuals relationship
• We are a social creature - grouping since beginning of time
• Weapon outside of intellect – being social, having language being able to speak with each other,
cooperate with each other and form groups – this have curative elements
• Worst punishment of human being is to isolate him – take away ability to have social contact
• Group can be powerful and formation of therapeutic group is intended to offer a positive forum
- to rectify, reform and develop behavior
 • Prophet formed a group with him being the leader. Sahaba were a group and the prophet was
their leader. He would spend time in isolation though (i.e. itikaaf)
• Although groups are good, dependency on groups are a bad thing
• We maintain and choose groups based on whether they are following Quran and Sunnah and
are beneficial to us
• Go in itikaaf to break dependency on group and to be alone with his Lord
• Groups can help people overcome illness, groups can help encourage us to do good
• Groups are formed in order to match individuals based upon specific issues – similar individuals
struggling with similar illness are placed in the same group – people at different stages (of
addiction) gets support from each other – all aiming / struggling towards same goal.
o Group – encouraging each other
o Feel sense of belonging and would return to the goal that is reinforced by the group

History:
• Group counseling in the US can be traced back to late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
when millions of immigrants moved to American shores.
• Most of these immigrants settled in large cities and organizations such as Hull House in Chicago
were founded to assist them adjust to life in the US. Known as settlement houses, these
agencies helped immigrants groups lobby for better housing, working conditions, and
recreational facilities.
• These early social work groups valued group participation, the democratic process and personal
growth.
• Groups at that time provided a sense of support, sense of safety, a form of information and
education and suggestions as to how an individual might be able to adjust to their new setting
• Some early psychoanalysts, especially Alfred Adler, a student of Sigmund Freud, believed that
many individual problems were social in origin. In the 1930s, Adler encouraged his patients to
meet in groups to provide mutual support.
o Adjustment, cultural shock are all based on social factors
o Problems social in origin so cures provided as social in origin
• At around the same time, social work groups began forming in mental hospitals, child guidance
clinics, prisons and public assistance agencies.
o Meeting in groups seems to be very effective

Why people choose group counseling?

• Group counseling offers multiple relationships to assist an individual in growth and problem
solving. In group counseling sessions, members are encouraged to discuss the issues that
brought them into counseling openly and honestly. The facilitator works to create an
atmosphere of trust and acceptance (needs of belonging) that encourage members to support
one another. (social support network – very beneficial)
• Unlike two person relationship founded in individual counseling, group counseling offers
multiple relationships to assist the individual in growth and problem solving.
 • Counseling groups exist to help individuals grow emotionally and solve personal problems. All
utilize the power of the group, as well as the facilitator who leads it, in this process.

Therapeutic Change
• Dr Irvin Yalom, Psychiatrist, identified 11 ‘curative factors’ that are the primary agent of change
in group therapy, they are:
1. Instillation of hope – others like me that have the same problem and they have
conquered it
2. Universality – universal set of issues and solution
3. Imparting of information – others give you info that you lack
4. Altruism – sense of selflessness – can give to other – feeling of satisfaction
5. Corrective Recapitulation of primary family – find group to be a redevelopment of
family, support in group so feels like this group is your family (like a replacement family)
6. Improved social skills – opportunity to interact with others and feedback on their social
skills (process and content orientated). Can modify interaction in a healthy manner
7. Imitative behavior – imitate one with good social skills – positive imitation (exemplified
with the Sahaba and Prophet – Sahaba imitates the Prophet)
8. Interpersonal Learning – learn how to be effective. Destructive ways of interacting can
be corrected
9. Group Cohesiveness – feeling like one body
10. Catharsis (sense of relief)
11. Existential Factors – looking at one self and create personal meaning

Group counseling in schools

• Conduct a needs assessment (find out what the school needs, what will they benefit from –
culture, dynamic of school, and form a group to deal with that)
• Tell students about the group. One way to do this is to mention the group(s) in classrooms
• Inform administrators and teachers
• Obtain parent/guardian consent – signature of parents necessary when dealing with minors
• Screen potential group members (make sure the person is a good fit for the group)
• Select group members – if person not fit for group then that’s poor selection. They should have
similar problems otherwise effectiveness of group is lost
• Use an evaluation procedure that will demonstrate the effectiveness of the group – measure
how things are going along the way. Want to see incremental differences as the week go along
– moving towards your goals

Rationale for group counseling: what to avoid –

“If I facilitate a group, I can see more students at one time with the same problem” –
• Not the way to regulate the group. You do not want to see someone for your convenience
• Develop group based on the need – need of group and need of individual

Group membership –
 • Individuals that share a common problem or concern are often good candidates for group
counseling, where they can share their mutual struggles and feelings
• In schools, groups for students who have or are currently experiencing their parents’ divorce,
grief/loss, social skills deficiencies
• Consider the age, grade level and gender when choosing students for the group (similar yet have
people at different stages)
• Similar the better the cohesion
• Need people with different level of experience – so that they can benefit from each other

Group membership which is not recommended –

• children who are suicidal or who have a psychiatric diagnosis that indicates a need for therapy,
or are the midst of the major life crisis are not typically placed in group counseling until their
behavior and emotional states have stabilized
1. these need individual attention
2. they are not suitable for group – may disrupt group
• People with severe cognitive impairments may also be poor candidates for group counseling, as
are patients with sociopathic traits, who show little ability to empathize with others
1. Hard for them to learn within group interaction
2. Slower in learning – so need individual attention
3. Sociopath or narcissistic - they don’t have the ability to emphasize with other nor to see
things from others perspective – so can be destructive to the group and would not be
beneficial to them
• Siblings or relatives shouldn’t be placed in the same group
• Children who habitually lie or steal – because we want honest and open interaction
• Children who are victims of abuse – don’t what to share this with group members. It can lead
one to be psychologically unstable if not healed individually. Can be in group at a later stage of
healing
• Children who are so different from the others that they may not be accepted
• Children who are extremely aggressive – will disrupt the group, prevent group cohesion

Forming the group

• Some students may participate in both individual and group counseling – both can be
beneficial for student
• Before a student joins, the facilitator should interview the child to see a good fit between their
needs and the group’s needs.
• The student should be given preliminary information before sessions begin, such as guidelines
and ground rules, and information about the problem on which the group is focused – shape
and develop and define rules. Define the process, how people allow to interact and how not to
interact

Group Construction
• Therapy groups may be homogeneous or heterogeneous
 • Homogeneous groups have members with similar presenting issues (for example, they may all
have parents who are divorced)
• Heterogeneous groups contain a mix of individuals with different presenting issues – they may
have insight on how to conquer a problem that can be beneficial to others
• The number of group members typically ranges from five to ten. (more than ten, it becomes
more like a class as opposed to a group)
• The number of sessions depends on the group’s makeup, goals and settings
• Some are time limited, with a predetermined number of sessions known to all members at the
beginning
• Others are indeterminate, and the group/counselor determines when the group is ready to
disband – more natural approach
• Membership may be closed (no one allowed to join – for sensitive issues) or open to new
members depending on sensitivity of topic
• Plan for the group: one fun exercise and one structured activity
1. Educational groups – support group
2. Structured – write, think, select thing
3. Experiential component - Less structured – discussion topics or ideas and see how they
respond

Prevention Groups
• Groups for prevention may be strictly informational, concerned with providing information on
subjects timely to adolescents such as peer pressure or decision making
• Or they may be designed to help students improve their coping skills through such techniques
as problem-solving or the reframing of situations

Friendship groups
Objectives
• Analyze how to make friends
• Identify important qualities of a friend
• Understand common friendship problems
• Learn how to manage conflicts
• Develop a plan to improve friendships
• Best used with adolescence or children often with someone who they respect – not an older
person telling them who to make friends with and who not to make friends with

Drug and alcohol prevention groups

Objectives:
• learn dangers of drugs and alcohol
• Understand and utilize the problem solving model
• Learn refusal skills
• Identify ways to have fun and keep friends while staying out of trouble
 • Develop a plan to handle peer pressure

Intervention groups
• Groups concerned with specific problems and their resolution
• Grief/loss
• Parental divorce/separation
• Social skills
• Anger (selectively)
• Attendance (selectively)
• Not appropriate: eating disorders, self injury, - (feed off/learn from each other) bullying, and
others that require the behavior for group membership

Grief/Loss group
Objectives –
• Express feelings about loss – allow for catharsis, speak their mind
• People need to let out their emotions and thoughts to gain closure and heal the situation
• Mention the good times, the bad, fears, worries etc.
• Learn five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance - DABDA)
• Discuss happy memories
• Identify ways to handle stress and loss

Family Groups (Divorce/Separation)

Objectives –
• Express feelings about changing family – feel connected to others because they went though it
before
• Understand that divorce/separation is not child’s fault
• Identify common problems associated with divorce/separation
• Understand positive ways family and group members can help in adjustment

Anger Management Groups

Objectives
• Identify factors that cause anger – triggers
• Understand the consequences of irrational behavior when angry (intention of anger is to
removes stress but when this does not happen we should stop using it)
• Examine why some situations make everyone mad and others do not – what are the triggers and
why
• Identify anger reduction techniques

Conflict Management Groups

Objectives
• Identify feelings and appropriately express them
• Learn Win/Win resolutions ( it is not that you win and someone else lose – both win)
 • Speak clearly – to prevent miscommunication
• Understand others point of view (be empathic)
• Learn how to talk out conflicts

Getting started with a group

• Students are encouraged to discuss the issues that brought them into the group openly and
honestly. Physical and Emotional safety.
• The counselor/Facilitator works to create an atmosphere of trust and acceptance that
encourages members to support one another
• Ground rules must be set at the beginning, such as maintaining confidentiality of group
discussions, showing respect for each other, taking turns talking, etc. (students assist in creating
rules)

Role of the facilitator

• The counselor facilitates the group process, the effective functioning of the group, and guides
individuals in self-discovery – goal is self awareness – help them understand themselves
1. Give others within the group an opportunity to give their perspective / answer the
question
2. Let them feel you are part of the group
3. Can offer some disclosure but not too much
• Depending on the group’s goals, sessions may be either highly structured or fluid and relatively
undirected
• Typically, the facilitator steers a middle course, providing direction when the group gets off
track, yet letting members set their own agenda. (Want to set group culture, start with Hadeeth
or end with a dua, if Muslim group – feel belonging, connectedness etc)
• The facilitator should guide by reinforcing the positive behaviors they engage in. For example, if
one student shows empathy and supportive listening to another, the facilitator should
compliment them and explain the value of that behavior to the group.
• The facilitator should emphasize the commonalities among the members during each session to
instill a sense of group identity

Facilitator Tasks and Techniques

• Careful planning – selection, group composition, creation of group
• Careful observation of group process –
1. formative stages – how are things at the beginning
2. prevent sub-grouping –
3. stop/prevent conflict – manage the conflict, notice it and catch it early and point it out
4. Self-disclosure – notice how much self disclosure people are making or not making – if
one is quiet check in with that person. Invite them to speak
5. termination (how to end it) – how to facilitate ending of group
6. problem behaviors – deal with it strategically
Formative group stages
1. Initial stage –
• orientation,
• dispelling hesitant participation,
• search for meaning – if Muslim goal could be to follow Quran and Sunnah and want to help each
other,
• dependency – at beginning there is a healthy level but they should develop independence

2. Second Stage –
• Conflict - some will emerge questioning importance of group – deal with this strategically
without getting into a power struggle
• Dominance – want to speak all the time – let them know what they are saying is really valuable
but want to give others opportunity to speak
• Rebellion – Why doing this? What is the point in this group? Is there any healing? Feeling of
ambivalence
3. Third Stage – Development of Cohesion - people feel yea this is something I belong to
4. Fourth Stage – Termination/Transparency

Sub-grouping
• Fractionalization – splitting off of smaller units – extra group socialization – cliques of 3-4,
coalitions form within the group
• Inevitable often if disruptive event in life of group
• If used properly, may further work of group – want to show them – tell them we agree we want
to develop cohesion – this is what is happening – what is the conflict and how to solve – can
serve as a source of healing

Conflict:
• Inevitable, absence suggests impairment of developmental sequence
• Two step process includes:
1. Experience (affect expression – I feel angry, I feel like this…)
2. understanding of that experience ( someone else say I understand or lack of
understanding) – lack of understanding can lead to conflict - owing your feelings and try
to understand the feeling of the other
• Can control conflict by having members switch from 1 to 2 – request group discuss their
experience and understand it, this can lead to expressing anger more directly (teach them to
communicate to resolve conflict)

Self-Disclosure
• Involves some risk on part of discloser
• As disclosure proceeds in a group, entire membership gradually increase its involvement,
responsibility and obligation to one another
• It is a good thing – feel closer to the person you disclose to.
 • When one disclose – others will feel to do the same – feel they know each other - so group feel
cohesion

Resistance and drop outs

• Facilitators must check-in with students individually to assess the value of group participation
(difficulty communicating in a group setting, unable to handle aggressive/hostile comments
from other members) – if someone is silent check in with that person. Maybe even mention it in
the group
• On-going assessment of group participation during the group – assess if they don’t show up or
don’t participate
• Recognize the role of each member of the group – how role affect group

Termination
• Groups terminate for various reasons
• Brief therapy – preset termination dates
• Counselor’s role is to:
1. keep task in focus for members – don’t let them run away from termination
2. remind group regularly of the approaching termination – don’t just announce it one day
– group could mean a lot to some
3. ensure focus on goal attainment prior to termination – check in on progress towards
goal
4. share own feelings about separation, real loss for all – let them know you valued them
and their participation this allow for others to share their feelings – achieving good
closure

Termination
• Termination may cause feelings of grief, loss, abandonment, anger or rejection for some
members
• The facilitator should attempt to deal with these feelings and foster a sense of closure by
encouraging the exploration of feelings and the use of newly acquired coping techniques for
handling them – feeling of loss, or abandonment, feel have no support – help them deal with
these feelings – therapeutic group so it has to come to an end
• Working through this termination phase is an important part of the process –Reframe it that it is
not a loss but a progression and this is success. In life we meet and leave people (termination)
– emphasize the good part of the group so people feel a sense of closure and readiness to move
on in next stage of life

Group therapy does not require a license - can be used by everyone

Module 24: Ethics in Psychotherapy:
• Ethics that are useful for those who get in position of leadership, and those who intend to do
psychological practice
• One is not qualified to offer psychotherapy at this level of education but can do basic counseling
• One may be operating as a counselor that could be ok but not as a psychotherapist

Critical thinking questions:

• What are ethics?
• Are they the same as the law? Why or Why not?
• Are they arbitrary?
• Are they meaningful?
• Do we tell people why they can’t do certain things professionally?

What are ethics?

• These are the codes and rules that assist and promote safe practice
• The number of rules for psychotherapy are minimal
• This is the filter through which we view all client information and interactions – to safeguard
our client, individuals, the common public from any mal-practice, or unethical practice or
breaching good practice within field of psychotherapy
• They are here to protect the clients and their rights

Ethics and the Law

• Ethical Codes are written by organizations – such as the American Psychological Association
(APA)
o they are broader than the law,
o guidelines for practice – guideline but not law – so one can choose not to follow these
guidelines and can still have their license if it does not conflict with the law but one may
not be a member of the APA
o There are overlap between ethics and law – but not all ethics are law but all law is
encompassed in ethics
o goal is to protect the client,
o typically occur at national level – like APA
• Law is written by state or national legislature –
o Vary from state to state, these may or may not protect clients.
o They are broader, not specific to counseling but intended to protect individual in major
situations eg. Suicidal, child or elder abuse
o All laws are ethics but not all ethics are laws
• Sometimes the law and ethics clash
o Ethics codes state that the psychologists and therapists need to adhere to the code of
ethics and attempt to ‘resolve the conflict”
o Generally psychologists and therapists protect the client first
 o Best policy is to adhere to ethics codes and
o GET CONSULTATION

Rules of Ethics:
1) Don’t stress, don’t sweat, and don’t get too nervous whether you are practicing ethically or not
2) When in doubt - get consultation – ask someone who knows the ethics and law well
3) First - Do no harm to your client – always have a duty to your client – this is a trust

General Ethical Guidelines:

• Therapy which makes the client permanently worse is not ethical (eg flooding can cause
permanent damage – this is unethical)
• Therapy that makes things stay the same for a long period may be unethical – a grey area,
difficult to measure success.
• Ethics impact the following issue:
o Treatment relationship,
o Therapeutic Contract,
o Informed Consent – your duty to offer them – a list of what you offer, confidentiality
rules etc. – it’s like a contract that protects you - both of you sign
• Clients assume
o that you’re practicing within your training, - they assume you are competent
o that you are sensitized to the cultural issues they may bring – culturally competent
o that you are on their side (must tie together the client and therapists agendas to
successfully set goals) – agree on treatment goals – set this as an agenda together either
in session 2 or 3

Conflicting Values in Psychotherapy

• What do you do if you have a client who practices something that conflicts with your values?
o Example if someone come to you that is practicing bidah or practice drinking alcohol
socially – know you are not responsible for correcting every single aspect of their life
o Invite with Hikmah –
o Know your limits – to say that you are leading them to Allah is problematic in
professional practice – this is saying you are enforcing your belief on your client
(cognitive behavioral therapy enforce their ideas as to what is optimal health and
correct thoughts). In this case you are acting congruently with their culture (i.e. if they
come to you and say I am a Muslim and want culturally appropriate therapy)– you are
helping them actualize their identity – so set this as a goal
o Get consultation – from Muslim lawyer or Mental Health Lawyer
o Refer – if feel difficult to deal with (because of what they are doing) refer them to
someone who can help
• Ethics of seeing clients from other cultures and value systems
o Important for therapist not to make client become like the therapist – don’t be like us
be like the Prophet saw
 o Need to know what own values are as a therapist
o This gets challenging when it comes to successful acculturation – becomes difficult when
person having trouble with their identity – so you may want to make them do like what
you do – use as a suggestion – say this is what I do and it works for me maybe it may
work for you – this is more like self disclosure
o Bring them closer to Allah in degrees

Ethic prohibitions for clinical psychologists:

• No dual roles with clients:
o Can’t treat/counsel a family member - your spouse (intimate partner), children, family,
friends, employees/employers, a student of yours
o No sexual or intimate relationships with clients (so can’t treat spouse) – note that as
many as 25% of complaints are here (lots of therapist have relationship with their clients
which is wrong)
o Do not be in Khalwa (seclusion with the opposite sex) in a Non-mahram client
o No friendships with clients – not objective – more advice
o No working relationships with clients (employer- employee relationships)
o No sex with former clients - Can’t marry a former client for at least 2 years (non Muslims
say can’t have sex with them for 2 years)
o Why?
o Power differential,
o ability to react to client as client – no competing contingencies, no conflict of
interest
• Limits of practice – therapists shall not provide treatments outside his field of expertise, eg: no
exorcisms
• Testing –
o Therapists shall not provide tests for which they have no training.
o Interpretive tests typically require Pd.D. to administer and score,
 specific training involved
 Caveat for school psychologist with MS
o Basic rapid assessments only require knowledge of those tests – eg. Neo-pi-R – you can
administer this without any training

Confidentiality and Privilege

Privilege – Legal Issue
• Clients holds privilege and can decide who can know what information – If someone calls and
say are you seeing so and so – you cannot affirm nor refuse to say that you are seeing them –
say I can’t answer that question.
• Different if the client is a minor (under 18) then parent decides
• If operating as a team then can ask/share info to other member of the team about the patient
• Can ask other members of treatment team for information on client
Confidentiality – ethical and legal issue
• Information transmitted from client to psychologist has the same right to confidentiality as that
guaranteed between attorney and client
• Unless the client/patient signs a release which gives up the privilege of confidentiality for a
particular purpose, the psychologist is not free to divulge such information to anyone
• We work very hard to protect confidentiality – 25% of complaints deal with breaches of
confidentiality – misconduct and violations of confidentiality
• Need to let clients know through informed consent for treatment that there are exceptions to
therapists keeping confidentiality

Exceptions to confidentiality
• Need to let clients know through informed consent for treatment that there are exceptions to
therapists keeping this confidentiality – let them know when you have to break confidentiality
and list the times / situations
• Reasonable suspicion of child abuse/neglect or elder abuse/neglect – even if no proof, therapist
has reasonable amount of freedom to act here
• Court mandated treatment –
o requires proof of therapy and often reporting the facts (summaries) to authorities
o Involuntary commitment to a treatment center – psychologist presents specific
evidence of behavior required for commitment, must maintain confidentiality over all
information not relevant to commitment. If you are assessing a person to make decision
whether person should go to prison or treatment center
• Subpoenaed records –
o court evaluation,
o part of another law suit involving a client or former client
o Malpractice suit – psychologist can violate confidentiality to defend himself in court
• Reimbursement from third party payers – limited to diagnosis and brief case information about
progress, eg: parents, insurance companies
• Danger to self – suicidality –
o if a person is an imminent threat to themselves – they have to have a plan, means and
desire to commit suicide – have to report
o Must protect person who may act on these thoughts.
o Very personal decision, but not when client is in treatment, this belongs to the state.
o Important to consider compromise of human rights.
o Sometime they may have passing thoughts but no plan - Can have a suicide contract –
write that they are not going to do this, they will call someone, and will take certain
protective measures – inform them you need to do this – no freedom when you plan to
do something dangerous to yourself
• Danger to Others – Homicidality – this rule comes from the Tarasoff case
o Must let both the authorities and the intended victim know about it
o You do not have to protect the victim but give them a chance to protect themselves
 o Duty to break confidentiality.
o Many complications may arise like not having a way to contact the victim.
o Important to consider compromise of basic rights.

Ethics of responsible practice – What else?

• Providing informed consent for therapy as that therapist provides it – making sure the client
understands his or her options.
• Assessment – keeping track of improvements or problems, providing this information to clients
• Providing “best practice” – “standard of care” – defined terms by your profession
• Getting consultation for assistance
• Consulting with clients about changing treatment plans
• Cultural and religiously competence
• Link to website with ethics code: www.apa.org/ethics/code.html
These are measure to protect yourself and ensure you are acting congruently with ethics
Book by Kutaiba Chalaby – Islamic Pherensic psychology
11.37

Module 25: Common Psychosocial Issues for Muslims in the West

• Estimated population of 3-10 million Muslims in USA, mostly in the bigger cities – East and West
coast, Midwest and parts of the South esp. Texas and Florida
• Most Muslims in Canada live around the Montreal and Toronto, Vancouver areas
• 22% of American Muslims are US born, 78% are immigrants, 27% - Middle East origin, 25% -
South Asia, 24% African American, rest from Far East and other parts of the world
• African American has a history in the US – slavery, remains - Dr. Umar Farouk Abdullah from
Chicago also Zaid Shakir done some research on early Muslim settlers
• American Muslims earn more than $50,000 a year and 58% are college graduates – opposite of
Europe. Different cultures. In stark contrast to Muslims in Europe
o Muslims in general are doing well for themselves within USA
o Distributed throughout the USA
• American Muslims are more integrated into society as compared to European Muslims –
o positive aspect – not marginalized
o Negative aspect – assimilate more – don’t practice as much as those in UK who are in
enclave
• American Muslims tend to identify themselves as Americans while European Muslims tend to
identify themselves with their countries of origin (Algerian, Pakistani etc.)
o Demographic have influence on how Muslim manifest their culture of Islam

Collectivism VS Individualism
• Muslims are coming from a collectivistic background and trying to live in an individualistic
society.
 o How do we reconcile these – in some countries Muslims isolate themselves within
communities
o Others assimilate
• Cultures are divided into the individualistic and collectivistic dichotomy
• Collectivism places an emphasis on the extended family, interdependence, humility, authority,
putting the needs of the community above one’s own and a strong interconnected community
o More interdependent and community orientated
• Individualism on the other hand is rooted in the nuclear family, autonomy, independence and
an ultimate focus on the self.
o Career identity, personal identity
• The Islamic culture can be viewed as being collectivistic in nature,
• The rules have been fashioned in order to complement this worldview
o If one doesn’t understand the Islamic perspective of community, they may have trouble
understanding its rules
• The Sahaba were a collectivistic society with the prophet as their leader, the scholars are
suppose to lead our communities today too.
o Know your neighbours, visit the sick, know when someone is absent from Salaah
• The concept of individualism where families are isolated in the nuclear family does not exist in
Islam, nor is it compatible with its rules –
o gender roles and interactions in Islam
o Islam divides the domains of the world into two spheres of life. That is the public and
private. The public sphere of life is the domain of the man and the private sphere of the
woman.
• The nuclear family is against the Islamic spirit – nuclear family based upon a system to isolate
the individual, intended to break away from extended family – that are oriented to particular
goals – no promotion of unity or obedience – this never existed in Islam – dilemma for Muslims
• In Islam men need to go to the Masjid and promote a strong community and women are to
remain indoors, maintain the house and raise the children
• In Islam Men work, support the family - public, etc while the women raise the children and care
for the home.
o Even when women leave her house she is still private – hijab and niqab
• Complementarities within the system, as division of responsibilities are distributed equitably
• Serving parents, caring for neighbors, having a lot of wives and children all part of the
collectivistic approach of Islam
• In Islam, you think about others before yourself. Love for others what you love for yourself –
altruism
• Islam system is the best system – Listen and obey Allah. Once you understand the system
developed roles come naturally
• Woman does not remain isolated in her home. As is the case with the attempt to apply the
rules of Islam in the modern North American Muslim family
• Rather she receives social and emotional support via the proximity and availability of the
individuals within her community which includes her friends, family and neighbors.
• Does not feel isolated as a mother because Islam instructs families to have lots of children and
to support one another.
o Communities and extended families raise children which are in stark contrast to the
nuclear family structure. This way both children and mothers have social outlets.
o In religious community there is the least amount of drug addiction, or crime
o Social norms – God consciousness governing an inter-connected community like that of
the Muslim
• In the Nuclear system:
• Degree of emotional and social attachment between the spouses in the modern era is
unprecedented –
• This is a natural attempt to compensate for the lack of a community, thus attempting to plug in
the family as a micro community.
• This is problematic and creates isolation, divorce, and mental health problems
• This complicates matters for Muslims, in this type of system. The woman does not have any
social supporters other than her husband. Consequently she becomes dependent upon him for
support. When he is not available or unable to provide support, it creates tensions in the
relationship.
• Historically, Muslims have always had a strong sense of community. The spouses were not the
only members of their community. It would not be uncommon for men to have more than one
wife, travel frequently on business trips, study religion and spend time in the community.
• Women on the other hand would frequent one another within the communities, spend time
with their extended family, and let their children stay with their grandparents, have women’s
religious gatherings, lessons and entertain guests.
• Muslims today are fitting the mold of the nuclear family and are becoming encultured as
individualists while attempting to follow the rules designed for collectivism.
• This is dangerous and flies in the face of the Islamic perspective
• The first generation of Muslim immigrants have attempted to replicate some of the collectivistic
notions in North America, but most have resulted in communities rooted in specific ethnic
groups and have not been established on the basis of religion.
• This is due to the fact that immigration to Western countries was not a religious venture but
rather religious practice became a necessity upon arriving here.
• Many find Islamic norms as inapplicable in the North American context and feel the necessity to
compromise those ideals in favor of an assimilattionist attitude. Thus, the nuclear modern family
is fully embraced, where the Islamic ideals of marrying young, having many children, and
extended family are compromised in favor of career driven roles between both spouses. With
this come the many questions of Islamic Law, attempting to satisfy their conscious by walking
the line of permissibility VS impermissibility and missing the essence and purpose of the Islamic
lifestyle or system.
Examples of problems which arise from this:
• Sense of alienation and identity crisis – people don’t know who they are
• Racism – because they are rooted in ethnic group (next generation may not identify with this)
o Hold firm to the rope of Allah and do not fight with one another
• Marital Discord
• 47% of Muslim college students drink alcohol and 16% binge drink – shows American Muslims
are not creating the cohesive Muslim community
o If community build on religion / deen then Allah’s protections is on them
o If on ethnicity may have problem
• Generational gaps
• Internalizing an inferiority complex (my skin not white enough, my religion is backward etc., feel
apologetic )
• Diminished religious education

Good News
• Need to fill void sometimes results in individuals re-identifying with Islam in the midst of an
environment conducive to disbelief (re-examine Islam, internalize it for themselves and became
very strong in their deen)
• Sometimes this identity can be stronger than those in Muslim countries because they have to
resist what is around them
• Need communities to support these identity developments – need support
• This requires a transition towards re-establishing a community rooted in essence of religion and
a lesser focus on legalistic tradition. Until the foundations of an Islamic community are not
formed within North American communities, the symptoms of depression, marital
dissatisfaction, gender role confusion and distress will remain.

Module 26: Islamic Counseling Techniques

Assessment/Intake
• Clinical interview – assessment of person and presenting problem – must be the first step
• Empathy and speaking their language – establishing a connection, meet him/her where they are
at. If person is using religious terminology then used them if they don’t use it then you don’t too
otherwise it may scare them off (too religious for them)
• Diagnosis and formation of treatment plan.
• The prophet (peace be upon him) use to give advice according to the person he was talking to,
so it is important to know the person before giving advice thus the importance of an assessment
• Giving advice is an amanah (trust) – give it in the best manner

Humanistic Concepts
 • Empathy is part of our Deen. Prophet will give people full attention
• Unconditional positive regard – belief in their progress, pray for them, (spiritual dimention)
o Umar Ibn Khattab – aggressive and assertive before Islam – when he became Muslim he
channeled these characteristics within Islam (good leader)
o Belief that person can get better – Allah can cure everyone even the most impossible ones
o Example of schizophrenic at an Islamic School (schizophrenic are very resistant to treatment
– 30 to 40 % never recover and those who recover are barely functioning)
o Mexican Revert used to live in a Mental Institute released to outpatient care,
enrolled in madrasa. He was showed a lot of love and they believed in his progress.
He started learning slowing and loved being in the madrasa. After some time he
was almost fully functional. Calls Adhan, Always in the first row. Muslims around
him helped him
o Tailor what they are coming in with to an appropriate expression in Islam (person is
philosophical get them to study Aqueeda)
• Congruence (both clients and therapists) – help client bridge gap between identity and current
actions and help them actualized their identity with incremental changes (eg a Muslim who is
not practicing)
• Always have Husn Dhann – think good of the next person and hope best for them
• Want to channel a person qualities in a good way, eg: aggressive people can be good at
discipline and at sports

Psychodynamic
• For assessment purposes and insight – look at their history, background, family and how does it
affect them today – share this with them
• Dream interpretation – use only those that are consistent with Islam from knowledgeable
• Behavior interpretation

CBT
• Assumes a reality, ie reality of clinician. Criticized for possibility of being culturally insensitive
o We need to plug in the reality of Islam (their own beliefs, reality) and make it their
yardstick for judging their current thoughts and behaviors
o Good/positive thoughts to deal with bad times like acceptance of Qadar
• Reframing – looking at things from a different perspective (what do you have that others don’t
have – so they see the blessings they have from Allah)
• Move towards a positive attribution bias – hope in Allah. Depression causes a negative
attribution bias.
o Have to belief as a Muslim that Allah can fix the situation
o Sometimes you may love something that is not good for you and hate what is good for
you.
• Shaping ––
o Reinforce positive behavior
 o “Self- Reinforcement” and Response cost – a Muslims who feels guilty about doing
something pleasurable to his Nafs, should punish himself by spiritual ways like fasting or
giving charity – introduced by Abu Ali Ibn Miskawayh
o Do bad replace is quickly with a good to expiate the sin
• Analogy of the paper and needing to fold in the opposite direction – when a paper is creased, to
straighten it you need to fold it in the opposite direction
• To control the nafs, one must put it through some pains for rectification – do the opposite
o like going on a diet – in beginning very difficult (feel a lot of hunger for first 2 weeks –
because it is starved – stomach shrink)
o Nafs shrinks as you starve it – then will need less of that evil stuff

Coping Techniques
• Being Pleased with taqdeer/fate ( Qadar) – combined with reframing
o Hope in Allah. Allah can change your situation
o Call on ME and I will answer you – Ask Allah and He will answer you
• Doing for God as opposed to doing for others (never lose benefit in that) – Tawajjuh ila Allah
o Allah will reward you if not now then in the Akirah
• Normalizing – others have had the situation and some have been in worse than you –
o After hardship comes ease
o Case of Somalia – widespread famine – and we complain of minimal things

Religious Healing
• Diminish dependencies by forcing some isolation, eg:
o Encourage person to go on Itikaaf in the masjid
o Spending time with just Allah alone
o Allah is always there
o Put your dependency on Allah and not on people
• Al-Qur’an – Shifaa Wal Hudaa
o Read Quran
o Make dua

Traditional Healing Methods

• Elicit Emotional Healing – give them space to cry, to let it out
o Stories from the Quran
o There is healing in crying – endorphins released
o Cry in prayer, in dua
• Specific prayers for particular ills –
o duas for removal of depression/anxiety, - Allah remove from me worry, anxiety and
sadness
o Surah Fatiha,
o Mu’awethatain – Nas and Falaq, Tahajjud
Limitations
• Assumes mild to moderate pathology – if someone has major mental issues, must send to
professional. If physical sickness send them to a doctor
• Assumes a basic level of faith in Islam (practicing Muslim) – person wants to be a practicing
Muslim if not discuss this in you agenda
• Diminished social supports in community – counseling alone may not have as much impact if
there is community support – so encourage them to go to the masjid, be part of the community

Module 28: Collaborative Care

The roles of people from many different (multi) disciplines to work together to provide optimal
treatment
Collaborative Care Model- Promotion of a Holistic treatment team and system that encourages holistic
healing towards optimal mental, spiritual and psychological health

Role of the counselor

• Bridging resources to help this individual within the context of their community.
o Recognized their community. They will go back to the community
• Counselor should identify his resources which include: social support networks, family, friends,
Masjid and programs within their vicinity – these can complement the therapy
o Extended family, encourage them going to masjid and halaqa
o Look for programs within their community – that person can go to at the same time person
is being treated
o Recognize context, identify resources within their community and prescribed those
resourced based upon their problem

Integrative Islamic Care

• The counselor needs to encourage the religious scholar to do supplemental sessions whom you
will provide compensation for, you can hire a consulting scholar
• The counselor needs to recognize situations that need Islamic legalistic aid
o Divorce, custody, marriage, inheritance etc. – from an Islamic

Role of the religious scholars

• Be involved in mental health
• Leaders of the Muslim community take an active approach – be aware of the issues of the
community. Be a volunteer for helping with the treatment.
o Learn about Mental health disorders so you can recognize it when you see it
• Mental/Spiritual health is an component of the community that needs Islamic attention
• They should be aware of the psychosocial issues in the community and find out about the
facilities and resources available in the society
 • Work with mental health providers – by finding one other clinician that you trust. Send that
individual to that clinician and obtain a release of information form. This will render you able to
gain information about the treatment process. You may also offer to be part of the treatment
team, if your time persists and you develop the treatment plan with the clinician.
o Either you don’t know how to treat person or you do not have the time to treat mental
health issues – so refer them
• If the clinician is a Muslim
o You will be on the same page and treatment will serve as complementary
• If no Muslim clinician is available, find a culturally sensitive therapist,
o Request congregant to obtain a release of information form (which they have rights for),
o Tell them to request your Imam be a consulting treatment provider in this process
o By doing this getting professional psychological care and spiritual / religious care
o Aim - acts as a form of supervision - so get supplemental care and supervision – dealt
with from an Islamic perspective. Clinician will think twice before he use un-islamic
intervention
o Clinician will know client religion is important
• This ensures:
o The clinician treats the mental health pathology and does not instill any value-laden
information in this. Healthy monitoring of this treatment.
o This forces the clinician to consider spiritual healing that can be gained.
o It offers a dual treatment process that can be the MOST optimal form of treatment

The role of the Psychiatrist

• Recognize the need for medication management if the client needs it. Some disorders require it
like substance abuse, ADHD and bipolar disorder
• Use this person ONLY for this purpose. Two mental health clinicians cannot treat via therapy at
the same time (they all have their own way of interventions and it can be conflicting)– refuse to
offer treatment if someone requests another clinician offer psychotherapy

The role of Social Workers

• Social worker knows the community. Community oriented
• Connect you to a competent social worker who may be able to help connect the client to social
needs.
• These include:
o settlement services – for immigrants
o finding therapeutic groups
o Information on funding,
o low income access,
o resources – citizenship, and other resources within the community etc

The role of Inpatient services

 • If your client requires inpatient, help locate a hospital that may have a Muslim chaplain or
clinician.
• Come see the client and receive them after they have been stabilized –
o identify yourself as their treatment provider and let the client do so as well
o when they leave they will come to your office for out-patient care
• Highly suicidal, or psychotic, or substance abuse issues (withdrawal can cause death for some)
– may need to go to the hospital
• Muslim chaplain – Muslim with some training in counseling - work in jails, hospital, police
department etc.
• If need day treatment – get them to do this esp. drug dependency otherwise you can refuse to
see them

Optimal Collaborative Services

• A treatment team in one particular setting that can offer various modes of treatment to the
client that has access to all of these individuals – THE BEST CASE SCENARIO

Module 29: Current State of Islamic Psychology:

Few Models
• Currently there are very few models available
• Most models of intervention are piecework
• A need for developing a mode of intervention that is rooted in an Islamic theoretical orientation
that integrates useful mental health concepts
o Need Islamic model that has spiritual and psychological orientation
• Current models are aimed at uncovering Muslim issues and approaching Muslims in a culturally
sensitive manner - not religious intervention
o How do we intervene using and integrating Islamic methodology
Many clinicians
• There are many Muslim clinicians but very few models on how to do it Islamically
• Many Muslim clinicians in Muslim countries advocate for Western models sometimes more than
Westerners (Dr. Malik Badri, 1979)
• Important to be critical and develop Islamically acceptable modes of healing and intervention
that would work with client and would also offer an alternative to what is available now

Chaplaincy
• This is a new field and job, the formation of a new discipline
• This was originally a Christian concept, as spiritual guides in hospitals, prisons, university etc
• It is both a religious and professional career
• This is a new venture with few models available

Need for Education and Educational Forums

 • Dr Malik Badri – father of Islamic psychology – based in MIIU in Malaysia
• Few Muslim universities have psychology departments
• Workshops/conferences as a way of networking
• Need more Muslims studying and teaching these fields
• Book by Dr. Malik Badri “The dilemma of Muslim Psychologist

Case of Malaysia
• Emerging Islamic treatment centers – Darul Shifa – Islamic counseling principles
• Other forms of healing and seminars hosted here
• In Turkey and Kuwait and some gulf countries

Conclusion
• You are bestowed with this responsibility after becoming aware of the situation to contribute to
this field and to help a need area that has been unaddressed for a long time!
• May Allah make us successful in this.
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