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Muslim counsellors and psychotherapists network

Introduction to Muslim counsellors and psychotherapists network
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16.1
Hello. My name is Myira Khan. I’m a BACP accredited counsellor, supervisor, counselling tutor. And I’m also the founder of the Muslim Counsellor and Psychotherapist Network, affectionately known as the MCAPN. And I’ll explain in a moment the work of the MCAPN. But to put me individually in context first, I’ve been working as a counsellor and working with clients now for around 13 years. And as soon as I qualified, I have been working with clients within the private practice arena for the first few years, couple of years after I qualified, I was working within a private practice agency. And then I went full time self-employed back in 2014. So all of my clinical work now sits under this private practice portfolio.
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And in that portfolio is where I deliver all of my counselling and supervision work. And besides that, alongside that, I also teach counselling training as well on a two year diploma. Now alongside all of that portfolio working, I also established and founded the MCAPN back in 2013. Now the MCAPN, the Muslim Counsellor and Psychotherapist Network, really started from an aim and a intention to be able to connect with fellow Muslim practitioners. Now what I mean by Muslim practitioners is any Muslim practitioner who is either training or qualified as a counsellor, psychotherapist, psychologist or psychiatrist.
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So the network is really a in person, but also a online virtual home for those Muslim practitioners and there are two main aims for the network. Firstly, it is the opportunity for Muslim practitioners to connect and network with one another, and we do that by hosting online monthly meetups, peer supervision groups as well as CPD events and workshops. And also we have an annual conference. So lots of opportunities for Muslim practitioners to both network with one another, build their connections and professional network, as well as accessing professional development resources in order to support their clinical practice.
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Now the other aim of the network, which is very much external focusing and and is aimed at the Muslim communities themselves, is the importance of increasing visibility of Muslim practitioners to both mainstream professions as well as to our communities. Now what I mean by that is, is that it’s really important that Muslim practitioners have a visibility in the mainstream profession as well as then having visibility in our Muslim communities so that Muslim clients can actually access counselling and therapeutic support with Muslim practitioners.
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Now the reason I make those two things very clear and distinct is because I believe anyway, it’s really important for Muslim practitioners to be visible within the profession itself so that we are not marginalised, so that we are not hidden, and therefore then perhaps perpetuating this myth or belief around the stigmas and taboos around mental health. It’s really important that Muslim practitioners are visibly doing this work so that we are then, in the same token then, actually reducing the stigma and taboos around mental health.
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Second of all, the reason why it’s really important to also increase, increase the visibility for Muslim practitioners is so that clients and communities themselves can start to de-stigmatise the taboos around mental health because they recognise that people from their own communities work in this field. But also it’s really important for Muslim communities and clients to be able to access cultural sensitive and faith sensitive support for their mental health needs. So the raising of visibility of Muslim practitioners via the network is important to both destigmatise mental health, but also to increase access to support, increase the visibility of Muslim practitioners working within this field, which then helps to generate the next generation of Muslim practitioners wanting to work in this field.
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And then also it increases the availability and accessibility of faith sensitive and culturally sensitive counselling and therapeutic support for clients. So as I was saying, it’s really important that the work of the MCAPN exists so that it does two things simultaneously. One is to support the practitioners in the profession itself and to raise the visibility of those practitioners. And secondly, it helps then the Muslim communities and clients then to be able to access support that they feel is is aimed at them, to access support that they feel is accessible to them, because the counselling that itself, is faith sensitive and culturally sensitive to their needs and to their lifestyle and to their frame of reference.

This video is presented by Myira Khan, a British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) registered Counsellor, Supervisor and Tutor.

She is trained in Islamic Psychology and Islamic Psychotherapy. Myira is Founder of the Muslim Counselling and Psychotherapist Network (MCAPN).

In this video, Myira explains the aims of MCAPN. This network brings together Muslim practitioners who are qualified (or in training) as counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists. MCAPN provides a forum for professional networking and professional development to support the practice of its members.

MCAPN also aims to increase the visibility of Muslim practitioners, across both mainstream mental health services and Muslim communities. Myira feels that this visibility is important to tackle stigma around Muslim mental health and to make it clear that informed and faith-sensitive mental health support services are available for Muslims.

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Understanding Mental Health in Muslim Communities

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Find out more about Myira and her work.

Muslim Counsellor and Psychotherapist Network.

Other professional networks for Muslims who are engaged in work around mental health include:

British Islamic Medical Association: a national organisation that aims for Muslim healthcare professionals in the UK. BIMA also provides medical information for mental health.

British Board of Scholars and Imams: a national network of imams, scholars and academics that aims to facilitate intra-Muslim dialogue on theology, jurisprudence and community welfare.

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This content is taken from Cardiff University online course
Understanding Mental Health in Muslim Communities
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This article is from the online course:

Understanding Mental Health in Muslim Communities

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