Below are some examples of Issues related to the Muslim Community.

Are you a parent or a child who feel that you don't understand each other especially when it concerns the culture or the religion?

Are you a husband or a wife who is experiencing difficulties in your relationship because you feel your partner doesn't understand the religion correctly and are being unjust?

Are you divorced, (for example a practicing Muslim woman) and are trying to move on, but are finding it difficult because of your circumstances in relation to the community, finance, children, loneliness, insecurity or worries about the future?

Are you a person who is practicing the religion and are finding it difficult to relate to the rest of the family?  Do you feel alone and alienated?

Are you a student who wears a hijaab (Islamic head dress) and are experiencing hostility from other students or teachers?

Are you someone who began to practice your religion recently but are finding old habits hard to break and this is affecting your worship?

Let's take this last issue and explore the possibilities as it relates to counselling…

Well, as the saying goes, old habits are hard to break!  This can be a real problem if you are sincere about your religion and desperately want to improve yourself.  One of the ways of looking at this issue, with your counsellor is to accept and acknowledge that it exists.  Then after acknowledging this you can with your counsellor dig deep and explore the reasoning behind this habit.  This process may take you in other areas of you life, which you felt weren't connected and might give you a better understanding of yourself.

Once you have discovered what might be the reasoning behind this habit, it's possible to change the habit by changing the pattern in your life.   The possibilities of exploring these issues are endless and it's up to you to chose the direction you want to go in and your counsellor will work with you in looking at different areas of your life in various ways. Of course all of this takes patience and strength to reach your goals, insha'Allah.

Please remember this is just an example of how the counselling process works and there are no hard and fast rules, because every client is different and so is every counsellor.

As you can see there are many issues that are related to the Muslim community, which may be similar to any other community, the difference is that we understand the culture and the religion and we are not here to judge you.  

Our aim is to understand you and assist you in any way we can.  We don’t tell you what to do! But rather explore the issues with you to understand yourself and others.  At the end of the day it's you who is in charge of your life and all we are here for, is to assist you in making the right choices FOR YOU, insha'Allah.

How would it feel?…

…to have a piece of mind to know if your children are going to counselling they wouldn't be misguided?

…to have someone to listen to you, understand you, and take care of you?

…to unload all the pressure and heaviness of your life and come home feeling light and invigorated.

…to have a personal trainer working with you, to improve you, to monitor you, to support you, to lift you when you are down and to encourage you when you fall behind?

…to take out all the strain, resentment and frustration of your life so you don't take it out on other members of your family?

Well, It is possible to achieve all of this, through our Muslim Counselling Service because we understand our culture and our religion. Therefore you, as Muslims can have a peace of mind knowing that it will only enhance you as a Muslim and not turn you against our religion, insha'Allah.

Real life case examples

Below is a real life case study. Note: The permission of the client has been obtained to present this case study. The name of the client has been changed to protect their privacy.

Introduction
Samina, a single Muslim woman in her 20's had decided to come for counselling due to feeling depressed and her lack of connection to Allah (God) has contributed to her depression. Samina describes her relationship with her family to be non-existent and feels that her mother's control and no guidance in the past has left her feeling isolated and lost. She feels that she is unable to form a relationship, even though she is an intelligent young woman.

At a young age, her father had left her after his divorce to her mother and since then she had little contact with him. She feels that she is similar to him and that she doesn't want to be like him as he is very competitive and over ambitious. She also feels that she had isolated herself in the past due to her study and now realizes that she has lost all her friends.

Her religion is very important to her and due to her depression, she is unable to concentrate in her prayer and she finds this very upsetting.

Counsellor's assessment
The counselor helped Samina explore her past and how the events that had taken place has had a significant impact in her life. Her mother's control and lack of guidance had left her feeling isolated and lost and bottling her feelings has built resentment and anger towards her, which she may not want to admit, due to her religion. Her lack of support from her family has made her turn towards what makes her happy and that is her study, where she finds solace and comfort. However this has resulted in her loosing her friends. The counsellor explained to Samina that what she was looking for was a balance in her life and finding ways to connect to her feelings; this would hopefully help her connect to Allah.

Work done in counselling
One of the issues Samina had was bottling things up, which was normal in her family but was enhanced due to a lack of understanding of her religion, where she felt she couldn't express how she felt about her mother. The counsellor explained that in order for her to have good relations with her mother, which is vital in Islam, it was important to explore her feelings towards her. This would help resolve her issue with her mother and bring about a better understanding of herself. Her lack of guidance and support has left her feeling that no one loves her and values her; hence she doesn't love and value herself. The counsellor helped her see how she excels in her study and how her work is valued. She also helped Samina explore her two sides where she hated a side of her which was lazy an d worthless due to her past but loved the side who was always 'on the go', bright and intelligent. This brought clarity of the struggle that was going on inside her and helped her focus on finding a balance.

Outcome
Samina benefited from the counselling sessions. She was able to express her feelings towards her mother and recognized how her past had contributed to her feelings of loneliness. She felt by exploring her feelings around her mother, she was also able to understand her mother better and hence there was less resentment and anger towards her. She felt she could now begin to communicate with her mother where before she thought it was best to say nothing and bottle things up.

Exploring the struggle of her two sides was a valuable insight for Samina, which she didn't realize was going on, this gave her a better sense of herself and became more connected with her feelings. Due to her having a relationship with herself, she found she could now have a relationship with Allah and her focus in her prayer improved.

Samina also began to accept her past, which had brought unhappiness and loneliness to her life, however she learned from this and valued love and support which was important to build a relationship and could move on to her future knowing that she could contribute not just to herself but to others.