The British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP) defines counselling and psychotherapy as “…umbrella terms that cover a range of talking therapies. They are delivered by trained practitioners who work with people over a short or long term to help them bring about effective change or enhance their wellbeing.” Islamic counselling may be for the individual or take the form of Islamic family counselling.
Islamic Counselling is a unique stand-alone model that involves specific techniques and a strong emphasis on character development via the therapist, including qualities such as trust, humility and compassion. While other models also emphasise ethics, we believe that a good counselling relationship (including its therapeutic value) arise from intense work by the therapist on their own selves spiritually and psychologically. In this way the therapist offers steadiness and clarity of heart (highly developed fitra). This enables a person to increasingly act in a way appropriate to both the circumstances of a situation and its meaning.
Over time these intentions and behaviours become the foundation of an integrated self – one which is at peace with itself and our world, the Nafs al-Mutma`inna – the contented self. This gives people a lightness of being, a depth of understanding and something else, which could be said to be purity of heart through which light can shine.
We respect and incorporate techniques from other models where these sit with The Quran and the Prophet’s conduct, which are the two main foundations for our model.
While most of our participants are Muslim, our courses are designed to reflect the universality that is at the core of Islam. We ensure our all courses offer Islamic counselling – an introduction to theory and practice – that allow all students to benefit.
Our courses contain a strong emphasis on self reflection and self development. Student comments show the tremendous personal growth they experience during training and we offer a facilitated open environment that is warmly accepting and embraces everyone.
This answer is quoted from our award body, The British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy, “Counselling is not a statutorily regulated profession which means the title of ‘counsellor’ is not protected by law. However, there are recognised benchmarks for practitioner training set by the professional bodies and awarding bodies which are associated with entry to practitioner registers and with opportunities for employment. The current absolute minimum qualification requirement is a Level 4 Diploma in Counselling although some professional bodies require higher level qualifications.
In 2012 the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) introduced a system of ‘Assured Voluntary Registers’. The PSA’s role is to host ‘approved’ registers so that the public and employers can be confident that the counsellors on the register have met the necessary standards for safe practice. Organisations are not obliged to set the same entry qualifications but they are obliged to take account of what it generally accepted in the field.”
One of the main aims of counselling is to guide us from feeling victims of circumstances to feeling we have some control over our lives. Sessions usually last 50 minutes, once a week. Setting some sort of a goal together with the counsellor to achieve at the end of, say, 8 sessions) is often a part of counseling.
If you’ve not had counseling before, and even if you have, you may feel nervous or feel that the counsellor will judge you. We believe that no-one can ever judge someone else’s life and that coming for help is a great step forward. Sessions are of course confidential unless we feel that there is some danger to you or others in which case we would always try to talk to you about it.
Behind this question lies the fear that if you were to open yourself up, it may never stop, and you may not be able to deal with what you find. Part of our nature is to protect us from things we can’t cope with but the other side is that sometimes to get to the root of a problem you may feel pain and confusion, or you may hit a block – something that is stopping you from going forward, and helping you in the long run. Some people experience immediate benefits from therapy. However, there may be times when you wonder if therapy is helping, as nothing seems to be ‘happening’ or ‘changing’ for you. Deep processes that have taken years to develop need careful, patient and respectful handling.
How long it will take depends on you, and the nature of the problem. How long depends on need and how the counsellor works – usually think about 6 meetings together – after that we can think about whether more sessions would be helpful. It’s always worth discussing your feelings about the therapy itself with your counsellor
We usually work with individuals and couples on a weekly basis. This is because anything less frequent does not provide the necessary amount of contact that gives you the safety needed to work in depth.
