SOAS University of London

Graduate Student, Anthropology and Sociology

Other Affiliations: University of London, Birkbeck College, Geography, Environment, Development Studies
Roehampton University, Human and Life Sciences
University College London, Anthropology

Thesis Title: "Al Junun Funun: Toward an Islamic Transpersonal Psychotherapy"

About

Anthropologist with focus on health perspectives; graduate of four field approach; postgraduate medical anthropology.

"Al Junun Funun: Toward an Islamic Transpersonal Psychotherapy"

MA Anthropological Research Methods, SOAS, London/MRes Anthropology UCL, London.

Investigating implicit and explicit ontological and cosmological ideation held by members of three Muslim communities across London, triangulated by survey and structured, semi-structured, and informal interviews facilitating deployment of psychotherapy with Muslims.

The research will develop a therapeutic instrument facilitating psychotherapy in an Islamic context; an applied anthropological project (Chambers, 2000) it draws from and contributes to interdisciplinary perspectives. Emic Muslim therapists observe therapy can lead to negative reaction manifesting as cognitive dissonance, discontinuation of treatment, and thus the prevention of benefit from therapy (Dwairy, 2006, and Al-Abdul-Jabbar and Al-Issa, 2000), with rationale for this phenomena in dynamics between Arab : Western; Collective : Individual; Authoritarian  : Liberal (Dwairy, 2006). Relevancy via producing a culturally and religiously relevant therapeutic tool facilitating psychotherapeutic praxis by Muslim and non-Muslim therapists, justified (Carter and Little, 2007) through participation, observation, survey, and interview.

MSc Medical Anthropology, University College, London

Concentration in Medical Anthropology with pathways in Anthropology of Psychiatry, Political and Economic Anthropology, Applied Studies and Religious Symbolism and the Politics of Belief. Dissertation ‘Al Junun Funun: Toward an Islamic Transpersonal Psychotherapy’.

BSc Anthropology, Whitelands College, Roehampton University.

Concentration in Social Anthropology with pathways in Biological Anthropology, Archaeological Anthropology, Neurobiology, Social Psychology and Epidemiology. Dissertation ‘Theseus and the Labyrinth: Chronic Mental Illness and Recovering Mental Health’.

Diploma in Social Anthropology, Birkbeck College, London.

Ways of Seeing, Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Health and Well-Being, Anthropology and Religion, and Doing Anthropology.