Amjad Tarsin – The Hard Truth of Counseling
AI: Summary ©
A woman describes how she had to deal with her lack of self-esteem and fear when she discovered her lack of self-esteem was due to her body. She describes how she had to ask herself whether she should kill herself or try to avoid the pain of silence, and how many people are struggling with similar issues. She emphasizes the importance of providing support to students in their growth and spiritual health.
AI: Summary ©
One day, a young woman comes into my office, and she begins to open
up and tell me her story and what she's going through. And she tells
me that she intensely hates herself, she hates her body, she
hates the way that she looks, and that the pressure of that feeling
was so intense that she would sometimes even consider killing
herself, that she would be walking down the road and look at a
building or look at a bridge and wonder to herself, you know, is
that high enough where, if I jumped off, my life would end?
And it really hurt me to see someone who I saw on a regular
basis, but I didn't know the burdens that they were carrying,
that she was suffering in silence until she came and talked to me
about it. And it also makes me wonder how many other countless
students are suffering in silence who don't feel comfortable talking
to their parents or talking to an imam or talking to someone else to
seek help. People come to me regularly with issues of faith,
crises of faith, relationship problems abuse, whether as a child
or at home, and really trying to make sense of their lives and
their relationship with God, but they need that safe space where
they can actually talk to someone about it, and there's huge numbers
of Muslim students in universities trying to figure out who they are.
And we need to support them. We need your help. We need to provide
them with the services the qualified training to be able to
help them in their journey. So support those students, support
their growth and their spiritual health. You.