Amjad Tarsin – The Hard Truth of Counseling

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.