Rania Awaad – Mental Health, Islamic Psychology, Women in Islam and more

			What did you find the most interesting among the cases you encountered?
		

			Everything is dark and bleak and difficult. She would spend all the hours of the day kind of stuck
in one room. And she was so upset because she loves her children, as a mother, different people for
different tests in life. Also, many people might think that okay, I have this bad childhood
traumatic childhood, so I cannot be a normal person. Is there hope
		

			that these words make them feel more guilty. In my clinic, I have both muscles and lungs. And
sometimes people who are not Muslim, but they have a connection to God. When you look at Western
psychology today, it's missing. They say psychology has lost its soul. Islamic psychology is
wonderful solutions for the principles of Islamic psychology are for the human fitrah. So many
people learned Islam, there is no goat, there is no God, but a lot.
		

			And one of the best experiences the person say and hunted enough, she said, Dr. Laura, what do you
say when something bad happens? Who do we have other than Allah to help us through
		

			and handed in handed hammer the hammer, we have belief in Allah so we should be free from anxiety
and depression. If a Muslim suffers from these, does that mean that they have weak faith?
		

			You're missing something.
		

			So that we can look to run our word. Welcome to eternal passenger YouTube channel. We are really
happy to have you with us. I want to start with who is running out. And can you tell us briefly
about your life, while they can cinema Rahmatullah, but I got to thank you so much for having me on
this channel, my professional credentials. I'm a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the
Stanford University School of Medicine. There I direct to the Muslim mental health and Islamic
psychology lab. And I also direct a couple of other clinics within the Stanford psychiatry side. And
currently continue to do two important things I think, in the community to * organizations that
		

			I'm affiliated with. One is letter from a foundation, which I direct it's an organization for women
and girls, teaching Islam. Why do psychologists focus on childhood so much?
		

			There's a concept in the mental health field of something called the long arm of childhood, as in to
say there is roots to so much of what happens as adults, it's happening with us right now, that has
roots in childhood. Were there any difficulties? They're trying to basically paint a background
picture of what was the situation like? Was there some trauma? Was there safety? Was there happiness
was there a lot of sadness what was happening in the background, although it's not 100% going to
determine everything that comes next. That does help kind of understand a little bit about what's
happening for the person. Salaam Alaikum. Brothers and sisters, we saw that 80% of our audience,
		

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passenger.
		

			Often, many people might think that okay, I have this bad childhood traumatic childhood. So I cannot
be a normal person, normal operating person in terms of psychology, is there hope. So there's
absolutely hope for right now, as in to say, regardless of what happened in childhood, yes, those
things may have a bearing. And we're not going to go back and erase history, it is part of your
story. But I love this concept of you also have the ability to write the next chapters of your book
of your life, as a person shouldn't sit there and say poor me, poor me, look what happened to me.
And one of the best experiences I've ever learned on this is some of the work I've been very honored
		

			to do with refugees. In a refugee mental health is a very difficult subtype of mental health that we
work on. And subhanAllah, I told you how I studied in Syria. And so I felt very compelled after the
war in Syria to help as many as much as I could back to this country that gave me so much. I'm not
Syrian, but I wanted to help as much as I could. So I traveled many trips to Jordan, where there are
many, many Syrian refugees, of course, in doing psychiatric evaluations and work with them, I would
hear very difficult stories. I mean, in our field, you hear some very heavy things. And I thought I
had heard everything that Subhanallah heavy, heavy stories. And one thing I noticed it really caught
		

			my attention. Every time I would hear this riff something heavy, I would hear right after it the
person say and Hampton enough, then say something else really, really heavy and Hampton enough. I
mean, it's so much they actually stopped one lady and I said to her, every time you're saying some
heavy things, and then you say it hamdulillah and then she just looked at me and she said Dr. Laura,
		

			what are you saying when something bad happens? Who do we have other than Allah to help us through
and handle
		

			didn't know. And I thought, truly, you could have some very difficult things happen in your life,
depending on how you frame them, and how you process them, and inshallah by the SOFIA club, Allah,
how you're healed through them, you can come out the other end, yes, you have a history. That's why
I can't erase the history, it's there a difficult one. But you can have a very fulfilling life from
this point onwards. This is very important. And sometimes the person can do this alone and with
their family, and support and spirituality. And sometimes you need extra help. And there's nothing
shameful about this, to be able to get to a point to write the next chapters. Well, if there's
		

			someone that is close to us, that have a psychological problem, what are the three things we must do
and we mustn't do? So number one, don't always think you can solve everything yourself. Number two,
get the help for yourself, right. And number three, make sure that you know who you're getting the
help from? This is very important to what are the three mental health conditions that people of the
modern age suffer from the most? And what does Islamic psychology offer as a solution? One that I
don't know that we necessarily expected, but it makes sense, actually, is family therapy. I don't
think it's unique to the Muslim community. But I do think that it's in the modern world, it's
		

			definitely something that's heavily needed. Now, Islamic psychology is a wonderful solutions for
this because so much of it is focusing on sn on excellence. Remembering that what you're doing with
interacting with another person isn't between you and them. It's not a linear line. It's actually
more like our spiritual teacher say, a triangle, these interactions. When you kind of reframe it, we
talk about in our field, cognitively reframing, but also spiritually reframing it human
interactions. It's incredibly healing.
		

			Can you compare modern psychological therapies, secular psychological therapies, and Islam's
approach to psychology? What Islamic psychology offer to the issues that modern psychology cannot
solve? In this entire journey? What I've come to learn and discover and I've been writing about
shows the importance of Islamic psychology. The reason it's important is because when you look at
Western psychology today, it's missing elements, you have a very strong emphasis on biology, on
neuroscience, on being able to understand even kind of genetic background, you're missing the human
kind of emotional element that's also connected spiritually. And as humans were made of all of these
		

			aspects, mind, body and soul. Today, the mind is well studied. Maybe even the mind body connection
is becoming more popular and well studied in the field. But the soul is completely missing. They say
psychology has lost its soul. And I agree, and I think this is where Islamic psychology comes in, it
brings the neffs and the ruler, right, the self and the soul back into the study study of
psychology. Also explain why a person may be depressed, or may sometimes not be doing so well in
life. And you have to take them together, all together. And this is the Islamic tradition, they
brought all of the aspects together. In Memphis, it had a wonderful model where he explained the
		

			human psyche as the club, metaphysical hearts being at the center, connected to it would be your
emotions, your SS, your ALC, or cognition, yodel the soul, the neffs, the sense of self, all of
these things together are interconnected. If you don't treat all of them together, you're only
treating one side. So it's lopsided or skewed. This is to me Western psychology, where Islamic
psychology brings all of it together. So what techniques that Islamic psychology used in the past
that nowadays, psychologists should also use, maybe it should benefit from? Yes, this is what we're
calling the revival movement of Islamic psychology. It's not new, it's actually something we're
		

			reviving. And we're wanting to bridge modern, clinical understanding from today's scientific
understanding of today. What elements should we use this is what's been my trip this entire time,
these last couple of weeks, we've been going around the entire country of Turkey, rarely to visit
the daughter, she founds the Be modest stance, basically, the healing centers, the hospitals of the
Muslims, there's a sense of relief that the soul gets in these beautiful spaces, sound so they use a
lot of sound therapy, whether this be with water, or the fountains or the nature sounds or other
forms of medicinal forms of music therapy, for example. They also integrated you know, the concept
		

			of aromatherapy and the smell, the color therapy, even colors that were chosen were very important.
And just a sense of healing that's holistic all the way through, in addition to the medications, in
addition to the therapy, the talk therapy that was happening, so these things were part of the
original treatment modality as well. And this is the research papers and the book that we're writing
at the moment, explaining all of this, in addition to the aspects that are currently missing in
holistic healing, and so in addition to this entire team I'm referring to they also had the person
who was considered to be giving space
		

			ritual advice, reminders of Allah subhanaw taala, this person who could travel with the doctor's
team, so that as they visited every patient, the doctor would give what they need, the pharmacist
will give the medication, but the person giving the walls would also give religious reminders. Very
important. Have you ever had a non Muslim client to whom you applied Islamic psychological therapy?
And they benefited from this? Yes, yes. And interestingly enough, I have to share with you, I wasn't
sure about this until I learned from one of our mentors, elders of the field is Professor Rashid
Skinner from the UK. One day I asked him, Have you ever worked with Islamic psychology principles
		

			with non Muslims. And he said, my entire career has been applying Islamic psychology principles with
Donaldsons. And he says something very important, he said, the principles of Islamic psychology are
for the human fitrah. The any they speak to every in any human, right, the soul, the self, the
heart, the cognition. And so when you apply these principles to any human being, they should work.
He says, make sure you ask permission, and maybe the words may not be the exact same Islamic words,
you're gonna have to translate what you're doing. But I have done this, because in my clinic, I have
both Muslims and non Muslims. And sometimes I'll say, Would it be okay, if I share with you
		

			something from my Islamic tradition? And if my patient says, Yes, I go on and explain the concept.
Sometimes they are people who are also God centered people, maybe a different faith, but they have
this concept of God. And so I'll say like to liquid reliance on God, and they get it. They say, Oh,
this makes sense. Right, but the word might be different, or the concept may be slightly different.
		

			So the general idea among Muslims is that we have belief in Allah, so we should be free from anxiety
and depression. If a Muslim suffers from these, does that mean that they have a weak faith?
Absolutely not SubhanAllah. And also, when people think about mental health, they're thinking about
things like depression, or trauma, anxiety. And often we hear so so often that this is correlated
with emotion, that if a person had strong emotion, they wouldn't become depressed, or if they had
strong human, they won't get anxious. The reality is you can have both. And by proof for this is
actually directly from the Quran, and from the seat of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. If
		

			you look, for example, I always remind us that we all know this, but sometimes we forget to make the
connection of the Prophet himself. sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is the best of all of creation played
a good color. In addition, he also had a year of sadness, and Hosen. And when you think about the
best of people are the prophets. So how about us regular humans, of course, we can have sadness but
have immense telecall or reliance on Allah subhanaw taala as well, these both can coexist at the
same time. Do you think having no belief is a source of spiritual problems? If so, what about non
believers whose lives are going well, in terms of mental health? It's a good interesting question.
		

			Certainly. And this is something a lot of talks about in the Quran, he talks quite a bit about that
he has given different people different tests in life. And sometimes your blessings, things that
seem to be going good for you can actually be a test as well. So when people look at other people,
and they judge happiness, it's really a fault in how we define what is happiness. In our Islamic
concept. It's the concept of fella, even in our event, right? Allah subhanaw taala calls us to find
out he calls us to success, but what kind of success? It's a success that's here in the dunya and an
athlete or both. So if you only have one, you're missing something very important.
		

			What are the major traps that a person is struggling with psychological problems fall into Allah
doesn't love me and what should be done? And how should they think and act to avoid them? I think
these traps upon a library common psychological traps. In our field today, we would have a term
where we call core beliefs, negative core beliefs, where the person might feel like the world is
unsafe, everything and everybody is not safe around me. I don't trust anything or anybody or the
world is unkind you know, people, and even our the biller, Allah subhanaw taala, they might see him
as very vengeful and wrathful. Not with the names of Gemma and always the names of Jalon. Right?
		

			This is an interesting way. And so we get down to the bottom of what are the core beliefs a person
has the negative ones, and also try to reframe them. And there's a whole series of exercises we do
in cognitive behavioral therapy related to this core beliefs. So you might call them psychological
traps are the core beliefs. And here too, I see very importance of spirituality or bringing the deen
religion into the story. Because if you can balance for example, all of Allah subhanaw taala as
names, right. I teach people the Hadith if they want Islamic psychology and they want this in the
therapy and they say bring in Islam I say Okay, so now we bring in specific concepts, like this
		

			hadith, where Allah subhanaw taala is teaching us that he is as we see him to be I
		

			And I think that's very important. You can even take the 99 names of Allah subhanaw taala. And see
the difference between the Jamal the beautiful names, the merciful and compassionate and loving
names, and also the ones of July that are kind of like you're really making sure to understand the
greatness and Majesty of Allah subhanaw taala. When you balance all of these together, you end up
with a much better, balanced approach who will last? So many people learned Islam in a halal haram
fashion. While they're learning their Islam in a very harsh haram haram haram, you're gonna go to
*. And very little on the love of Allah subhanaw taala. So what are the things that you shouldn't
		

			be doing? For example, there are some cases that you just worry too much. Just take it easy, because
they're, they're depressed, and they have anxiety. But these words, make them feel more guilty, more
weak. What would you like to say if a person is in that situation and have a family member or a
loved one, what sentences we should be using or what attitudes we shouldn't be having. I want to
share a patient's story. One time I had a patient come and she said she came to me after having seen
many, many, many other doctors, including people who wanted to kind of bring Islam into the picture.
So I thought, Okay, this is good. When I sat with her and understood her story and took all of her
		

			medical history. I personally diagnosed her with obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. And I felt
that even though she wasn't doing a lot of physical things, you think about like hand washing and
praying again and again or other things. For her. It was much more cognitive obsessions, and
compulsions, which is not easy to figure out, it's hard to find. In this process, I learned that the
other people before her, her family, and others, were giving her advice of saying, just throw the
banana, Shetland rajim, and push it up.
		

			I understand where they're coming from, you're actually meant to expose yourself to the very things
the very thoughts that are bothering you, gradually, and with help of a professional to do it slowly
but surely. And she was so upset because she loves her children as a mother. But these thoughts were
so powerful in her head, we have two things that people do either they ritualized, they form a
ritual around it, which is pushed as part of the disorder, or they actually try to push it away. So
then we bring it together, slowly, but surely exposure therapy to the very things that are upsetting
her, until eventually they fall away. By the end of the therapy, masha Allah, she was fully
		

			functional again, in this case, she was able to not just be in her house, again, as a mother,
prepare the meals, do things that she does at the home, but she actually was able to get out of the
house and actually go to the university get a master's degree, become very, you know, active in the
society again, whereas before she would spend all the hours of the day kind of stuck in one room. So
it's a drastic difference upon
		

			what are the problems you observe, especially in teenagers, for example, comparing themselves to be
the influences in social media or fear of missing out? So how do you solve these issues when they
come to you? Yeah, teenagers, I would say is another big category we work with, absolutely. People
are plugged in all the time. So they're looking at social media accounts and comparing themselves
with others. But there's also relationship issues, learning how to now become somebody who's
dependable. Also, we find that there is identity issues, as in to say, is Islam really for me? Now
they're hearing a lot of other ideologies and ideas, whether social media, or from the college
		

			university campus. And there is now coming into question, Who am I? And do I want this? Or do I want
to exchange it for something else? So this has been also very important where Islamic psychology
plays a very important role.
		

			Also, you told me that you have been listening to many dramatic stories that people will tell you,
how do yourself, get over these things that are affected? Maybe it comes to your dreams? So how did
you cope with these things when they happen? Yes, of course, and we in the field are only humans
ourselves SubhanAllah. There are some very good techniques that I've learned, both in my program,
itself, of how do you kind of keep things in the office as they say, and not kind of let it bleed
into your home life or your family life and so on. But also, more importantly, I think what I've
learned is from my spiritual teachers, so put on the kid or something in between each of the
		

			sessions, and also a practice of, I don't know if my patients know this, but I would make to all of
them, they're part of my TA. And you have to be someone who has a good kind of standing spiritually,
to then help the next person because an empty cup cannot pour out what it doesn't contain. As a
female doctor, you must have had a lot of female clients, what are the major problems and what would
you like to say to women that are watching us that have these kinds of problems? Probably the
biggest problem of the modern era that I'm finding right now is the concept of Superwoman. I can do
everything and anything and all of it
		

			And I just don't think that's healthy. Also, we learn the importance of help. This also takes
humility. And it takes a village, as we say, to raise a child, to have a good relationship with all
the members of the family. And if Allah did not give you the finances, the means or the people,
maybe this is not the right field or the time for you to do this thing. Recently, there was this
graduation ceremony of one of the famous universities in Turkey psychology department, they were
showing that the law ridiculous that manual? Yes. What do you think about that? If it's the most one
of the most amazing I have certain pieces of calligraphy that are in my office? And this is one of
		

			them? And yes, the verse that you mentioned, is it not with the remembrance of Allah, that the
hearts become tranquil? And this is such a beautiful concept. And for some people who are connected
already to Allah subhanaw taala. That makes sense for somebody who isn't it may not fully connect
just yet. What does this mean? When I work with a believer, Muslim, and sometimes people who are not
Muslim, but they have a connection to God of some sort, it's so much easier to do therapy with them
than someone who doesn't have this connection. Why? If somebody had a trauma happened, or something
difficult, and we're processing through it, ultimately, they understand something bigger than them
		

			is in charge, there's a divine wisdom to what happened to them, and also to the next stages of
healing. But if you don't see this, everything is dark and bleak and difficult. And you don't
understand the concept of that there's an al Qaeda or a sad there's a judgment coming next, for
whoever harmed you and hurt you. If you don't have this concept, and it's only here in this dunya
it's very confining Quran Yahweh, thank you for your beautiful answers. We've benefited a lot from
your experience. May Allah allow you to fulfill your dreams inshallah. And may you be a means of
healing many many Muslims and patients as well. I've had a wonderful interview today with the
		

			eternal passenger YouTube channel and him today that's been a wonderful opportunity to to share a
little bit about our work in Islamic psychology and also kind of be able to be with you all here in
Turkey I hope inshallah everyone who's viewing online benefits as well and keeps us in their
prayers.