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I am a Muslim, South Asian trainee, born and brought up in London. My drive to be therapeutically trained stems from my passion to provide taboo-free, accessible and relatable therapeutic support to all. In addition to my training, I work as a young person’s life coach. My background and beliefs have greatly shaped my perspective on the counselling and psychotherapy field. Coming from cultural traditions where concepts such as mental health and therapeutic support are alien ignites a drive in me to bridge the gap.

Creating a space where people of ethnic-minority or Muslim backgrounds can receive support from a person who shows curiosity about their experience before judgment is all important to me. I would like these clients to experience a therapist who can relate to them, who may look like them and who is informed about them. Even though the therapy world is progressing in a beautifully diverse manner, practitioners from an ethnic-minority, Middle-Eastern or Muslim background are still a minority. There is a huge proportion of people in need of mental health support who are receiving culturally incompetent levels of therapy, thus affecting their trust in the field and therapists overall. I believe much of this derives from a lack of culturally competent training and professional support, or encouragement. There is a misrepresentation of our communities in the media, with a lack of visibility and positive focus. In environments where these discussions do happen, I've found that those leading the conversation do not always prompt much needed expansion on these topics. The theme is generically approached, rather than explicitly facilitating cultural curiosity. 

I am the only person of my background on my course. At times, this can feel liberating, and a reason to be proud, and other times, it can be isolating and makes me question the place I hold in the world of therapeutic training. There is pressure to excel, and prove, that I have a right to be here. That I can provide a high standard of therapeutic care to people I support. That despite my hijab, or visibly ethnic features, or the cloud of public judgment around people who look like me, I too can be trusted as a therapist. 

A part of that stems from my own cultural insecurity which derived from discriminative experiences growing up. Neither diversity nor therapy were valued in the environment in which I grew up. As a young person, I had many South-Asian, Middle-Eastern and East-African friendship groups, and very rarely recall us having access to a therapist or supportive adult who we could relate to. Most of the time, if a referral for support was made, it was a therapist who evidently lacked cultural competence. Aspects of our experience were either misunderstood, judged, or completely ignored. Behaviours that were indicative of trauma, anxiety or depression were perceived by surrounding professionals as problematic, troublesome, or due to ‘bad parenting’. This resulted in a pool of judgment towards our communities. So many aspects of an individual’s experience have been shaped by culture, cultural values, beliefs, challenges, traditions and taboos. To minimise that reality is to prevent doing justice to that child, young person or adult’s therapeutic experience. After all, how can you empathetically and non-judgmentally support an individual when you lack awareness about aspects of their background that, for a large part, shape them? 

Finding the right therapist can be difficult but I have been able to find someone who, I feel, offers a true therapeutic experience. The level of cultural curiosity, validation, relatability, and non-judgment I have received is an experience beyond my ability to articulate. They are not from my own background, but have acknowledged how my culture, background and beliefs contribute to my experience of being. And this, without judgment. To me, that is what marks cultural competence. It is the ability to demonstrate skills that lead to validating and empathetic communication with people of other cultures, resulting in an impactful therapeutic experience.

The impact of misrepresentation on child, adolescent and adult clients is beyond measure. It affects and warps the way you see yourself, and your confidence in your identity. For years, I felt that I needed to minimise my ‘ethnic-self’, my ‘Muslim-self’. These are parts of me that I yearn to love, but don’t quite fully because society has taught me that it is safer not to. I spent a long time trying to be less culturally and ethnically visible, conforming in order to make others feel comfortable. This can be the result of misrepresentation-induced fear that if you show your true identity, people will recognise your difference too much, and paint you with the same brush that the media has been using for an incredibly long time. 

Thresholds October 2024

For far too long, Muslims have been represented as having extreme views, black and white, or backward ways of thinking, too often associated with extreme behaviours of groups that do not represent the true essence or beauty of the religion. Islam, for the majority of Muslims, is seen and experienced as a religion of peace. That is at the core of our belief. What is difficult to comprehend is that many individuals have a warped and opposing view of what we are taught and what we believe. For clients with therapists who are not Muslim, it is important for them to know that they are safe and included in the therapeutic space, and that they will be free of the judgment that is commonly exhibited towards the community.

At a time when Middle-Eastern and Muslim people are being globally villainised, and the world is becoming desensitised to our experiences, I encourage all of those reading to ponder on what role you can play in generating non-judgmental, validating therapeutic experiences for your clients from these backgrounds. 

I believe that a key reason why some professionals can be desensitised in how they provide support to people from these backgrounds could be due to an inability to target and challenge their pre-biases. As well as misrepresentation in the media, judgments towards our communities also derive from a lack of representation in larger spaces. Institutional representation could play a huge part in building acceptance of our communities, if organisations across all disciplines allowed it. Similar principles to those required in the therapeutic field apply across the board. If there are more accurate, positive and realistic representations of our communities, we are more likely to be seen as equal individuals, worthy of curiosity, support and compassion. 

Therapists can counteract stereotypes and biases in their practice by untangling their own pre-judgments and biases first. They can start by challenging themselves to unpack the embedded judgments about our communities, that they may not even recognise are subconsciously active in the therapeutic space with clients of different backgrounds. They could exhibit curiosity: ask their clients of these backgrounds about their experiences and acknowledge how that shapes them. They could show empathy and validation of the sometimes inevitable experiences of discrimination and, without shame, accept that they may not have been in receipt of that themselves, and acknowledge that there is a privilege attached to that. To ignore difference, and the blatant reality that your client is of a different culture and background to you, is to shut down the possibility of them sharing any difficult experiences related to that with you as a practitioner. It also fails to recognise the power imbalance. This sends the signal that you haven’t attempted to understand their worldview and experience. 

How can a client feel safe to explore these aspects of their experience of ‘difference’ if their therapist hasn’t acknowledged that it exists in the first place? 

When someone trains as a therapist, they may be driven by an aim to support and better society’s and individuals’ relationships with their mental health, personal experiences and traumas. To fully meet this mission, for all of society, it is our duty to understand how we can effectively approach supporting clients of diverse backgrounds, and complex needs or experiences. Advocacy and empowerment are core components that contribute to the uplifting and support of marginalised communities. 

The question that I ask myself on a recurring basis is, How can I use my platform and my training to amplify the voices of those who have been silenced or marginalised? I start by having the necessary conversations, and retracting from the fear of judgment that tells me not to. This empowers the part of self that wants to explore strategies for advocating for systemic change within the therapeutic profession and beyond. Recognising the disparity is the first element that requires change. This principle is something I believe applies to all aspects of life. When we are trying to encourage our clients in therapy, or they come to us with a goal to improve their quality of life, we don’t throw several solutions at them, and sell therapy as linear and short term. Instead, we facilitate, empower and encourage. We validate and inform them, so that they can find different routes towards a place of equilibrium. Similarly, in the world of representation in the therapeutic field, we need to start with first steps. 

This translates, not just to the client experience, but to the practitioner’s. The therapeutic community can take steps to ensure that all individuals, regardless of background, can understand what culturally responsive care looks like. A powerful approach to this would be to reconsider the level of prioritisation given to cultural competency training in counselling and therapy courses. Promoting diversity and inclusion in training programmes on a larger scale, or asking for contributions from trainees of different backgrounds, can greatly add to the value and impact of therapeutic training. Not only is this an inclusive way to support existing trainees of different communities, but it is also a way in which trainees lacking confidence in cultural competence can be encouraged to explore and prioritise that part of their training. These trainings should cover topics such as cultural humility, unconscious bias and effective communication across cultures. 

Collaboration and inclusivity play a pivotal part in redirecting how our communities and those of different backgrounds are perceived. It is similar to exhibiting cultural curiosity in the therapeutic space. Who better to receive information from than those who are a part of the communities themselves? This is one of the reasons why, when I was approached to write this article, I felt incredibly appreciated and recognised. For far too long, inclusive policies and practices have been written by those who are not even a part of these communities. Establishing partnerships and inclusivity between therapists from different backgrounds encourages the barriers to be bridged. It is a way of giving the voice and platform to these community members. That, in turn, contributes towards tailoring support to better meet the cultural needs of clients and therapists. 

This recognition, as well as the intention to provide a regular platform within Thresholds for trainees to express our experiences, are invaluable. My hope for the future of therapy is to reach an ideal point where trainees feel included, seen, heard, and considered in the therapeutic training they are receiving. Similarly, for children, young people and adults of these communities to reach the point where they can invite therapeutic experiences wholeheartedly with no fear of judgment, and confidence that they will be supported in a way that validates their identity. 

For the next generation of therapists, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds, I envision a therapeutic field where we are no longer the minority, where our contributions don’t need to be divided, and where we can equally contribute to the therapeutic space, and have our opinions and contributions seen as equally valuable. I’d like to recognise the efforts, support and encouragement from Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê¾«×¼×ÊÁÏ, and in particular the editors of Therapy Today and the divisional journals who have helped me to share this message. I am truly thankful and appreciative to be training within a space that allows diverse and unique perspectives to be heard. To be able to write and share this has contributed massively to my experience and confidence as a trainee from a South-Asian, Muslim background, and in feeling like I belong in this field as a future therapist. To my peers, I hope that this read has been a source of encouragement for self-reflection. I hope to have planted the seed that this conversation remains one that needs to be active and encouraged, in all therapeutic environments, in order to see accurate and positive representation for clients and therapists.