In his article for Lady Margaret Hall News, University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry DPhil candidate Gulamabbas Lakha speaks about his experiences with faith and the study of theology and psychiatry to consider how faith-based practices can support treatments for mental ill health, particularly in Muslim and other faith communities.
One issue that has been at the forefront of Gulamabbas’s thinking is how to overcome the stigma linked to mental illness, in particular within Muslim communities. He suggests that if interventions for depression, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness were presented using Islamic concepts and practices, it could make them easier to access for those communities, as the stigma associated with psychotherapy could diminish.
Gulamabbas’s DPhil takes a multi-disciplinary approach to investigating how religious concepts and practices can be harnessed for psychotherapeutic purposes among faith communities, focusing on depression within the UK Muslim population.
Read Gulamabbas’s article on the University of Oxford college Lady Margaret Hall’s website.
