My Story

My personal therapeutic journey mirrors my life as an academic and bicultural woman. As an undergraduate student, I came to therapy after a concerned professor shared I could not leave her office until I called the counseling center. I was not performing well in her classroom and she wanted me to get support. At the time, I did not know much about therapy. I definitely didn't know my university offered free sessions to students. My therapeutic experiences at this time ranged from transformative to confusing and microaggressive. These themes continued after seeking therapeutic support during my graduate program. Together, these experiences highlighted to me that while therapy can be a space for healing - harm is possible when providers are misinformed about religion and culture.  

I made the intention to pursue a Ph.D. in counseling psychology to understand how Muslim-American women make decisions about their health. I was struck by how the people around me navigated intersections of identity, faith, and gender differently. I had a particular interest in the relationship between mental and reproductive health given my interests in global public health. My clinical  training throughout graduate school demonstrated to me that multicultural competency did not always include the unique and often complex relational challenges working within your own community. The stories I heard from loved ones and remembering my therapeutic origin story made me curious about how sitting across from someone who looks like you in the therapy room can feel empowering yet extra vulnerable. This eventually lead me to examine Muslim women's experiences in the therapy room when providers had shared and non-shared racial, religious, and gender identities. My favorite part of this work has been helping my clients and research participants understand and accept themselves as cultural beings and it has been a gift to be able to support others on their therapeutic and personal development journey's. 

After 10 years studying, conducting research, and building and delivering community programming I continue to be curious about harm and healing in the therapy room, multicultural and liberation-oriented training curriculum development, as well as what access to culturally-sensitive, accurate, and evidence-based care really looks like for community of color. I stand by the belief that therapy is one of many ways to heal and that therapy without community support is limited when working with individuals with marginalized identities.