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Supporting Muslims in Times of Grief Workshop
June 7 @ 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Ensuring Cross-Cultural Understanding & Evidence Based Care
Australia’s ever-evolving transcultural milieu has been apparent for decades. In the spirit of enhancing culturally and spiritually sensitive mental health practice, this workshop presents findings of a four-year research exploring the needs of grieving Muslims and the support systems available. This half-day workshop provides evidence-based theory and equips mental health professionals and supporting stakeholders with strategies to provide exceptional transcultural care and support for Muslims in Australia.
Being culturally diverse and aware of Islamic values does not make practitioners culturally and spiritually responsive. Exploring matters of culture and faith are often awkward to broach, yet they play a prominent role amongst Muslims, in grief and loss. Culturally and spiritually practice is crucial to avoid:
- Misdiagnosis
- Naïve cultural competence
- Misinterpretation
- Inadequate support
Staying abreast of evidence-based practice contribute significantly to a practitioner’s approach, client’s experience of care, client’s quality of care, client’s perception of the standard of care, and subsequently, client’s retention.
Content
Participants will benefit from:
– A deeper understanding of how loss is organised in the psyche
– Developing heterogenous cultural literacy
– An understanding of the impacts of loss during the pandemic and its relevance to migrant and CALD populations
– Awareness of the barriers and limitations when supporting the Muslim cohort
– In-depth insights into the latest research and best practices in transcultural mental health care informed by other practitioners
– The biopsychosocio-spiritual model
Learning Objectives
- A practical 7-step approach to confidently and sensitively explore religion and spirituality with grieving Muslims
- Learning Meaning Making/ Meaning Reconstruction Model
- Revisit the existential Islamic framework on grief
- Develop awareness around Prolonged Grief, Traumatic Grief, Complicated Grief & Disenfranchised Grief
- Learn how to ground clients retraumatized clients during assessment, intake, or therapy
- Understand the difference between religion and spirituality differ
- Collaborate and develop relevant referral pathways
Participants will also receive:
- 100-page Culturally-Informed Trauma Workbook
- A tip sheet on relevant exploratory questions
- A list of spiritual styles
- A selection of existential literature for practitioners and clients
By the end of this workshop, participants will have an increased understanding of the grief landscape and transcultural support informed by practitioners and religious leaders themselves. It also reminds us of the value of embracing elements of transcendence in therapeutic practices.
Participants will also be inspired to build bridges between the gaps of public and private sector support, as well as religious and secular support. From evidence-based interventions to collegial exploration, attendees will be empowered to explore matters of culture and faith confidently within Australia’s contemporary population.
Mode of delivery
Face to face
Cost: $90 includes training manual and refreshments
Registration link:
About the Facilitator:
Dr. Amirah Shah is a registered psychotherapist and professional supervisor who specialises in transcultural grief and trauma. Her academic background is in psychology and counselling. She has been in the mental health industry in Singapore and Australia since 2009. As a practitioner and a lecturer, her experience spans over working with children and adults presenting with a range of diversity such as neurodiversity, disability, PTSD & CPTSD, end-of-life care and chronic illness, intercultural relationships, as well as grief and loss. Her PhD research explored the phenomenology of how grief interacted with faith amongst Muslims in SEQ, and the transcultural support available in the region. She is a published author of a children’s book on navigating grief titled, The Truck Family. She also hosts a podcast show on mental health called Science of the Soul in her free time.”
