living in a one-bedroom flat. All I could do was follow up with a housing-support letter.
Refl ections and refl exive learning Ref lections-in-the moment (Schö n,
1983): I have never worked in such an emotionally laden national-disaster context before. It was not just about one death and one family. It was about all the deaths, all families, all the local communities and indeed, nationally. We were all in a state of shock, grieving and mourning. What can I say to Adam’s statement that would be useful? I recall having a silent parallel conversation with myself. This is not a moment of clever techniques such as circular questions: “What might your cousin have said about this?” My own embodied experience was that I felt overwhelmed and lost. I was mirroring the client, the family, the communities, etc. Ref lections-on-the moment: I felt
Is it time for us to have an honest conversation about the level of oppression and discrimination in our society?
for my client-family and agreeing. I wondered how to respond to issues that were so highly political and ‘in your face’? Could I have joined in the family position and openly acknowledge the failures and naming it for them? Perhaps written a letter to someone other than a housing department? If not then, I am naming the failure of our governments to protect the most vulnerable now. It is a shame on us all. This bought me back full circle as to why I trained as family therapist in the first place, to be part
of the process of ‘doing’ social justice healing.
Conclusion I was working in a highly-politicalised
context of an unprecedented national disaster; therefore, everything was a learning. Is it time for us to have an honest
clumsy with my interventions. At times, I just held Laila’s hand. At the end of the session, Laila would hug me and I knew instinctively to turn to that hug, to receive and to give. Afterwards, I had two thoughts, I wondered if I had broken some ethical code? But my second thought was, “What the hell? We were going through ‘hell on earth’ and I think I can safely say that was an ‘allowed’ outcome!” Similarly, with Adam’s statement, I
listened, acknowledging how difficult it might be and that I could not begin to understand. Intuitively, I knew that joining in that position might make it more difficult for the couple; for example, make Laila weep harder. At the same time, I was in a tug with myself, not to remain ‘politically neutral’ on the appearance of it when I was hurting
conversation about the level of oppression and discrimination in our society? And yes, we need to also talk about terror/ism. We are in a systemic web where cutbacks from national governments and services have directly impacted on our health, wellbeing and, in this case, loss of lives and homes. We cannot ignore the reality of where some of our clients are set up structurally to struggle and how much choice and opportunities are available to them/us. Can we? Working in a community mosque-
based setting was unique, as a lone clinician, particularly in the first months after the fire, every day I was faced with high levels of risk and unsafe certainty (Mason, 1993). Building a relationship with the staff, volunteers, community members and clients was the highest context as I saw many funeral services and people coming together to mourn
and pay respect. It was truly a systemic piece of work that challenged me on so many fronts that demanded exercising all my capacities as a human being and as a family therapist. It was the Zikir (remembrance of the
sacred) that kept hope alight in guiding my work with these overwhelmed, grief consumed families and communities.
References Malik, R. (2018) Family therapy and use of Quranic stories. In: C. York Al-Karam (ed.) Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy – Uniting Faith and Professional Practice. Templeton Press. Mason, B. (1993) Towards positions of safe uncertainty. Human Systems, 4: 189-200. Schö n, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Temple Smith. Skinner, R. (2010) An Islamic approach to psychology and mental health. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 13(6): 547-551. White, M. (1992) Deconstruction and therapy. In: D. Epston & M. White, Experience, Contradiction, Narrative and Imagination: Selected Papers. Adelaide: Dulwich Centre Publications.
Nasima is a consultant specialist in independent private practice working in London. Nasima trained as systemic/ family psychotherapist (Tavistock) and as a clinical supervisor (AFT). Nasima has a portfolio of work, one of which was working with a local mosque in providing disaster crisis relief work following the Grenfell Tower Fire, in London. Nasima is interested in bringing cultural sensitivity and faith-based spirituality into her work. Email:
na_sima@hotmail.co.uk
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Context 164, August 2019
The professional, political and personal self: A faith-based indigenous psychology service in the context of disaster and loss, grief and trauma work
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