70I The Power of Story and Faith: Islamic Trauma Healing in Practice

Overview:

We dive into the origins, structure, and impact of Islamic Trauma Healing—a community-driven, lay-led mental health intervention designed for Muslim communities, particularly Afghans and Somalis who have experienced significant trauma. Joining us are Mohammed Haroon , an Afghan mental health counselor and research coordinator, and Jake Bentley, a clinical psychologist from the University of Washington. We explore the barriers many Muslim refugees face with Western mental health services, how Islamic Trauma Healing uniquely integrates faith, community narratives, and evidence-based trauma care, and what sessions look like in practice. We discuss the training process for community leaders, the intervention’s positive effects—both academically and through personal testimonials—and address how culturally contextualized models like this can help reduce stigma and foster healing. Finally, we consider possibilities for broader dissemination and adaptation of the model to other communities.

Key Topics:

• "Community Engagement and Prophet Narratives"
• Training Community Leaders for Facilitation
• Lay Leader Training Structure
• Program Expansion and Cultural Alignment
• Building Trust with Community Stakeholders
• Encouraging Feedback on Pilot Program
• Expanding Mental Health Program Reach
• Culturally Adapted Trauma Healing

Resources:

• Islamic Trauma Healing: Integrating Faith and Empirically Supported Principles in a Community-Based Program - PubMed
• Islamic trauma healing (ITH): A scalable, community-based program for trauma: Cluster randomized control trial design and method - ScienceDirect

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