About Me

For over two decades, I worked with communities across the UK, offering pastoral and educational support in the Muslim community and beyond. This work has grounded my understanding of how culture, faith, and identity shape our experience of life.

I initially graduated from Leeds University with a degree in Arabic Studies in 2001. Then I went on to spend the next ten years living in Fez, Morocco, immersing myself in traditional Islamic studies and North African culture. This experience continues to inform my therapeutic approach today, as I weave together Islamic principles, clinical research, and somatic, trauma-informed practices of modern psychotherapy.

After teaching in the UK from 2007-16, I decided to retrain as a counsellor and psychotherapist due to the benefit I felt from it in my personal life but also based on the needs I saw in society. I trained in Somatic Experiencing® and then graduated from Leeds Beckett in 2023. My work draws on attachment theory, trauma-focused counselling, and nervous system regulation to support healing on the level of mind, body and spirit.

I have had the privilege of studying with Hakim Archuletta, deepening my understanding of traditional wisdom and bodywork, and have trained in Islamic approaches to psychology and psychotherapy through the International Association of Islamic Psychology (IAIP).