ISLAMIC TRAUMA THERAPY FOR MUSLIM WOMEN
IN EDMONTON, AB & ACROSS ALBERTA, NEW BRUNSWICK, NOVA SCOTIA, NUNAVUT AND QUEBEC, CANADA
Helping you Heal & be Empowered
On the outside, it looked like you had an okay childhood, surrounded by reliable adults. Yet, you were dealing with a lot of painful events and felt like you were doing it all alone.
And these feelings of loneliness never quite left.
There have been a lot of stressors in your life in the last little while, so much so that stress is a daily thing at this point, and you can notice your past showing up in the present, even those things about which you used to think “I’m over that”. Sometimes you are overwhelmed and anxious, and at other times, you may just feel numb.
Although you did nothing to deserve what you went through as a child, you’ve been dealing with guilt and shame, as well as regret and feeling down on yourself.
You are angry and resentful about the things that happened and with good reason, but you don’t like how you get irritable when around your immediate family and friends, and occasionally lash out; you wish to gain more control over your emotions and express them in a way that feels aligned, insha’Allah.
You want to be able to open up and process your trauma in a non-judgmental and supportive environment, move forward from your painful past and get to a place of healing, regulation, calm and happiness insha’Allah.
Maybe you’ve never had a safe space where you could talk about and process what happened to you, or perhaps you’ve told parts of your story to a therapist before but did not get the help you need and deserve.
I know what it’s like and I’m happy you’re here!
As Salaam Aleykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatouh. I am a Audrey Kodye, Registered Psychologist.
MY APPROACH TO ISLAMIC TRAUMA THERAPY
No two islamic trauma therapy journeys are ever exactly the same, but in trauma therapy with me, you can expect to be given a safe space where you can feel comfortable opening up.
We will start with a general assessment that will help us gain a thorough understanding, amongst other things, of your identities, your past as well as of your current struggles. I will listen and check in with you regularly to make sure you consistently feel heard, seen and safe during our sessions together. Whether you wish to dive into the traumatic events you’ve been through during our first sessions or need more time, I will follow your lead. We will talk about it when you’re ready.
We will then zero in on one recent, specific moment in time when you noticed the trauma you went through show up in the present. Although the focus on one specific moment may seem limiting at first, this will allow us to thoroughly understand the hold that trauma currently has over you, and of the painful emotions, dysfunctional beliefs and thoughts that it imposes on you.
Islamic trauma therapy with me includes a customized treatment plan, where we will draw from a multitude of techniques to find the ones that work best for you. At the same time, it is my experience that Islamic trauma therapy that has meaningful, long-term impact and helps you attain a level of confidence that you never thought possible, entails some form of exposure to the traumatic events, through talking about them, and to feared situations that you may also be currently avoiding. As you can imagine, exposure has been, for the majority of my Muslim female clients, including myself when I was doing my own therapy, the most nerve-racking part of trauma therapy but also the most empowering!
The rationale behind exposure is that by understanding and facing elements associated with the trauma you experienced (I will ensure that you are never put in an unsafe situation for exposure purposes), trauma will eventually no longer have any power over you.
Some Muslim women find that just telling their story and understanding trauma mechanisms help to eliminate their intrusive memories, nightmares and/or flashbacks of the trauma and lead to formerly triggering situations, people, places and objects no longer eliciting strong unpleasant emotions. Others may need to work on the trauma they experienced a bit more, and that’s ok. Muslim women who need to work a bit more on the trauma they experienced may have simply never felt safe enough to fully or partially process it.
For in-depth trauma work in my approach, I use Prolonged Exposure therapy, one of only two modalities that have strong research support for the treatment of PTSD (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), according to the American Psychological Association.
Prolonged exposure therapy involves recalling a traumatic memory or gradually facing triggers of trauma safely in real life.
For example, I work with Sisters who have been through a motor vehicle accident and have been avoiding using modes of transportation. Once they feel ready to do so, we do exercises that involve imagining that they are in a vehicle until they feel no anxiety in response to these exercises. At a later stage, we work on helping them be comfortable being in a car in real life again.
I will thoroughly prepare you for exposures and we will ease into them together. We will do all exposure exercises during our sessions together, until you feel comfortable doing them outside of sessions and as a general rule, I will never force you to do anything you do not wish to do.
We will also check in with regards to any lingering, intense feelings of anxiety, shame and guilt, to name a few, that may be associated with the trauma you endured and help you overcome them.
Moreover, we will work on stressful experiences you may be currently going through, such as discrimination, racism and micro-aggressions, and explore healthy & empowering ways to respond to such experiences, drawing from my training in helping clients with racial trauma or PTSD resulting from racism. We will also give due consideration to intergenerational trauma, the acknowledgement that our parents’ and ancestors’ unprocessed trauma may also impact us, although we did not directly experience the traumatic events they went through.
Islamic teachings used in Islamic trauma therapy for Muslim women
Islamic trauma therapy with me, puts the wealth of knowledge from the Qu’ran, Ahadiths and Seerah concerning mental health issues and their treatment, at the very centre of the healing process, to help you attain recovery and spiritual growth, insha’Allah.
I believe that islamic trauma therapy that will work for you insha’Allah, has to be customized to meet your unique difficulties and needs, including when it comes to the use of specific Islamic knowledge and practices both in the processing and healing stages of trauma work.
Below are two of the blocks that have come up during islamic trauma work with Muslim women, that may be relevant to you, and how we disputed these notions using Islamic knowledge to help ease into trauma processing Alhamdulillah:
- The fear that talking about trauma and the people, especially family members, who were involved, may be sinful.
Prophet Muhammad SAW used to create safe spaces for Sahabbas who were struggling so they could share these struggles and receive guidance.
Allah SWT knows our hearts and our intentions in sharing our stories.
- We may have been told that we should simply forget the trauma we endured, and focus on the present and future instead of the past.
Our Prophet SAW went through the Year of Sorrow, following the death of his wife Khadija (RA) and his uncle Abu Talib, despite the immeasurable strength of his iman. Suffering and admitting to the same are not signs of weakness, and are often a necessary step to healing and being grounded in the present.
After Islamic Trauma therapy, insha'Allah:
Trauma-related thoughts, nightmares and recollections will no longer rule your life.
You will not forget what happened to you, but the trauma will now be neatly tucked away in a part of your brain. This means that if you choose to revisit the trauma, you will be ale to access these memories. However, they will either no longer show up unexpectedly in your mind or if they do, this will be short-lived and you will be able to easily re-focus on the present.
Your mood will improve drastically.
You will at peace and confident.
The way you learned to survive is not the way you need to live anymore.
for Islamic trauma therapy for Muslim women in AB, NB, NS, NU & QC, with Audrey Kodye, Registered Psychologist
FAQS
Frequently asked questions about trauma therapy
My fees are $235 per 50-minute session. Longer sessions are available at the same rate.
Being in private practice, my fees are not covered by government-funded public health insurance, such as the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan, the New Brunswick Medicare program, the Nova Scotia Medical Services Insurance program, the Nunavut Health care plan and the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec.
However, since I am a Registered Psychologist, if your private insurance plan includes coverage for mental health, therapy sessions with me will usually be covered.
You may contact your insurance provider to find out how much coverage you have per year.
It may also be beneficial to ask whether you have a health spending account that may be used toward therapy sessions.
I direct-bill the following insurance companies:
- Aga financial group
- Alberta Blue Cross
- belairdirect
- Beneva | SSQ
- BPA
- C.C.W.U
- Canada Life | Great-West Life
- Chambers Plan
- CINUP
- Coughlin
- Cowan
- Desjardins
- Equitable Life of Canada
- First Canadian Health
- G.M.S
- Group health
- Group Source
- iA Financial Group
- Johnston Group
- Local 183
- Manion
- Manulife
- Maximum Benefit
- MDM Insurance Services Inc.
- People Corporation
- RWAM
- Simply Benefits
- SunLife
- TELUS Health
- The Public Service health care
- Union Benefits
- UV Insurance
My fees may be claimed under tax deductible health care expenses on your income tax return.
If you are eligible for these programs, please note that I also have an agreement to provide services under:
- the NIHB (Non-Insured Health Benefits) program which provides eligible First Nations and Inuit clients with coverage for various benefits, including mental health counselling. Through this program, eligible clients can receive up to 22 hours of counselling a year.
- the Bigstone Health benefits program which provides benefits to members of Bigstone Cree nation. Through this program, clients can receive up to 22 hours of counselling every 12 months.
- federal programs such as the Interim Federal Health program (IFHP) administered under Immigration, Regufees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC); this program provides limited, temporary coverage of health care benefits for specific groups of people who don’t have provincial, territorial, or private health care coverage. I also direct-bill federal programs such as programs for members of the Canadian armed forces (CAF), Royal Canadian Mounted police (RCMP), and Veteran Affairs Canada (VAC).
I also have a partnership with Sisters Dialogue that allows Muslim women residing in Alberta to see me free of charge, for 5 sessions with the possiblity to extend coverage.
You may email me at audrey@overanxietypsych.com or schedule a free 15-minute consultation here.
