THERAPY FOR ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION FOR MUSLIM WOMEN
IN EDMONTON, AB & ACROSS ALBERTA, NEW BRUNSWICK, NOVA SCOTIA, NUNAVUT AND QUEBEC, CANADA
Helping you Overcome Anxiety & Depression, and find Calm + Joy
Lately, you’ve been feeling more anxious than usual.
The tightness and heaviness in your chest, as well as the worrying and overthinking, are much more present than they used to be.
You sometimes feel so overwhelmed that you cannot concentrate.
At the same time, you’ve noticed that your brain gets more stuck on information and details that you paradoxically find unnecessary. Yet, you cannot seem to detach from them and find yourself spending way too much time on certain tasks.
You’ve also noticed feeling less motivated, low on energetic, and frankly exhausted. Yet, when it’s time for bed, you struggle to fall asleep, and get the rest you need and deserve, as the anxious thoughts kick in
Truthfully, you have been feeling sad, crying when you’re alone and attempting to distract yourself from your pain, but your usual coping strategies do not feel helpful anymore.
You are scared of what the future holds, and although you try to be ‘positive’, you cannot just ignore your worries and discouragement about things getting better.
You want to understand what anxiety and depression mean in your case, but more than anything, you would like to break the patterns that lead you to the same dark place, overcome anxious and depressive feelings, and feel more calm, energy, drive and joy each day, insha’Allah.
You’ve come to the right place!
Assalaam Aleykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatouh. I am Audrey Kodye, a Sunni Muslim Registered Psychologist.
MY APPROACH TO THERAPY FOR ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION FOR MUSLIM WOMEN
Understanding the unique experiences of anxiety and depression in Muslim women
My first goal, as we embark on your therapy journey, will be to provide you with a warm, accepting space where you can feel free to let your guard down and come as you are. Your experience is what’s most important, and I will regularly check in with you about whether you are consistently feeling safe to share what’s on your mind and heart.
During our first few sessions, I will gather, amongst other things, information about your life story and when you started noticing signs of anxiety and depression in your life, as well as the way you have seen them evolve over time. I will give you space to just talk about the things that have been weighing on you and that you have perhaps not felt comfortable sharing or asking about, for fear of being looked down upon and criticized.
Only when you’re ready will we move on to the active part of therapy work, which will start with describing a very specific moment in time when you felt anxious and depressed. By analyzing this event as well as the emotions and thoughts you experienced in that situation, we will be able to understand what anxiety and depression look like in your case, and adapt therapy to meet your needs.
I will curate methods from over a hundred that we will be able to test together over a few sessions, to find the ones that will help you overcome your anxious and depressive feelings sustainably.
Tailoring therapy for anxiety and depression for Muslim women to what works for you
In my approach, no two therapy courses meant to address anxiety and depression ever look exactly the same.
At the same time, there are some commonalities in what tends to work best.
Exposure therapy for Muslim women with anxiety
For instance, overcoming anxiety usually involves some form of exposure work, while taking every measure to make sure that you are safe throughout, either through imagining a feared scenario or through gradually facing some elements of this scenario in real life.
A gentle and collaborative approach to exposure for Muslim women
If you decide to work with me, I will thoroughly prepare you for exposures, including through du’aa (read more about one of them here), and we will ease into them together. We will do all exposure exercises together during our sessions, 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.
Exposure aims to help you realize that the ‘monster has no teeth’; this technique will help you come to the realization that your feared scenario does not materialize, and if it does, that you have what it takes to face it. I know that facing our worst fears is extremely daunting; this part of therapy was the hardest for me when I was seeing my own therapist. At the same time, the Muslim women I have worked with agree that exposure is an incredibly effective and empowering method to overcome anxiety, and has the desirable side effect of boosting confidence.
Screening for and treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in Muslim women
I systematically screen all my clients for OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). Although I dislike the idea of assigning a diagnostic label, I have found that OCD is often misdiagnosed as an anxiety disorder. However, OCD works a bit differently and generally responds very well to a specific kind of modality called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).
ERP not only involves exposure to feared stimuli and obsessions, which are the unwanted thoughts and images that are typical of OCD, but also refraining from performing compulsions that serve to reduce anxiety; the decrease in anxiety level that compulsions afford is temporary and strengthens the OCD cycle, thereby reinforcing obsessions. ERP will disrupt the OCD cycle.
We will also explore your values so your adaptive response to obsessions (which will gradually decrease and may even disappear altogether as we do ERP together) is aligned with these values and fosters a sense of purpose and satisfaction.
ERP is one of only two modalities that have strong research support for the treatment of OCD according to the American Psychological Association.
People-pleasing and anxiety in Muslim women
A lot of the Muslim women I have worked with and who struggled with anxiety, also described themselves as ‘people-pleasers’, much like I used to, and found the hidden emotion model of anxiety to be helpful.
The hidden emotion model posits that anxiety may arise when we suppress another emotion, which is too hard for us to express, often out of fear of hurting someone else’s feelings. The suppressed emotion hence persists on a subconscious level.
Another way to think of this is the idea that when we push an issue under the rug because it is too uncomfortable for us to address, the problem, which we continue to be aware of (at the very least on a subconscious level) is still there, causing us to potentially still feel anxious about it.
The hidden emotion technique is then used to bring the repressed issue to the conscious level by equipping you with tools, often communication strategies, that will help you address relational challenges in a way that is aligned with the Deen, is healthy, empathetic and respectful (for you and the other person) and will help to repair and deepen your relationships, should you wish to do so.
Depression therapy for Muslim women
When I work with Muslim women experiencing depression, I also use different methods depending on individual factors. Commonly used methods include behavioural activation and CBT (cognitive behavior therapy) techniques, which are both strongly supported by research as per the American Psychological Association. A lot of the CBT techniques that I use take the form of role-play exercises, which involve ‘giving life’ to self-defeating thoughts and beliefs, and allowing you to talk back to them, making the impact of these techniques quite powerful, effective and lasting.
Islamic teachings informing therapy for Anxiety and Depression for Muslim women
Therapy for anxiety and depression with me involves using teachings derived from the Qu’ran, Ahadith and Seerah, as a central part of therapy, to help you attain recovery as well as strengthen your connection to Allah ﷻ. As Muslims, we have have a lot of beneficial knowledge about Islam that can help us overcome anxiety and depression, Alhamdulillah. However, there is a difference between knowing and internalizing.
Insha’Allah, we will work to transform how you respond to moments when you feel particularly anxious and depressed, in a way that aligns with Islam. The way we achieve this will be tailored to your unique difficulties and needs, insha’Allah, but I have found that helping clients strengthen their level of Taqwa (mindfulness and awareness of Allah ﷻ) and Tawakkul (reliance on Allah ﷻ while making active efforts to achieve our goals) is beneficial, Alhamdoulillah.
The rationale for this is that anxiety is fear of the future, which ultimately only Allah ﷻ has any control over. Through increasing our level of Taqwa and Tawakkul, so we may completely trust in Allah ﷻ and His mercy, while trying our best in all circumstances, our level of anxiety naturally decreases, Alhamdulillah.
Umar ibn Al-Khattab narrated that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said:
“If you were to rely upon Allah with the required reliance, then He would provide for you just as a bird is provided for: it goes out in the morning empty, and returns full.”
Reference: Jami’ at-Tirmidhi 2344
Similarly, depression often comes with feelings of discouragement. As our levels of Taqwa and Tawakkul increase, so does our level of belief in Allah’s words, Alhamdulillah:
So, surely with hardship comes ease.
Surely with ˹that˺ hardship comes ˹more˺ ease.
Qu’ran (94:5-6)
Interested in working together to overcome your anxiety and depression, insha’Allah?
for therapy for anxiety and depression for Muslim women in AB, NB, NS, NU & QC, with Audrey Kodye, Registered Psychologist
FAQS
Frequently asked questions about therapy for anxiety and depression for Muslim women
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.
