Muslim Female Therapists: Identity and Ethics

Background:

Female Muslim systemic or family practitioners are placed in a peculiar situation where the intersection between their religion and gender may mean that they face different challenges in negotiating identities as part of their therapeutic practice. These challenges may be made more complex in case of female practitioners who are veiled (hijab) and are involved in therapy work with families that may be Muslim as well as non-Muslim. The research question that is raised against this background is as follows:

Does the intersection of female Muslim systemic practitioners demand a different training in the context of their faith identity and professional ethics?

The research question is based on the theme of negotiating identities for female Muslim practitioners.

Systemic literature about Muslim systemic practitioners/ family therapists:

Systemic family practice has been found to have significant value for family practice, with benefits for both children (Carr,, 2009a) and adults (Carr, 2009b). However, it is useful to research further into how training can be an important to successful systemic practice. In this area, there is little research on the intersection of the practitioner’s gender and religion, that can help inform the issue of faith identity in systemic practice.

One of the themes that is visible in the literature on Muslim female family practitioners is that of negotiating therapies in the western world as a Muslim family practitioner (Armstrong & Munro, 2018). Being a Muslim may place the family practitioner in a position to work with Muslim communities so that Islamic doctrines and worldview can inform the practice; however, there may also be differences between the epistemology of social constructionism and Islamic doctrine that the practitioner will have to overcome (Armstrong & Munro, 2018). I found this theme very interesting because it is something that I can relate to as a Muslim family practitioner. The intersection between the gender and religion of the practitioner also places me at a peculiar position, which my counterparts who are non-Muslim females or Muslim males, will not relate to because being a veiled Muslim family practitioner places me at a different position, one where negotiating therapies may be challenging in some ways that are different from those faced by my counterparts.

That Muslim practitioners, especially those who choose to wear the Hijab are placed in a somewhat different position than others, is a condition that has been written about in literature as well (Daneshpour, 2009). Especially in the world dominated by the notion of security post the events of September 11, 2001 when terror attacks against the United States were conducted, female practitioners of Islamic faith are conspicuous by the choice of their head apparel, which makes them stand out some times to their disadvantage (Daneshpour, 2009). With regard to this, Daneshpour (2009) writes that for Muslim women who are living in the United States, one of the challenges is to negotiate identities “across different cultural terrains” (p. 347). As a female Muslim practitioner in Hijab, Daneshpour writes about her work with clients’ who had negative perceptions of her due to the events of 9/11 and was challenged by the need to change such perspectives, and develop empathy toward Muslim women so that her work became all the more complex because not only had she got to help her clients, she first had to work through their negative perceptions of herself due to her faith (Daneshpour, 2009, p. 348).

Daneshpour (2009) is not alone in her experiences or opinions about the challenge faced by Muslim female practitioners in negotiating identities; others, including male Muslim family practitioners may also find themselves having to negotiate identities (Rivett, 2016). However, a female Muslim practitioner’s experience may be made more complex due to the intersection between religion and gender (Daneshpour, 2009). To some extent, there may be some benefit in providing religious-distinctive doctoral programmes that can address the need of students who have committed religious perspectives (Campbell & Kim, 2015). However, there also may be arguments against such approach, such as, the course may become oriented to respond in a non secular way to something that should be secular, that is family practice (Rivett, 2016).

The difference between Rivett (2016) and Campbell and Kim (2015) is striking for me because as a female Muslim practitioner, I may be able to empathise with the idea that Islamic doctrine can provide some useful insights that can help me respond to Muslim families better, but as a family practitioner in a secular environment, I may be torn between social constructivist epistemology and Islamic doctrine, where there is a conflict between the two. This is one of the important themes that is important to me in this research study, which brings me back to the theme of negotiating therapies in the western world as a female Muslim family practitioner.

Design:

The research design for this study is qualitative in nature. I have chosen qualitative based research because the complex and multi-layered narratives that I expect to draw from the participants of this research can best be analysed within the framework of a qualitative research design. Qualitative research design offers flexibility to the researcher, which in this case is something that I think will strengthen my research as it will allow me to design a framework which allows reflexivity as well as subjectivity. Qualitative research design is appropriate for such research studies, which involve subjective and multi layered data or information (Opoku, Ahmed, & Akotia, 2016).

Reflexivity is an important goal for me in this research study. Reflexivity can be maintained in a design that is open in terms of methodology, and allows the researcher to be aware of the social setting of the research itself (Green & Thorogood, 2018, p. 277). In research involving psychotherapy, reflexive approach can be useful as it makes the researcher use his own notes, thoughts and reactions as a part of the research process (Dallos & Vetere, 2005, p. 59). This ensures that we use our self to make sense of our observations (Dallos & Vetere, 2005, p. 165).

The research data is to be collected through semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews are chosen here as a part of the qualitative research design. There was a choice between structured, semi-structured and long or in-depth interviews. Structured interviews were not chosen because it was thought that these will be too rigid and controlled by the interviewer to allow a free flow of sensitive information from the interviewees (Bryman, 2015). Long interviews were not chosen as these would be too free flowing and completely outside the control of the interviewer (Bryman, 2015). Semi-structured interviews allow some level of control on the part of the interviewer so that the interview can be managed to some extent, while there would be some flexibility and freedom for the interviewee to delve into their narratives (Bryman, 2015).

In psychology research, semi-structured interviews are the most widely used method for data collection (Willig, 2008, p. 29). Semi-structured interviewing is preferred because it is amenable to different kinds of methods for analysis including discursive analysis, narrative analysis, and interpretative phenomenology (Willig, 2008). Semi-structured interviews are also preferred because these are easier to handle, have fewer logistical difficulties, and can be arranged with a small group of participants (Willig, 2008, p. 29). At the same time, it is to be noted that semi-structured interviews have to be designed with care and planning, otherwise it would be difficult for the interviewer to control the interview, and some control is required in semi-structured interviewing. It is also important to note that in semi-structured interviews, the researcher has to be interpretative to an extent because the meaning of the data revealed by the interviewee has to be identified by the researcher rather than focusing on lexical comparability (Willig, 2008, p. 30). Also notable is the fact that semi-structured interviewing depends to a great extent on the rapport between the interviewer and the interviewee (Willig, 2008). The interviewer also needs to make sure that he does not abuse the informal environment of the interview to get the interviewee to reveal more information than the latter is comfortable with (Willig, 2008, p. 30). Semi-structured interviews will be useful in my research because it will allow me to conduct the interview in a conversational manner, which will help me put the interviewee at ease and allow the interviewee to be more informative that they would have been in a more structured interview (Williams, Patterson, & Edwards, 2014).

The semi-structured interviews for this research may last from anywhere between 40 minutes to an hour or more. The agenda for the interview will be set before hand to include a number of open-ended questions that will be put to the interviewee during the interview. I will be recording the information at the time of the interview, and will later be transcribing and analysing the data collected (Williams, Patterson, & Edwards, 2014). This will allow me to then present the findings of the interviews after IPA.

Participants:

The participants in this research will include 4 Muslim females: a general practitioner, a teaching assistant and two community leaders. One participant is also a gatekeeper.

The participants were selected as they trained at Springfield hospital as part of a new initiative by WCEN.

Analysis:

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method will be used to analyse the data of the interviews for this research. IPA is a method in qualitative analysis that is based on the psychological interest in how people make sense of their experience (Larkin & Thompson, 2012). In order to do IPA research, the researcher will have to collect reflective, detailed, first person accounts from research participants, so that the researcher is able to do two things at the end of the study: give voice to the participants and make sense of the participants’ accounts in the context of the research (Larkin & Thompson, 2012). I chose IPA although I was first tempted to use the narrative analysis method as I thought that this would allow me to interpret stories or information provided within the context of research. Narrative analysis is based on the participants telling their life histories and experiences that they may have had, and their relationship to their life stories as presented to the researcher (Green & Thorogood, 2018, p. 297). The researcher uses narrative structures to make sense of the data that is presented to her through the stories told by the participants (Green & Thorogood, 2018, p. 299). However, there was the possible risk of my romanticising or over relying on the stories to represent the social realities, which made me choose IPA over narrative analysis.

IPA is based on the premise that an understanding of the world needs an understanding of experience (Larkin & Thompson, 2012). Using inter-subjective meaning making, researchers can use the data from the participants in the research to make sense of the data and derive meaning from the experiences of the participants to make sense of the world (Larkin & Thompson, 2012). IPA will be suited to this research because even the research question that is designed for this research is an open question which is focussed on the experiences and understandings of the participants (Larkin & Thompson, 2012). Moreover, this research is exploratory in nature and not explanatory, which is suited to the IPA analysis method (Larkin & Thompson, 2012). My focus here would be to identify that which matters to the participants and then explore what this might mean to the participants. Therefore, the approach is inductive in nature, which is amenable to the qualitative research method undertaken in this research. This should lead to certain themes once the data is analysed in entirety.

Ethical Issues:

In a qualitative research like this one, involving interview method, one ethical issue that is involved is regarding the confidentiality of the information of the participant. I will be informing the participant at the beginning of the interview that their personal information will remain confidential and I will not be divulging their personal information to any third parties. Another ethical issue will be that of information regarding the study as informed consent of the participants is required for ethical approval. For this purpose, I will be putting the information and background of the study in the Information Sheet which will be given to the participant at the beginning of the interview. As interviews are used for data collection and IPA method is being used for analysis of the data, yet another ethical issue is that of misinterpretation of data. In order to avoid this, I will try to give the ordinary meaning to words as far as possible or clarify the meaning from the participants where I am unsure of the context in which a particular word or term is being used by them.

References:

Armstrong, A. M., & Munro, L. (2018). Insider/Outsider: A Muslim Woman's Adventure Practicing ‘Alongside’ Narrative Therapy. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy , 39(2), 174-185.

Campbell, C. D., & Kim, C. L. (2015). The conscience clause in religious-distinctive programs. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 9(4), 279.

Carr, A. (2009a). The effectiveness of family therapy and systemic interventions for child-focused problems. Journal of Family Therapy, 31(1), 3-45.

Carr, A. (2009b). The effectiveness of family therapy and systemic interventions for adult-focused problems. Journal of Family Therapy, 31(1), 46-74.

Daneshpour, M. (2009). Steadying the Tectonic Plates: On Being Muslim, Feminist Academic, and Family Therapist . In S. A. Lloyd, & A. L. Few, Handbook of Feminist Family Studies (pp. 340-350). New York: Sage.

Green, J., & Thorogood, N. (2018). Qualitative methods for health research. New York, NY: Sage.

Larkin, M., & Thompson, A. (2012). Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis in Mental Heath and Psychotheraphy Research. In D. Harper, & A. Thompson, Qualitative Research Methods in Mental Health and Psychotherapy. Chichester: John Wiley Sons Ltd.

Opoku, A., Ahmed, V., & Akotia, J. (2016). Choosing Appropriate Methodology and Method. In V. Ahmed, A. Opoku, & Z. Aziz (Eds.), Research Methodology in the Built Environment: A Selection of Case Studies (pp. 32-50). Oxon: Routledge.

Rhodes, T., Bivol, S., Scutelniciuc, O., Hunt, N., Bernays, S., & Busza, J. (2011). Narrating the social relations of initiating injecting drug use: Transitions in self and society. International Journal of Drug Policy, 22(6), 445-454.

Rivett, M. (2016). Fear of faith: A reflection on ‘Family therapy and fundamentalism. Clinical child psychology and psychiatry, 21(3), 397-401.

Williams, L., Patterson, J., & Edwards, T. M. (2014). Clinician’s Guide to Research Methods in Family Therapy: Foundations of Evidence-Based Practice. New York: The Guilford Press.

Willig, C. (2008). Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology. London: Open University Press.