Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre
Nafsiyat is a registered charity (No. 287819) and has been providing high quality, low cost, community based 'intercultural' psychodynamic psychotherapy in North London since 1983. It provides psychotherapy for patients from diverse cultural backgrounds and therapists not only work with patients from cultures and ethnicities different from their own but also the therapists themselves come from a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Prior to the establishment of Nafsiyat ethnic minority patients were presenting with psychological problems that would be expected to respond to psychotherapy, but professionals found it hard to place patients in therapy due to the apparent reluctance of the mental health services to consider people from different ethnic and cultural origins as appropriate for psychotherapy. This, together with the fact, that therapy is a “rationed” resource (usually by ability to pay for therapy) meant that there was nowhere to refer such patients. It was in response to this need that Nafsiyat was founded by Jafar Kareem, a BAP trained psychotherapist, in 1983. Nafsiyat was set up to offer specialised therapeutic help to people from ethnic and cultural minorities, taking account of the cultural and racial component in mental illness. Within two years the centre had been established at its first location in Finsbury Park. From this beginning of a small number of volunteer therapists and psychatrists, Nafsiyat has expanded to a large team of paid and volunteer therapists with many different backgrounds and covering many different languages. Nafsiyat has recently moved to new premises. We are now in the centre of Holloway Road, only a short distance from our original offices.
Our work is guided by a Mission Statement which we seek to keep update at regular intervals. Additional information about the progress in our work is contained in our Annual Report. Our main work covers providing psychotherapy and counselling services to members of cultural minority groups. Staff at Nafsiyat includes analytically trained psychotherapists and counsellors. The number of therapy (paid staff, students and volunteers) and administration staff is fifteen and the current languages available are Arabic, Bengali, Turkish, Greek, Farsi. However these languages fluctuate with changes in staff.
A research psychologist evaluated the efficacy of the service in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Preliminary results of this research were published in 1989 (Acharyya et al 1989) and in 1992, 2000 (Moorhouse 1992, 2000). The results show that the majority of patients improve their mental health as measured by standardised symptom checklists, as well as from their own evaluations and those of their therapist.
Additionally we provide training and consultancy in intercultural work. In the early 1990's an intercultural therapy diploma was set up, and a two of years later an M.Sc. was offered with University College, London, staffed largely by Nafsiyat therapists. The diploma and M.Sc. have trained some of the therapists currently working at the Centre. Additionally Nafsiyat has offered courses from Certificates to Post-Graduate Diplomas as well as in-house professional development courses. In 1992 the Centre staff produced a book (Intercultural Therapy, Kareem & Litllewood, pub. Blackwell Science), which has been substantially revised for its second edition (published 2000).
Our structure and organisation
Nafsiyat exists as a 'Company Limited by Guarantee' i.e. is registered at Companies House as a non-profit making company. As a non-profit company, Nafsiyat exists purely to achieve its charitable goals of providing psychotheraputic services across cultural minority groups. Instead of having shareholders as would an ordinary company, it has as its owners 'Company Members'. Like shareholders in ordinary companies they have the right to determine the policy of the company and appoint the Directors. Typically, this is done at the Annual General Meeting, where they receive reports from the Directors, accept the financial accounts for the year and discuss and vote upon any matters of policy. They also elect from amongst themselves individuals to serve as Directors on the Board of Directors. The Board are the trustees of the charity and they ensure that the goals of the organisation are acted upon i.e. they take decisions of the General Meeting, set the management policy for the organisation and develop plans for their implementation. Additionally they report back to the members at the General Meeting on the state of the organisation and the progress it is making. The Board of Directors are also responsible for overseeing the work of the staff directors who manage the work of the centre. The core work of the centre is organised across the three key areas of Centre Management, Clinical Work and Training Activities. The Management Team is led by the Service Director. Followng the resignation of the previous Service Director,Sharon Moorhouse, Nafsiyat is in the process of recruiting a new Chief Executive Officer who will have overall executive management responsibility of the Organisation. The Clinical Team is led by Phillida Bartels-Ellis and she is in charge of supervision of the clinical work done by all Therapists. Additionally we have a treasurer who is responsible for developing budgets and business plans, who monitors the finances of the organisation and gives reports back to the Board.
Nafsiyat is grateful for funding from:
