This article details the efforts of a small coalition of professionals of all colours who founded the psychotherapy service called Nafsiyat in the 1980s in order to counteract a particular set of psychotherapeutic assumptions: notably, that non-Europeans would not benefit from dynamic talking therapy. The article delves into the way the service endeavours to overcome a number of barriers, including scant resources, fear, stigma; at the same time, it seeks to acknowledge Nafsiyat's attempts to incorporate the enduring wealth of culturally affirming practices into its intercultural therapeutic model.

A week ago, four people died after a refugee boat capsized in the English Channel.

Despite freezing temperatures, more than 500 asylum seekers have made the perilous journey in small boats since Sunday alone, with the people traffickers who organise the crossings taking advantage of low winds and calm seas (Al Jazeera).

This comes at a time when Netflix released 'The Swimmers', the story of Yusra and Sarah Mardini, the sisters who fled their wartorn home in Syria to find a safe future in Germany.

Recently one of our psychotherapists, Ali Donat, went on a podcast called Mental Health Monday to talk about what Nafsiyat does and the history of intercultural therapy. This is a really interesting episode and will be relevant even if you are already familiar with intercultural therapy. Please check the links below to enjoy the podcast.

We want to give special thanks to The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington for providing us with three years’ worth of funding for our Migrant Women’s Group, run by psychotherapist Sega Habtom.

In honour of Black History Month, Keeping Well NCL and Nafsiyat presented a webinar on the 25th of October on ‘Racism, Stigma and Fear: Barriers to accessing mental health’.

In this podcast, listen to Rabeya Khatun, a bilingual psychotherapist who works at Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy centre, explore the impact COVID-19 continues to have on people from black and minority ethnic groups.

We are pleased to announce that Nafsiyat’s new Chair of Trustees is Jane Cook. Jane has been a Nafsiyat Trustee since 2015 and has previously served as Chair.

Jane is a Registered General Nurse and Public Health Specialist (Health Visitor) who works strategically, focusing on transformational change that aims to meet the needs of individuals, families and communities. Jane has worked with excluded groups for the past 36 years and promotes person-centred and holistic care that is equitable.

The final nine minutes of George Floyd’s life, captured on a smartphone camera, ignited the injustices which had for so long been seared into the lives of black people. The image of a white policeman’s knee bearing down on a black man’s neck, casually snuffing the life out of him, blew the lid off, setting in train protests and demonstrations across America and ricocheting around the globe with the singular message; black lives matter.

In a report published on April 24th 2020, Healthwatch Islington has found that, in many cases, cultural and language barriers made NHS counselling and talking therapies less effective for members of migrant communities.

We sadly share the news that pioneering psychotherapist Lennox Thomas has died.

Lennox Thomas, originally from Grenada, qualified and worked as a social worker and probation officer with adults, children and families. He then went on to train as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC) and was a registered psychotherapist with the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP).

Nafsiyat is included (Appendix 3: page 28) in The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Advancing Mental Health Equality (AMHE) resource as a positive practice example.

A new book – Intercultural Therapy: Challenges, Insights and Developments – examines the impact of our work at the Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre.

The editors of this book have invited several Nafsiyat therapists and colleagues to give their views on what has changed, or not changed, regarding the integration of intercultural issues into mainstream therapy.

The Cultural Competence workshop will draw on clinical examples and work as well as the intercultural experience to put forward the processes involved in working at the juncture of the client’s inner and outer experiences. The evocation of shame and avoidance in the dyadic or group encounter of intersecting differences and sameness will also be explored.

Nafsiyat Senior Psychotherapist, Baffour Ababio, was interviewed by Channel 4 News for a piece entitled “Black men ten times more likely to develop psychotic disorders – is there enough support?” which aired on Tuesday, April 3rd.

Late last year, an award-winning magazine and collective ‘gal-dem’ visited Nafsiyat to hear more about what we do, speak with our therapists and help us tell our story through words and video.