Our Patrons

Joy is a British Bangladeshi music artist who writes about her culture, South London background, and identity in her music. She wholeheartedly supports our work in providing intercultural therapy that considers clients' whole beings, such as their ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and physical ability.

Jeremy Bernard Corbyn is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. Corbyn describes himself as a socialist on the Labour Party's political left. He has been a Member of Parliament for Islington North since 1983.

Priyamvada Gopal is an Indian-born academic and writer who is a Professor of Postcolonial Studies at the University of Cambridge. She is a fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, and the author of Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent.

Kaya is the leader of Islington Council and a Labour councillor for Junction ward.

First elected to the council in 2013 to represent Junction ward, Kaya became Deputy Leader in 2020. She has served on the council’s Executive for six years, most recently as Executive Member for Children, Young People and Families and prior to that as Executive Member for Community Development.

Baron Boateng is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Brent South from 1987 to 2005. He became the UK's first Black Cabinet Minister in May 2002, when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Heloise Kareem was the wife of our late founder, Jafar Kareem. She is very involved in the development of Nafsiyat from its first beginnings in their family home. As an international social worker, she is well aware of the importance of culture in the understanding and treatment of mental illness.

Roland Littlewood FRAI is a British anthropologist and psychiatrist and Professor of Anthropology and Psychiatry at University College London. He is the co-author of the book Aliens and Alienists, now in its third edition. During his career, he was President of the Royal Anthropological Institute from 1994 to 1997.

Talal Karim was a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Islington and a member of its Race Equality Committee. He represented Islington Council on Local Authorities Against Apartheid, was one of the leading movers behind the Council’s Declaration on Southern Africa, and supported the African National Congress and South-West Africa People’s Organisation.

Professor Patrick Vernon OBE is Pro Chancellor and Honorary Professor of Community Leadership and Heritage at the University of Wolverhampton. Formerly Chair of Birmingham & Solihull NHS ICB, Walsall Together Health Partnership Board, and Hackney Thinking Space, he is a leading broadcaster, public speaker, and EDI adviser. Patrick led the national Windrush Day campaign and helped expose the Windrush Scandal, earning recognition from British Vogue as one of Britain’s top 20 campaigners and inclusion in the Powerlist of the UK’s 100 most influential Black people. He is co-author of 100 Great Black Britons and Black Grief and Healing, and serves on the Church Commissioners oversight group on reparations.