Across all religious groups, people of the Islamic faith have some of the lowest recovery rates from mental health challenges. That’s according to studies looking at Muslim communities in different parts of the world.

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Some things have deepened those challenges, like the pain of experiencing Islamophobia or the reverberations of violence happening abroad — like the Israeli wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and the escalating conflict and humanitarian crisis in Sudan.

A new mental health facility at the Islamic Center of Detroit marks an important milestone for people of the Islamic faith. Staff at the center believe it to be the first mental health clinic located within a mosque nationwide. The facility, called My Mental Wellness, offers free on-site and virtual therapy to people of all ages. 

Director of My Mental Wellness Danish Hasan and one of the center’s therapists, Takween Dwaik, joined The Metro to discuss the work they’re doing. 

One of the challenges that comes with providing mental health support to the community is a different cultural understanding around therapy in the Muslim world, Hasan says. This has also caused My Mental Wellness to think about how they’re communicating and introducing the services they provide to people.   

“Considering our location being in the heart of Detroit, neighboring Dearborn, there is a huge diaspora from across the Muslim world. And one of the things that we’ve realized is therapy is a concept that is so distant from them,” Hasan says. “The western world has really furthered the conversation regarding therapy. But in so much of the Muslim world, people are either struggling silently in their homes, or because of the stigma they’re being institutionalized in mental facilities, or they’re being taken to religious leaders, and this middle ground that we have in the western world of therapy doesn’t exist.”

He says that while that cultural gap poses some difficulties for the clinic, it also reinforces the importance of their work.

“We not only have to reduce the stigma, but also introduce the concept of therapy, and also do it in a faith-based approach.” 

Use the media player above to listen to the conversation.

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