Living from the Heart

“There is a part of the body—if it is healthy the entire body is healthy and if it is diseased the entire body is diseased—indeed, it is the heart.” — Prophet Muhammad ﷺ .

Since the beginning of the pandemic we have been blessed to host weekly check ins, started by Wasat counselor Huma Din and featuring Wasat board member Jaminah Shannon, to offer support and facilitate conversations around what we are experiencing as individuals and as communities in this challenging time.

We are expanding our Sunday programming, and tying in facilitators from our December Heartcentric Retreat, Dr. Abdallah Rothman and Micah Anderson. We are honored to have facilitators and counselors who are pioneers in the intersection of Islamic spirituality and psychology. 

Starting September 27th at 11AM PST, each weekly session will be guided by one of our four facilitators and—through reflection, meditation, journalling, break out groups and conversation—explore topics related to wellness, spiritual growth, healing, purification of the heart and prophetic living. In addition to the theoretical framework, the sessions will focus on practical methods for cultivating presence, mindfulness, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence. We will explore practices to facilitate insight and growth in our relationships and personal journeys.

Wasat's Heartcentric approach is unique in that it is grounded in traditional indigenous Islamic spiritual psychology ('ilm al-nafs; tasawwuf) while drawing on the insights of various modern psychological modalities. At the heart of the Islamic tradition is a tried and true method of spiritual psychology, with practical tools to assist the seeker to develop one's higher potential and live from one's truest self—the spiritual heart. To neglect the heart is to neglect the purpose of existence.

Facilitators

Huma holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology from Antioch University and is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Her focus is working within the Muslim community. Her goal in therapy is to promote the growth and well-being of couples, individuals, and families who seek help for stressful situations or new transitions in life. By seeing the individual as the leader in the therapeutic process provides the framework to create tools that can bring the individual awareness to their thought process, feelings, and behavior. 

Micah was born in Connecticut and spent several of his teen years in and out of placements due to struggles with drugs, crime, and anger. Around this time, he was introduced to 12-step fellowship, and after extensive travel overseas, and converted to Islam in the early 1990s.

Since then, he taught retreats and led trainings on mindfulness, emotional literacy, and trauma resiliency in five countries, and leads a weekly meditation group in the Bay Area. He is currently a Associate Marriage Family Therapist, focusing on both trauma-informed approaches and and mindfulness-based interventions.  He is the Clinical Director at the Mind Body Awareness Project, which runs groups and trainings for incarcerated populations and those who serve them. He was previously the Wellness Director at Taleef Collective.

Micah lives in Oakland, CA. with his wife and two children, and received his Masters in Psychology from Sofia University in Palo Alto, CA. 

Jaminah is rooted both in the Bay area and Tacoma, Wa Hilltop. As a Western Washington University alum she serves as a Social worker, Racial Equity facilitator and Creative Consultant. Jaminah’s facilitation model is influenced by music, beauty, community, nature and food as a means toward unveiling the heart of the matter; what it means to be human. 

Abdallah is an Islamic Psychology researcher and practitioner. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and a Board Certified Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC). In addition to his academic and clinical training in Western psychology, Abdallah studies and practices Islamic Psychology and psychotherapy. His clinical practice as well as his academic research focus on approaching counseling from within an Islamic paradigm; and establishing an indigenous Islamic theoretical orientation to human psychology that is grounded in the knowledge of the soul from the Islamic tradition. He is the founder of Shifaa Integrative Counseling, and the Principal of Cambridge Muslim College.