Islamic Counselling and Psychotherapy Trends in Theory Development

Islamic counselling and psychotherapy is a discipline that is vaguely defined. Information that is available on this topic is often limited in quantity and perspective to form the theoretical basis necessary to constitute a model of intervention for Islamic Counselling. Indeed in discussions with social service practitioners this lack of a coherent Islamic counselling methodology is frequently expressed. It is not unusual to find that counselling professionals find themselves at a loss to intervene effectively with clients who adhere to an Islamic value system especially when it is at variance with their own. For the client this situation is commonly experienced as an inability on the side of the practitioner to fully understand him/her. Given that Islamic counselling is not yet in a form where its actual implementation can be monitored, it first requires guidelines that can be integrated into a theoretical framework, a purpose to which this article is directed.