oa Muslim refugees at crossroads: Adopting Islamic cognitive behaviour therapy

Due to current devastating and destruction in some Muslim dominated countries in the middle-East and North Africa, millions of refugees have been crossing the southern pole towards the north particularly to Western-European countries. This forced migration has resulted to a possible difficult trend in the realm of therapist/client relationship where asides language and communication challenges, Muslim refugees and therapists may be experiencing some cross-cultural issues which may lead to difficulties helping the former with their serious anxiety, mood and existential-related problems. This paper introduces the Islamic Cognitive Behaviour therapy (I-CBT), and its applications in treating depression and trauma-related problems. It further widens the framework of multiculturalism in psychotherapy through reflecting the core cognitive and existential structures from the Islamic faith related to belief, motivation and existential meaning. Moreover, the paper also discussed the varying challenges faced by Muslims within the Islamaphobia environment and how the Islamic tradition addresses them, including issues of acculturation and means of attaining positive adaptation and adjustment. Issues related to possible future research interests were also discussed