Workshops

We are continuously struggling and often failing in meeting life’s changing demands with respect to ourselves, our families, our jobs, our friends, our neighbors, our community and our faith. We often become overwhelmed with these changing needs and demands that stress us out and at times leave us depressed, confused and helpless. Many becomes overly focused on one aspect of life thereby ignoring the other more important aspects. For example, becoming solely preoccupied with our work, our career golas, having fun, etc., and as a result ignoring the needs of our soul, our spouses and children and the obligations to Allah.

This workshop is designed to:
1. To identify some of the Life Pressures and Demands in our Life.
2. To understand how people are handling them generally now, and
3. And to lean how to best handle all these pressures through Living a Balanced Life.

There are literally thousands of books, papers and articles written on the importance of effective communication in our relationships. How often people complain about having communication problems. There would hardly be a person who would deny the need for good communication, but sadly most people are lacking the skills required for effective communication.

This workshop is designed with the following objectives:
1. Understanding the process of communication.
2. What are the factors that make it effective or ineffective.
3. What skills are necessary for effective communication.
4. Creating a family environment that promotes open and honest communication, and
5. How we can promote mutual trust necessary for effective communication.

This workshop is second in the series on Effective Communication. Effective Communication must be learned first before being able to resolve conflicts effectively.

This workshop is designed to assist the participants:
1. In learning to identify the nature of conflicts;
2. In sharing their present conflicts and consequences thereof; and
3. To provides an opportunity to learn effective conflict resolution skills based on self-awareness, communication skills, and Islamic principles.

Allah (s.w.t.) has created ‘anger’ so that it may serve as a weapon to defend you from harmful things; and He created desire to help you move towards what is
beneficial for you. But, when these two go to an extreme, they become harmful and like a fire in your heart, which fills your brain with smoke and darkens the sources of intelligence and wisdom rendering you unable to think of and understand long range consequences of your actions. This is why our elders
have called them ‘Wisdom Robbers’.

This workshop is designed to assist participants
1. Understand the nature of anger – its purpose, causes,expressions and effects.
2. To learn what make them angry and why; and
3. To manage and express it without any damage to self and others.

This workshop is designed for the Muslim sisters with the following goals.
1. To provide Muslim sisters an opportunity to voice and share their conrflicts and struggles.
2. To understand some of the current and historical issues leading to these conflicts and struggles.
3. To learn about the nature of men and women from an Islamic perspective.
4. To discuss the roles, rights and responsibilities of men and women in Islam, and
5. To learn how and when to struggle and for what, and get rid of the conflicts.

How many times do we hear people complain, “I have no choice”, or “I had no choice”. We often make ourselves believe that we must keep suffering, we must keep trying more of the same that we already know does not work, because we see no other choice. Do we really not have any choice in anything?

The objectives of this workshop are:
1. To understand the concept of Choices.
2. To understand the importance of making choices and their implications and consequences in this life and the life hereafter.
3. To understand our freedoms and limitations with respect to making choices.
4. To learn the proper process of making choices, and
5. To know how there is always a choice.

A man claims to be short tempered. He says this runs in his genes. His father, uncle, etc., were all short tempered. He gets violent with his wife and children, but claims that he loves them, that he cannot change how he is. Interestingly, the same man, when at work, does not lose his temper, does not get verbally or physically abusive, and is often known as a nice man. So, what changes him to be a genetically angry and short tempered man at home?

The fact is that we are continuously changing, but often unconsciously until somethings happens to make us notice what we have become. This workshop is designed to:
1. Help the participant realize that they are all changing all the time.
2. To realize that the on-going unconscious and uncontrolled change process almost always results in dehumanazing us, and
3. To learn to take charge of the change process actively so that positive changes may occur in ourselves ensuring continuous growth.

Depression and anxiety are very common emotional problems. Literally, milliions of men and women suffer from these around the world. These are often treated with psychotropic medications. Unless the root causes of these problems are understood and appropriately dealt with, many people will become totally dependent upon the medications for the relief of the symptoms.

This workshop is designed to assist those who are suffering from these problems. The objective or this workshoop are:

1. To understand the nature, symptoms, and causes of depression
2. To provide an opportunity for the participants to share their personal experiences with these issues.
3. To learn the difference between Depression and Anxiety as a mental disorders, and normal sadness and worries which are also often labeled as Depression and Anxiety.
4. To learn what makes one vulnerable to these mental/emotional problems.and
5. To learn how to effectively prevent and deal with these issues.

Stress takes it toll on our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual life. If stress is not properly dealt with, it may lead to more severe medical and emotional problems. This workshop deals with:

1. Understanding the nature of stress – what it is all about, and what causes it.
2. It’s effect on our body, mind and soul,
3. What are some of the most effective ways of dealing with it and avoiding it?

There is a lot of misunderstanding and misconception about mental health and mental illness amongst the Muslim communities. Often psychological and emotional problems are seen as a sign of weakness and weak Iman – something to hide and shameful. Some chalk these issues out to magic (sahar) and the influcence of Jinns. Consequently, they don’t seek appropriate help. Either they silently keep suffering, attribute it to their fate, or they seek help from the wrong sources for the wrong reasons.

The objective of this workshops are:

1. To explain the concept of Mental Health and Mental Illness.
2. To remove the prevailing misconceptions – Good Muslims won’t suffer from Mental Illnesses.
3. To Understand the difference between normal life issues we all suffer from within ourselves and in our relationships and true mental, psychological, behavioral and emotional problems.
4. To encourage the participants to share their experiences with these issues, and
5. To learn what is counseling and psychotherapy all about, and how does it help relieve these issues or manage them appropriately, and

Why do so many people complain about not having enough time and not being able to manage time properly? Interestingly, many of them are able to find time for extracurricular activities, but not for some important things in life, such as getting the work done in a timely fashion, spending some quality time the family, and fulfill the requirements of their faith.

This workshop is designed with the goals of:

1. Helping the audience reflect upon and understand what factors play a role in making it difficult to manage time properly.
2. How to remove the barriers in effectively managing their time, and
3. Giving them some strategies to manage time properly, get done what needs to be done in a timely fashion, and reduce the stress of always rushing to do everything last minute.

This workshop is designed especially for the Reverts to Islam. It addresses the issues and struggles that are unique to them and are often get ignored by the larger Muslim community.

The objectives of the workshop are:

1. To have the participants share their on-going struggles, and
2. T provide guidance in how to effectively deal with some of the following oft mentioned issues.
– Learning and properly understanding the new faith.
– Differentiating between Culture and Religion.
– Effectively dealing with the variations in the interpretation of beliefs and practice.
– Coming to terms with the hypocrisy in practice.
– Re-establishing a good support system.
– Selecting a spouse – Warnings and Cautions, and
– Marriage and the rights of the husband and wife.

It is a full day workshop, or it may be broken down in to two half day workshops.

This workshop is designed to assist the Muslim families and communities in effectively dealing with traumatic events in a family or in a community. Every now and then some scary and threatening events happen in a community which affects the entire community. Our Muslim communities generally do not have any support services readily available to console and effectively guide the family/community members through it and to help them move on.

The objectives of this workshop are:

1. To provide an opportunity to the participants to freely express their perceptions and emotions of the recent traumatic experience.
2. To help them understand the nature of Trauma and its effects and possible outcomes on a person’s life, and
3. To arrange for individual assistance for the more severely affected persons, and
4. To guide through the healing and moving on process.

Why are large numbers of Marriages and Families unhealthy these days? Why is there such a high divorce rate in our Muslim communities? Why do have so many issues with our youth today? Why is it that these issues are not getting resolved? The one answer to these question is that we don’t have a proper understanding of what marriage is all about. We don’t know the rights and responsibilities of a husband and wife towards each other, or we don’t care about them. If a husband and wife are not happy and content with other. If they don’t have a happy marriage, it is unlikely that they would have a happy and healthy family. This workshop is designed to address these issues and teach ways of bringing happiness back into the marriages and raising healthy families.

Learning Objectives:

1. To properly understand the concepts of Marriage and Family
2. What does it take to achieve a Happy Marriage and a Healthy Family?
3. To share personal experiences with Marriages and Families

Despite the fact that many of our young men and women are tying so hard to find ‘compatible’ spouses and spending significant time in ‘getting to know’ each other for months and in some cases years, the marriages in Muslim communities are breaking down at an alarming rate. Marital problems begin very early in the marriage. And young single mothers with small children without any support system are not uncommon.

This workshop is designed to:

1. Bring a clear understanding of what marital life is all about?
2. When is a person ready for marriage?
3. The important factors in selecting a spouse.
4. Exploring the concepts of’compatibility’, ‘love’, and ‘mercy’, and
5. Understanding the founding blocks of a successful marriage.

It is conducted separately for men and women.

This workshop is intended for the parents of the marriageable age children. Many of our parents suffer from the stress of finding the ‘right’ spouses for their children. They assume the sole responsibility of finding the spouses and getting them married. Living in a western country away from their extended families and support system, and raising their children who are often quite westernized, doubles the stress. Then, there are some parents who try to find spouses for their children in the same ways spouses were found for them by their parents in their homeland. This often results in major issues between them and their children and the extended families back home.

The objectives of this workshop are to:

1. Discuss the parents’ role in facilitating their children’s marriages.
2. Provide an opportunity for the parents to share their values in this regard.
3. Help them realize that the sustomay ways of finding spouses back home no longer are effective or even workable here and now, and
4. Make them aware of the new realities and to guide them to learn better ways of facilitating and supporting their children’s marriages.

This workshop is designed to assist recently married couples to identify the common daily issues in a couple’s life that may open up cracks in their relationship, and how to avoid and prevent them. The goals are to:

1. Have them go through a list of commonly occuring issues in daily life.
2. Share their own experiences in this regard, and
3. Provide concrete advice on how to effectively deal with these issues so as not let them become problems.

Preventing Marriage Breakdowns

There is no marriage without any marital problems, but these problems don’t need to become perpetual. Often, when these problems are allowed to go on without any resolution, they will ultimately close up the hearts and break the emotional bond between spouses and lead to a breakdown of marriage. Once the emotional bond is broken, love disappears and bitterness towards each other flourishes. It is very difficult to rebuild this bond at this stage.

This workshop is intended to help the couples:

1. Realize that problems are a normal part of all relationships.
2. Problems do not occue single-handedly.
3. Instead of blaming each other, taking respective responsibility for their role and share in the problems goes a long way to resolving them, and
4. Learning the proper ways of resolving the problem as quickly as they occur