Al-Qalam 
Professional counsellor and author, Nabeela Vad Walla, advises people to seek help rather than bottling up. She is offering free online counselling sessions over two days later this month, writes an Al-Qalam Reporter.
Anxiety and stress levels amongst South Africa’s Muslim community have gone through the roof, says Nabeela Vad Walla, a Johannesburg counsellor and author of several books relating to mental health and interpersonal relationships.
She was in Durban to open two wellness counselling practices called CareCounselling when Al-Qalam caught up with her. She says problems such as unemployment, strained financial incomes, drug abuse, and infidelity – and add to that, the brutal killing and maiming of Gazans live on our TV screens, have raised anxiety levels to unprecedented proportions in the community.
Vad Walla runs a successful family counselling practise in Johannesburg, but said the number of calls for counselling support from the greater Durban areas has necessitated the opening of two counselling centres – one at 29 Wandsbeck Rd, Westville and the other at 209 Florida Rd.
“There has been an epidemic of mental health issues in South Africa for some time now. When I opened a private wellness counselling practice in Johannesburg a few years ago, we noted anxious coping being the highest challenge for clients.”
“So, what is anxiousness? Anxiousness is when the mind has a fear of things going awry, so in order to cope, one tries to think up different ways to approach a situation, person or thing to try and prevent any surprises. Often, a person will find themselves with an overworking mind. An overworking mind can sometimes lead to physical stress on the body.
“Anxiousness is considered an epidemic because every second person struggles with it, and it has a significant impact on health. One often struggles with sleep, slow memory retention, lack of focus and mind clarity, muscle tension, heart and liver strain and abuse of substances and alcohol or other addictions to get relief from stress, which often makes the anxiousness worse. “Counselling for anxiety should not be seen as a bad thing. It is a thing of wellness,” says Vad Walla.
Vad Walla says that working with medical doctors, often patients are diagnosed with stress contributing illnesses. “Stress is quite serious and has physical impacts on the body. I have been researching the effects of stress on the body and interventions to stress for the past 10 years and have published three books on it. There is help out there for you.” she explains. Stress and anxiety have really impacted South Africans as a whole.
In Durban alone, the health system is over-strained, with so few people seeking assistance for stress. “When people are stressed, we often see their close relationships take strain because of that stress. Sometimes, we deal with challenges of substance abuse and, other times, unhealthy practices like infidelity in relationships. Manipulative behaviours sustain an infidelity lifestyle, so we see a lot of discord in homes and local communities between people.
“Now that I have opened a counselling practice in Durban, I am seeing less resistance to stress relief. Just like in Johannesburg, where it was once quite taboo in the Muslim community specifically, it is now something that people are coming to embrace and accept, especially when they see that we’re using Islamic psychology. Once a person experiences a counselling session coupled with Islamic interventions, they experience a shift in mindset and significant emotional relief.” Says Vad Walla. “In Durban, I am looking to do the same by presenting my research on Islamic psychological practices and the wellness and relief aspect.”
“We want people to have good support from their networks. It’s important for spouses to provide support to each other. Many marriages are breaking down because couples are unable to relate to one another and provide support to each other. It is important for couples to seek counselling, too, to mend relationships. I have started doing marriage counselling and marriage workshops to be able to do that – especially for the Muslim community who in the past was resistant to marriage counselling for fear of airing their life. But now, couples understand that counselling is confidential, they feel more comfortable to share their lives and are able to foster relationships from better communication learnt in counselling.”
Vad Walla has started a range of workshops and continues to conduct research in Islamic Psychology to facilitate South Africans in achieving stress relief.
Vad Walla is offering free 15-minute online assessment/consultation sessions only on November 19-20. To book a slot for the free 15-minute counselling/assessment slot, call CareCounselling on 0837226162.
