By Emily Kulin
Federal census statistics tell us that nearly 65 per cent of Canadians report holding a personal religious affiliation. Yet, as psychiatrist Yusra Ahmad (MD ’07, PGME ’13) has observed, health care professionals often fail to recognize the role faith can have in shaping their patients’ overall health and wellbeing.
“Each of us is a whole person, yet medicine has adopted a very ‘divide and conquer’ approach to the human experience, and even to the human body,” says Ahmad, a clinical lecturer in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry. “For many people of faith, our religious beliefs are an essential part of who we are. Without holistic care, mistrust can form between patients and their care providers. Things can get missed or misdiagnosed.”
Today, Ahmad is on a mission to create space for the soul in psychiatry. In 2017, she founded Mindfully Muslim — a trauma-informed group therapy program that combines mindfulness-based interventions with Islamic wisdom and prayer.
“Employing the secular definition, mindfulness is about paying attention — training your attention to focus on a particular element, like your breathing, or learning to become a curious observer of your thoughts, feelings and body, without judgment and with compassion,” says Ahmad, who also works with refugees from around the world at Women’s College Hospital’s Crossroads Clinic and the New Beginnings Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, as well as with unhoused clients at shelters and drop-in centres throughout Toronto.
“Yet, for me as a Muslim, mindfulness also has the added layer of God consciousness — infusing an awareness of a Higher Power and Creator, of assuming a posture of humility and a gratitude to this Oneness, this Source in everything I do.”
While Ahmad had long been interested in developing a faith-based program to respond to traumas resulting from widespread and longstanding Islamophobia, she was ultimately inspired to take action following Donald Trump’s election in 2016, as well as several high-profile incidents of anti-Muslim hate, including Trump’s much-maligned executive order banning travel from Muslim-majority countries and the mass shooting at a Quebec City mosque in January 2017.
“Previously, the timing wasn’t right or I had other things I was struggling with myself,” she explains. “I was afraid. I turned down jobs to do this. It was a huge financial sacrifice for me personally, but I couldn’t wait any longer. The community needed this.”
Much to her disappointment, Ahmad’s decision to pursue Mindfully Muslim was at first met with confusion — and even unease — from many of her professional peers.
“A lot of people were very uncomfortable whenever I brought up the integration of faith with mindfulness practices,” says Ahmad. “It’s incredibly ironic, of course, because mindfulness originated in religion. Even when we do talk about the connection to religion, mindfulness practitioners tend to focus exclusively on its Buddhist roots. But mindfulness exists in every faith tradition. Perhaps it takes different forms, or is expressed differently, but it exists across the board.”
More recently, Ahmad has been heartened by what she sees as signs of change in how the medical profession collectively views religion and faith.
“Things are slowly shifting. For example, I have been invited to participate in the upcoming Ontario Medical Association Town Hall on Spirituality in Medicine and Recovery. Such an event would have been unheard of even a few years ago.”
She also sees medical schools’ embrace of equity, diversity and inclusion policies as an opportunity for further transformation.
“Faith is an important part of many people’s lives, including many physicians,” says Ahmad. “Maybe some of us wear it more openly on our sleeves, like me, but there are many others out there who have been taught – either consciously or unconsciously – to downplay this side of themselves.
“Ultimately, I think it has much to do with who is being admitted into the profession and who has traditionally done the admitting. We need doctors and leaders who truly represent our patient communities.”