Re: Desi Shrinks
My dad's a shrink and he often turns down desi ppl (friends of friends etc) who ask to see him privately cos he worries about conflicts of interest and other issues as well as all the drama and politics that desi families can sometimes drag an outsider into.. A desi psychiatrist may give different advice to a non-desi one, I remember him telling me years and years ago when he first started out he once advised a Pakistani wife who was going thru difficulties to leave her husband, not taking into account the extra cultural problems and implications of the decision, things that a non-desi would not have understood back then, basically he was also seeing things from a completely Western perspective.. Of course he would never tell a person to stay in a relationship that was seriously affecting their mental health, rather he would sit down and explore the options that were best suited to their particular case first eg. with desis it might be counselling/mediation with inlaws involved, whereas obviously in a non-desi family this would not usually be needed or thought about.. He specialised at one point in cross-cultural psychiatry and did a lot of work regarding young desi women and depression and suicide, obviously a lot of the problems they faced were rare outside immigrant desi communities (eg some girls rarely being allowed out of the house, lack of communication with outsiders due to not being able to speak English leading to depression etc) tho nowadays things are very different to 20/30yrs ago and esp in places like London it is prob entirely possible to see a non-desi shrink and get a satisfactory outcome as they will prob have had a lot of experience with 'desi problems.'
If someone wants to go to an Iman pls go to a reputable mosque like Regents Park or that huge one in East London, unfortunately too many of the others are still hung up on culture and will tend to tell the girl rubbish that is not only unIslamic but can also be detrimental to her mental and physical health.