-About Me
Asiya Shaikh is the founder and Clinical Director of Nafs Healing, first Master Practitioner of Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) in Greater Toronto Area. She is a Registered Psychotherapist (RP) and a Supervisor, licensed in Canada. Asiya Shaikh holds an M.A. in Clinical Psychology and is an alumna of Islamic Psychology from Cambridge Muslim College, UK. In addition to her academic training, she studied at a seminary with a number of traditional Islamic scholars and trained with healers in various therapeutic modalities.
Asiya Shaikh has over 18 years of experience working with trauma, stress, anxiety, depression, OCD, phobias, eating disorders, low self-worth, and other issues. She sees clients as a sacred trust and uses an integrative mind-body-soul approach, which is not limited to talk-therapy and allows deep inner work. She also augments healing using embodied somatic practices.
The first session with Asiya is getting to know you and your therapy goals. As a depth-oriented therapist she works at the root of the problem and divides treatment into three phases, phase one is getting to know you and your story and then learning easy ways to soothe the body and the nervous system. In phase two she primarily uses Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), which is a new transformative, evidence-based, rapid-eye-movement therapy that gives results within a few sessions. She is trained in many modalities and likes to draws on aspects from many other frameworks and methods of therapy such as; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Gestalt Therapy, Somatic tools, Art Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Spiritual Counseling. Her approach is flexible and tailored to the needs and context of a given client. In phase three collaboratively they focus on self-development goals and enriching the quality of life.
If you are looking to live a balanced life, then you have come to the right place because healing is in wholeness which is derived from a state of equilibrium among the intellectual, physical, metaphysical, spiritual and emotional aspects of our Self. When we experience mental wellness we have a purpose, hope for the future, a feeling of belonging, feeling connected and a sense of meaning in our lives.
Mental health is just as important as our physical health when it comes to success in our personal, professional and spiritual personal lives.