Radical Healing, Wholeness and Islam (Part 3)
An Introductory Narrative on Transforming Emotional Pain Through Journeywork
Part 3
By (Dr) Muzammal Hussain
Accredited Journey Therapist, Coach, and Medical Doctor (with background in NHS Psychiatry)
Download this series as a single compact E-book right away (no email required)
Painful Memories, and the Role of Ruh
The barrier is the doorway
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
Rumi (13C poet, mystic, Islamic scholar)
In Journeywork an unresolved memory will have typically arisen for the client somewhere within the process already described. This memory will have been acknowledged by the therapist, and is revisited more fully when a safe context has opened up in the process.
There is no more appropriate a safe context for a person to revisit a potentially painful memory than when they have entered into the aspect of soul that is the spirit, or Ruh: our access point to the Divine. This beautiful, expanded experience is directly entered into through opening into successive, deeper emotional layers (as described earlier). It provides the infinite space, compassion and safety for the memory to be revisited, and the possibility for radical healing to naturally unfold.
The beauty of this immersion into Spirit or Ruh is that Divine intelligence naturally flows into the process. Divine intelligence wants to heal, wants to make whole, and the attribute of the Divine, Al Hadi (The Guide) enables what is needed in the process to happen.
Love (Al Wadud) plays its role in holding it all together. This isn’t a false love that could otherwise be about running away from pain, or pretending it’s not there. If the light of Truth, the Real (Al Haqq) is indeed shining through, then there is an authentic honesty and a presence that ‘knows’ what needs to happen in the process for true healing to be complete.
Emptying out: The melting of pain
Thus, in the session, the client (with their eyes closed) would be supported to express the pain that is stored through words, in whatever language it needs to be expressed. Stuck emotions can then be completely emptied out of the body and heart, whether they have been stuck there for a few days, weeks, years, or even decades.
Because the client is bathed in the safe presence of Divine love, and has directly connected with their pain, this makes the steps much smoother and easier - words tend to naturally flow out. It can be like the pain melts and pours out of the system, as though healing was always waiting to happen - it just needed gentle, loving permission.
As a therapist, I find this a beautiful process to facilitate, and I experience going down deep with my clients as I support them - which means I too am accessing Ruh or Spirit along with my clients!
After a session, the client will typically feel much lighter, like a heavy weight has lifted off their chest. Some may feel like they have cracked open and can feel incredibly free.
A person may also feel fragile for a short period e.g. the rest of the day, so my general advice is to be kind to yourself. Clients will be advised not to engage in anything stressful immediately after, so that they can honour the work we have done together.
Typically, this integration process can take a few hours to a day, occasionally a little longer. It’s a time when rest and self-nurturing are encouraged, so the healing can be as complete as possible.
My Personal Experience with Journeywork
"...and that it is He alone who causes [you] to laugh and to weep"
- Qur' an 53:43
The unconventional medic
I was initially drawn to Journeywork in 2001, four years after graduating as a doctor. I was practising as a psychiatrist at a hospital just outside London, and was already engaged with regular inner work. I was, for instance meditating daily, but I was also feeling keen to directly engage with the emotional realm.
I then heard that a woman who had healed from a life-threatening tumour without drugs or surgery, was going to speak in Piccadilly, London. The talk was titled something like, ‘Emotions: Gateway to the Soul’. For both personal and professional reasons, I keenly attended. The talk was moving, and the approach also made a lot of sense - that by opening to and fully feeling, rather than fighting emotions, we can go deep within, and eventually enter into a vast expansive healing experience through which painful memories can be resolved and forgiveness reached.
One step leads to the next
The woman who spoke was Brandon Bays, and her talk was my first encounter with The Journey. It affected me considerably. Within a few days of her talk, I decided to book onto the introductory upcoming training. Days later, I decided to attend a more advanced retreat and also to train to become an accredited therapist.
As well as working with clients, especially over video call, Journeywork has become a core component of my own inner transformation toolbox, complementing body prayer (salat), fasting (sawm) Remembrance/chanting (zhikr) and so forth. I am grateful for having it in my life, and continue to exchange processes with fellow therapists while also practising aspects of it solo.
Sharing a personal process experience: From numbness to grief
I could share many personal experiences with Journeywork, but will focus on one in particular and touch on others in a general way.
Within the process I went through that I will mostly focus on, this is what happened: I was moving through various emotional layers that I felt in my body as is typical of a process. I soon, however, came across the experience of something very solid - something hard and stuck inside - it’s hardness felt ‘stone-like’ and I could feel it in my right abdominal region. The emotion I felt there was a feeling of ‘cold numbness’. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to ‘go into it’, it felt that solid.
With the support of my fellow therapist, however, I moved into this solid cold numbness in my abdomen. It happened slowly, and required me to intentionally remain open, even though a part of me wanted to close down and resist. As I stayed open and accepting, using my breath to help, I was gradually pulled deeper and deeper. Eventually I passed through it. When I got to the other side, I tuned in to what emotion was coming up, and was gently pulled deeper still.
I was taken into a huge ocean of grief.
I allowed myself to open into this grief, which then started to erupt through my body and gush out as I was pulled deeper still into it. Tears flowed freely, as though a plug had been pulled from deep within. It felt such a relief.
Each process is different and in this one, as the grief subsided, I could still feel that hard experience in the right side of my abdomen. It was a little softer, however, but still there.
Again, I was supported to move into it, and again, when I came out the other side, further grief poured out. This process, of moving into the hard experience, coming out the other side followed by a deep outpouring of grief, happened perhaps seven times - it’s hard to remember exactly.
The old story crumbles
By the end of this process, as well as having got though what seemed like dozens of tissues(!), I felt like my soul had been renewed. It felt as though an old, outdated internal story I was carrying of myself and the world had started to crumble. It isn’t easy to let go of something we have held onto for such a long time. The grief I experienced was born out of my letting go of this long-held story - one that I had experientially and finally realised was no longer needed.
I knew then that the world would not feel the same when I opened my eyes at the end of the process. I was right!
When I opened my eyes, I sensed the world to be softer, and more alive.
I felt lighter, more at ease and connected in myself. A significant shift took place that has been reinforced and magnified through follow-up processes. Consequently, my relationships with friends and family members have also shifted significantly. They have been more authentic and real. Simultaneously, I have felt more deeply integrated and intimately connected to my inner core as I go about my day-to-day life.
Pain, appreciation and growth
Through the processes I have personally experienced over the years, I have had a chance to work on a range of painful memories especially related to key people in my life. These processes have allowed me to express pain I had stored and held on to for years. I have felt lighter with each process as I let go.
As well as letting go of pain, I have also appreciated the goodness in these relationships. It’s given me a sense of the perspective of the other person, being able to see their limitations and lack of access to internal resources that prevented them from making more wholesome choices at the time - just as I may have been unable to in my own way.
I should add that none of this changes the fact that an injustice or abuse may have taken place. It does however mean that I don’t need to continue to hold onto and personally suffer as a result of the past. I can be free of it, and can choose to also take any necessary practical steps, if they are needed. Indeed any action I now take is much more likely to come from a place of compassion, rather than hatred, or desire for revenge.
Through emptying pain I had been holding on to, and truly recognising the other person’s barriers and limitations, I naturally also move to a place of acceptance. I feel lighter, can understand better why something took place, and move in the direction of authentic forgiveness.
Typically I also realise certain truths and gain insights about myself and the world. I have not only let go, I am also learning lessons. I am growing as a human being - becoming more integrated, more ‘whole’.
Clients
With clients I have worked with, my experience has been deeply fulfilling. Working with people at a soul level is a joy. It has taught me that essentially, we all have the same fundamental needs, and that we need to take care of each other.
Sometimes, a client may make a remarkable shift after one or two sessions. In other cases it may take longer or the work may need complementing with other approaches. In each instance, however, the person undergoing it needs to be willing. Willing to face what is there, knowing that they will be supported, and that ultimately, the only way out, is through.
One client I saw, for instance, Sara, was experiencing extreme anxiety. It had been going on for months following an intensely stressful sequence of events. She had been put on benzodiazepines by her GP, it was that severe.
During Sara’s process, she soon felt dread and terror in her body. I gently supported her to give herself permission to actually feel this rather than push it away. She did so and as she fully felt and moved through these emotions, other emotions came up, some unexpected. She uncovered a past unresolved, painful, memory, which I noted. I asked her to then let the memory go and continue to feel the raw emotions she was experiencing.
Eventually, as she continued to experience successive emotional ‘layers’, she began to enter into that peaceful, expanded experience at her core. She was connecting with spirit, or Ruh.
Sara was then supported to express and empty out in words, the pain related to the memory that had arisen. She did so speaking out loud to those concerned as though they were there. By speaking out, the emotions she had been holding onto for decades, that were feeding her recent but intense anxiety, were finally being released out of her system.
When her process was over, Sara opened her eyes. She looked as though a big weight had been lifted off her shoulders. I followed up with Sara after her session, and I was pleased to hear that her anxiety had reduced to a much lower level - after just that first session.
Despite experiencing such intense emotions - i.e dread and terror - in her process, Sara had demonstrated what is possible when we have the willingness to surrender to whatever emotions are arising, however painful or strong they are.
Through allowing ourself to open to felt emotions (in a safe and supported space), tremendous transformation and healing also opens up. The pain of finally feeling those emotions fully is far less than continuing to live with the pain of not fully facing them. Sara is one of many examples of someone who chose to finally fully feel and consequently experience greater freedom and relief…
Download this series as a single compact E-book right away (no email required)
About the Author
Dr Muzammal Hussain (likes to be called Muzammal) has worked as a medical doctor in the area of NHS Psychiatry over more than 12 years. He is also an experienced Accredited Journey Therapist and a Coach at Restorative Wholeness.
Additionally, Muzammal is active in ecological activism where he weaves together the strands of Islamic ecology, Permaculture and Inclusive leadership. He is especially passionate about the relationship between inner transformation, conscious community building and ecological healing. He lives with his wife in Brighton, East Sussex, in the UK.
—
Helpful References
Bays, Brandon: ‘The Journey: A Practical Guide to Healing Your Life and Setting Yourself Free’ (2012)
Billet, Kevin: The Enneagram - Ancient Wisdom, Modern Insights: (VIdeo, 2020)
Rahman, Jamal: ‘The Fragrance of Faith: The Enlightened Heart of Islam’ (2004): See p. 109-110 for a description of 'Sacred Holding'.
Rothman, Abdallah and Coyle, Adrian: Towards a Framework for Islamic Psychology and Psychotherapy: An Islamic Model of the Soul (2018)
—
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my deep gratitude to Elizabeth Lymer for her dedicated time and attention in carefully reading the first two drafts of this publication, and providing valuable feedback that helped immensely with adding clarity and refinement to almost all aspects of the final version of this book.
I thank my caring friend, Ben Rogaly who, having listened to a writing update on one of our physically distanced woodland walks, offered an insightful idea for the main title that I just had to take up.
I would also like to thank my dear wife, Shumaisa, for her love and encouragement every step of the way, with this piece of work and so many others.
Privacy
The names of any clients mentioned in this book have been intentionally changed to honour their privacy.
Disclaimer
If you have a medical illness, you are advised to consult your own medical practitioner. Any approach described in this post is not a replacement to seeking medical advice. While people have reported significant improvements in physical and mental well-being following Journeywork, each of us is unique, and no one can say in advance how any one individual will respond.