Dr Asim Yusuf – Psychiatrist

Dr Asim Yusuf is a Consultant Psychiatrist in General Adult Psychiatry and Clinical Director for Mental Health for the Black Country Partnership Foundation Trust.

He has a special interest in Spirituality and Mental Health and is an internationally recognised a leading authority on this topic, being regularly invited to deliver papers at Universities in the UK, US and Canada.

He has developed a system of looking at mental health that incorporates the classical Islamic, western and traditional approaches. This is founded on a unified model of the self in relation to God, the Universe and the Hereafter that unites scripture, Islamic theological and spiritual traditions with the latest developments in cognitive neuroscience and philosophy of mind. He has also developed several Islamically indigenous working models of psychotherapy which he has practically utilised with clients.

Shaykh Asim is the Chair of the British Board of Scholars and Imams, and sits on the advisory panels of a number of charitable and community organisations. He lectures in Islamic metaphysics, philosophy, spirituality and psychology. He has over twenty years of rigorous theological training and has been granted ijazas in Islamic law, theology and spirituality by prominent scholars from around the world. He has authored works on spirituality, history and jurisprudence, including Shedding Light on the Dawn, the most comprehensive work ever written on the issue of prayer times in northern latitudes.

Dr Daniel Jackson – Psychiatrist

Dr Daniel Jackson graduated in medicine from The University of Birmingham and is a psychiatrist working within the West Midlands, currently sub specialising in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Dr Jackson has a keen interest in medical education, with roles as Honorary Clinical Tutor and Lecturer on the MRCPsych course as well as Honorary Clinical Tutor at The University of Birmingham and Honorary Lecturer at The University of Warwick.

He is a member of The Royal College of Psychiatrists and has a BSc in Public Health and is currently writing his dissertation for a Masters in Philosophy and Ethics of Psychiatry. Dr Jackson emphasises the importance of understanding a person’s difficulties along with the meaning this has in their life and has been interested in Islamic psychology and mindfulness approaches.

He has studied the Islamic Sciences and the Arabic language for the last 16 years, both in the UK and abroad in Cairo, Egypt and Damascus, Syria with emphasis on Islamic spirituality. As a co-founder of IMWell he hopes to be part of a team that continues to research the area of Islamic Psychology within a Western context and offer consultation to services working with Muslim patients.