Who We Are

Dr. Carrie York Al-Karam is president of the Alkaram Institute. Her areas of interest include Islamic psychology, spiritually integrated psychotherapy, and virtue/character development from an Islamic perspective. She is an associate editor for a number of peer-reviewed journals including APA’s Spirituality in Clinical Practice as well as the Middle East Journal of Positive Psychology. Her edited books are Mental Health and Psychological Practice in the United Arab Emirates (2015), Islamically Integrated Psychotherapy: Uniting Faith and Professional Practice (2018), a children’s character development book called Maya and the Seven Limbs (2020), and a forthcoming textbook on Islamic psychology. Having lived outside her native United States for nearly 17 years in various countries, she and her family are now setting down roots in Roanoke, Virginia. In her free time she enjoys jogging, traveling, and spending time with loved ones.

Dr. Rabia Malik is a consultant systemic therapist. She currently works at the Tavistock Centre teaching post graduate systemic research doctorate students and also runs a private clinical practice working mainly with Muslim clients. She has over 20 years of experience working with Muslim clients and communities on complex cases, including de-radicalisation. She co-lead an NHS specialist mental health service in London, the Marlborough Cultural Therapy Centre for ten years, serving ethnic minority children, adolescents and families. She runs courses on working with religious, spiritual and cultural beliefs for mental health practitioners in mainstream and community organisations and has presented her work nationally and internationally at conferences. She has taught Islamic counselling modules and supervised Islamic counselling trainees. She has written several papers in peer reviewed journals and books on the mental health of Muslims. She obtained her doctorate from University College London on  the cultural construction of depression amongst Pakistanis. She has also been a senior lecturer at the University of East London, teaching a course on ‘Race, Culture and Psychology’. She has served as the first Chairwoman of the City Circle in London, which is a Muslim open discussion forum, as well as been a Trustee of the Muslim Youth Helpline, where she lead a research project on the need for faith sensitive mental health services for young British Muslims.

Dr. Abdallah Rothman is the Executive Director of the International Association of Islamic Psychology and founder of Shifaa Integrative Counseling. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and a Board Certified Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC) and holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology. Dr. Abdallah’s clinical practice and his academic research focus on counseling from an Islamic paradigm and establishing an Islamic theoretical orientation to psychology. He publishes on this topic in books and journal articles, including his paper Toward a framework for Islamic psychology and psychotherapy: An Islamic Model of the Soul which received critical acclaim and has been downloaded over 17,000 times. He gives presentations, leads workshops, is invited to speaking engagements around the world and has received awards for his contributions to knowledge in the field of Islamic psychology. He is visiting professor of psychology at Zaim University Istanbul, International Islamic University Islamabad, and Al-Neelain University Khartoum.

Khalid Elzamzamy, MD is a psychiatry resident at Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar. He is also currently completing his Master’s degree in Islamic Ethics at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, also in Qatar. Having received his medical degree from Ain Shams University, Egypt, he is an active researcher and scholar, previously serving as a research assistant at Yale University, and currently as a Research Fellow at the Family and Youth Institute and the Alkaram Institute.

Dr. Elzamzamy’s interests include investigating the history and current practice of mental health in Arab, Muslim and migrant communities, as well as the interplay between mental health, culture, spirituality, and religiosity.