With every passing year, there is a significant rise in mental health disorders worldwide. At the same time, more and more people are beginning to realize the importance of prioritizing their mental and emotional well-being to improve their overall quality of life.
So with the conversation around mental health becoming more open and less stigmatized, the availability of professional help is also increasing.
Whether you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, stress, or other mental health challenges, the good news is that there are now more resources than ever to support you.
From online therapy and coaching platforms to in-person counseling and psychiatric services, reaching out for the right mental health support has never been more accessible.
But who exactly should you go to? And when do you know it’s the right time to get help?
In this comprehensive guide, I’ve answered these questions and more…
- When should you seek professional mental health help?
- What’s the difference between the categories of professionals that provide mental health support?
- When should you seek help from a psychiatrist, therapist, counselor, mentor, and coach?
- How do you know which one you need?
- Once you’ve decided which category of professional to opt for, how can you find the right coach or therapist for YOU?
NOTE: I’m not going to talk too much about qualifications and certifications here but you should definitely look into that as a part of your decision-making process.
My focus will be primarily on what these different types of professionals DO in the context of mental distress, illnesses, and disorders so you can gain clarity into who you need to reach out to.
None of this information is intended to be exhaustive as this is a very extensive topic.
In essence, this guide is intended as a first step to help you gain insight into making the best choice for your mental and emotional health, insha Allah.
When should you seek mental health help?
How do you know when it’s the right time to get help for your mental health issues?
While the specifics can vary, usually these are some good signs that indicate deeper underlying problems that need to be worked on in a professional 1-1 setting:
- When you’ve tried self-help techniques and accessed free psychological material on the internet and social media, but none of it has helped you fully understand or resolve the issues you’re dealing with.
- When your destructive thoughts, feelings, and behavior patterns are interfering with your ability to be successful in the important areas of your life, like your relationship with yourself and your family, your studies, and/or your career.
- When you feel distant, unfocused, and tired all the time without knowing exactly why.
- When you’re unable to overcome the trauma you’ve suffered from abusive relationships in the past and the cycle of abuse keeps repeating into the present.
- When you have frequent anger outbursts and mood swings, and struggle with controlling your impulses.
- When you’re simply frustrated with yourself, the people around you, and life in general all. the. time.
If one or more of these applies to you, if you know something is off and you want help understanding exactly what, then that would be the right time to reach out and get help. You don’t have to continue to suffer alone.
Let now be the time you commit to resolving the issues that have been festering for too long, and explore everything that’s been holding you back from showing up as your truest, happiest, most authentic self.
What are some categories of professionals providing mental health support?
Some categories of professionals who provide mental health support to individuals include:
- Psychiatrists
- Therapists
- Counselors
- Coaches
- Mentors
What does a psychiatrist do?
Simply put, a psychiatrist is a doctor who prescribes medication after making an appropriate mental health diagnosis.
While many people prefer to explore alternative options before, during, or after using medication for their mental symptoms or illnesses, you should never feel ashamed of going to a psychiatrist and taking medication.
Psychiatrists don’t generally offer one-on-one therapy or coaching sessions, but might work with other psychologists or psychotherapists to help their clients get the holistic support they need.
What is therapy?
A therapist (or psychotherapist) is a licensed mental health professional who works with their clients to explore deeper emotional or psychological issues.
A therapist will work with you to help you explore your past traumas, subconscious or unconscious patterns, and chronic mental health conditions.
Therapy is usually long-term and helps you gain a better understanding of yourself so you can heal from your psychological wounds. If you have a mental health diagnosis or are looking to explore if you might have one, a therapist will also assess you for mental health disorders.
What is counseling?
A counselor is a trained professional who helps individuals address emotional or psychological issues, often related to current life stressors or situations.
Counseling is a form of talk therapy in which you share your problems and struggles with your counselor in a safe, non-judgmental setting, hoping to gain insight and learn coping strategies to deal with things like anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, or grief.
It’s typically short-term and more focused on your current concerns rather than deep-rooted psychological issues, but that can vary depending on the professional training or lived experience of the counselor.
What is mentoring?
A mentor is someone who offers guidance and advice to others based on their own experience and knowledge in a particular field or area of life.
Mentorship is usually less formal than all the other forms of mental health support and often involves a long-term relationship where the mentor shares insights and lessons they’ve learned from their journey to help guide you along yours.
They may have additional professional training in the area in which they’re mentoring others, in which case mentoring can be very helpful in providing guidance and streamlining your own progress or personal growth in that area.
What is coaching?
If you’ve identified some goals that you want to work on, whether they are related to your relationships, career, personal development, or parenting, then a coach will provide you the tools, techniques, accountability, and guidance to get you from point A (where you’re currently at) to point B (where you want to be).
Now this is my own opinion based on my personal experience of coaching Muslim women for the past 5+ years that you can go round and round in circles for years with therapy and counseling until you undergo the kind of transformational change that you can achieve with just a few well-placed coaching sessions with the right coach.
And that’s because coaches have usually spent years of training and certifications to hone in and perfect ONE (or more but similar) transformations that they can help their clients achieve in the shortest amount of time.
This makes coaching much more time-efficient and valuable as compared to some other forms of mental health help because coaching is more intentional, focused, and result-oriented.
Download “The Ultimate Guide to Help You Get the Mental Health & Support You Need” for answers to these questions…
- When should you see a psychiatrist?
- When should you see a therapist?
- When should you see a counselor?
- When should you have a mentor?
- When should you see a coach?
Which one is the right fit for YOU?
If you know something is wrong and you have yet to narrow down what that could be, a therapist can provide an excellent starting point to uncover your deeper emotional traumas and help you make sense of things.
If you suspect or know that you have a mental disorder and it’s disrupting your life, get help from a psychiatrist, therapist, or counselor.
If you’ve identified the key area of your life that you’re experiencing problems in, whether that’s your marriage, work-life balance, parenting, childbirth, business growth, self-esteem, spirituality, or mental health symptoms, then a coach or mentor might be the way to go.
WHO should you go to?
Go to multiple people. Have a few sessions or a discovery call and keep going until you find the right fit.
Google coaches and therapists in your area.
Look up directories.
Read up on their testimonials and what previous clients are saying about the kind of support they provide.
Ask your friends.
Pray Istikharah. Then go for it.
Don’t stay stuck in the same place you’ve been in for years. Just like you wouldn’t hesitate before going to the doctor’s for physical symptoms of pain and illness, stop overthinking about getting professional mental health help.
The good news is that you’ll always GAIN something from the process, insha Allah. And what you gain might just end up changing the rest of the trajectory of your life, for better.
You’ll only know if you take that first step.
Steps for choosing the right professional for you
Here are some additional tips and important steps to help you find the right mental health professional for you, once you’ve narrowed down the category of professionals:
STEP 1: Define Your Goals
STEP 2: Explore Qualifications and Lived Experience
STEP 3: Ensure Cultural and Religious Alignment
STEP 4: Look for Testimonials and Reviews
STEP 5: Assess Availability and Cost
STEP 6: Have a Free Consultation or Discovery Call
I’ve explained these steps in detail and help you work through them in “The Ultimate Guide to Help You Get the Mental Health & Support You Need”. Download below:
How can I support you in your mental health challenges as a Muslim woman?
I’m a certified life coach and Alimah (qualified scholar) with a background in Islamic psychology. My services merge Islamic counseling with life coaching principles. How?
The Islamic counseling aspect is in the form of Duas, Ahadith and stories of the pious predecessors relevant to your life events, and general Nasiha (advice and tips) based on my lived experience as a daughter, wife, mother, daughter-in-law, and entrepreneur, with a multicultural upbringing.
My goal is to help you cope with your struggles in light of Islamic teachings so you can understand and fulfill the larger purpose of your life as a Muslimah.
The life coaching aspect is future and action-oriented, to help you not just feel better but actively learn how to DO better through research-based techniques, resources, workbooks, and action steps.
I have combined my years of experience as a faith-based coach to design resources you can benefit from during our time together AND for years to come, on topics such as:
- Understanding your identity as a Muslim woman.
- Developing emotional intelligence and regulating your emotions.
- Overcoming the limiting beliefs that are holding you back.
- Challenging and reframing the negative thoughts that keep you overthinking and anxious.
- Realizing your assumptions, expectations, and needs from your important relationships and marriage.
- Identifying your values and setting healthy, effective boundaries to uphold them.
You ultimately learn how to build a life which feels authentic and genuine to YOU by overcoming the spiritual, mental, and emotional barriers that have kept you stuck for so long.
My goal as your coach is to help you develop enough resilience and mental strength that once our sessions are completed, you have all of the tools and coping mechanisms you need to tackle life challenges head-on by YOURSELF.
And this is not a claim I make lightly.
Alhumdulillah, I’ve had clients who I coached 3+ years back, who are STILL benefiting from our sessions and feel like they have all the tools necessary to cope and thrive with their various life challenges.
They’ve mastered resilience, grown in self-love, and become closer to Allah ﷻ in such a way that they can hold on to themselves and their faith even if life gets hard, and that’s the beauty of coaching that focuses on not just your mental health, but also your spirituality.
Which brings me to the next question…
Why the term heart-centered?
Because throughout my services, my ultimate aim is to help you build a lasting and deep connection with Allah ﷻ so you can weather life’s storms with faith and resilience.
I keep your heart and its relationship with the Creator at the center of my coaching because there’s no peace in the world that can be found far from Him.
So if you want to take the plunge, if you’re frustrated by trying out all the self-help techniques out there yet still struggling with persistent anxiety and sadness that won’t go away, then request a consultation and let’s chat about how you can finally get unstuck, heal, and grow, insha Allah.
Imagine if you healed yourself now so your children don’t have to grow up and heal from their childhoods.
Imagine if you healed yourself so you could heal others.
How would that feel?
That’s the work I’ve done.
I’m now at a place where I’ve consistently worked on (and continue to work on) my personal development and healing so I can help others on their journeys, Alhumdulillah.
Allow me to conclude this guide with a story to explain why I’ve chosen to combine my Islamic knowledge, lived experience, and qualifications with coaching as my path to help others…
How Coaching is Different from Therapy and Psychiatry
Imagine you’re walking along the road, lost in thought, when you suddenly fall into a hole. The hole is dark and scary and you don’t know how to get out.
You yell out for help and hear footsteps approaching. Someone peers down, asks how you’re doing, notes down your physical symptoms, throws a prescription chit down, and walks away.
That person is the doctor.
You continue to yell for help. Someone else approaches and peers down. You tell them your troubles and they start their stopwatch, ask you all about how it feels down in the hole, your relationship with your parents, and current psychological symptoms. Then the stopwatch beeps, signaling that time is over, so they tell you to take care and if you’re still in the hole next week, they’ll come by and see how you’re doing. Then they walk away.
This person is the therapist.
Now you’re getting even more desperate. You call out again and this time the face that peers down advises you to pray and resign yourself to your fate.
This is the person with a false perception of Sabr who thinks all mental distress is cured through Dua alone.
(Are you in such a place of life where you’re completely in despair and desperation? Have you tried your best, exhausted all efforts, but still don’t find yourself making it out of the hole? I feel you.)
Voice now hoarse from yelling for help, with the slightest flicker of hope still alive in your heart that someone might be able to come and guide you, you call out one last time.
Footsteps approach. A face peers down and they ask how you’re doing. They patiently hear you out, and much to your surprise – jump straight down into the hole! You’re shocked and ask them why they’d do something so absurd.
The person takes your hand and says: “I’ve been down the hole before. I know how to get out. Come, I’ll show you.”
Together, hand in hand, you both climb out of the hole.
This person is the life coach.
So here I am – ready to take you by the hand and help you out of the pit of despair, sadness, and loneliness that you find yourself in.
BUT YOU HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO CALL OUT. YOU HAVE TO TAKE THAT FIRST STEP.
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