Theoretical foundations and clinical applications of traditional Islamically integrated psychotherapy

Early Muslim scholars translated the works of Greek philosophers and elaborated on them to advance the understanding of conditions related to the human psyche in an Islamic context. Because Islam encourages the pursuit of knowledge and accepts reason and empirical evidence as admissible sources of information alongside scripture, there has never been a dichotomy between sacred and secular knowledge. Early Muslim scholars were able to comfortably advance mental health practice as a subdiscipline of medicine and even established one of the earliest documented hospitals in Baghdad in the 9th century. This chapter sheds light on Islamic epistemology and its methodological understanding in the formation of the traditional Islamically integrated psychotherapy (TIIP) model. It discusses TIIP's approach, underlying assumptions, and ontological model, and presents a brief case study to demonstrate TIIP concepts and interventions. The chapter discusses the case with some illustrations of the processes and interventions used in marital therapy.