Rania Awaad: Aid Workers and Refugees in Amman

Date
Thu October 27th 2016, 12:30pm
Location
Encina Hall West, Room 219 (616 Serra Street)
Rania Awaad: Aid Workers and Refugees in Amman

Rania Awaad (Stanford University), "Training the Trainers: Aid Workers and Refugees in Amman"  

Over 700,000 refugees have been registered with the UN in Jordan  by the summer of 2016. Due to relentless war in the region, growing level of violence, traumatic experiences, and extreme deprivation in daily life, these refugees are re-traumatized on an ongoing basis. I present findings from an exploratory needs assessment trip to Jordan through which our team developed a curriculum to teach mental health aid workers and counselors how to use brain-based therapy with refugees who have been traumatized, plagued with anxiety, and depression. A synthesized model of neuroscience, attachment theory and evidence-based treatment is employed to teach mental health aid workers how to more effectively treat refugees with PTSD. The findings suggest that traditional psychotherapeutic approaches with refugees fall short of meeting their mental health needs. On the other hand, recent advances in neuroscience have increased our knowledge of how people change and can be applied in a culturally congruent manner. Brain-based therapy synthesizes neuroscience, evidence-based treatment, psychotherapy research, and healthy practices into a hybrid therapeutic model. This model helps identify which elements of traditional psychotherapeutic schools are effective and which may be counter-therapeutic. It also provides opportunities to empower mental health aid workers providing care to refugees.

Rania Awaad, M.D., is a Clinical Instructor in the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and pursues her clinical practice through the department's community psychiatry track. She is also a researcher and the Director of the Stanford Muslims and Mental Health Lab where she mentors and oversees multiple lines of research focused on Muslim mental health. She completed her psychiatric residency training at Stanford Hospital and Clinics where she also pursued a postdoctoral clinical research fellowship with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Her research and clinical work are focused on the mental health needs of Muslims. She has been the recipient of several awards and grants for her work. She also serves as the Clinical Director of the Bay Area branch of the Khalil Center (Santa Clara), a spiritual wellness center pioneering the application of traditional Islamic spiritual healing methods to modern clinical psychology. Prior to studying medicine, Dr. Awaad pursued classical Islamic Studies in Damascus, Syria and holds certification (Ijaza) in Qur’an, Islamic Law and other branches of the Islamic Sciences. She is a Professor of Islamic Law at Zaytuna College, an American Muslim Liberal Arts College in Berkeley, CA. In addition, she serves as the Director of The Rahmah Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating Muslim women and girls.