MCC is joined by Maristan , a local non-profit organization for our upcoming Family Night! Join Dr. Rania Awaad & Maristan’s Clinical team, Saha Jamshed, Nuzhath Quadri, and Hamed Fatahian as they discuss Muslim mental health and debunk myths around the topic of therapy and other help-seeking behaviors.
8 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. (Maghrib to Isha) | Friday, August 19 | MCC Conference Room | Free | Snacks and coffee provided | In-person or watch virtually at mcceastbay.org/live
Sponsored by Maristan & MCC East Bay
- – Maristan’s mental health videos at the mosque: https://mcceastbay.org/maristan
- – More Dr. Rania: https://mcceastbay.org/rania
- – More mental health talks at MCC: https://mcceastbay.org/mental-health
- – More from our Friday Night Series: https://mcceastbay.org/friday-night
Questions? events@mcceastbay.org
Maristan’s Mission
Grounded in Islamic traditions, Maristan aims to lead professional clinical care, education, and research in advancing holistic, mental, and spiritual wellness.
Maristan’s Vision
Maristan strives to revive the Islamic legacy of research and education that informs holistic healing and provides culturally and spiritually congruent, professional, accessible and affordable mental health care for all.
Dr. Rania Awaad | Executive Director, Co-Founder of Maristan
Rania Awaad, M.D. is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine where she is the Director of the Stanford Muslim Mental Health & Islamic Psychology Lab as well as Stanford University’s Affiliate Chaplain. She also serves as the Associate Division Chief for Public Mental Health and Population Sciences as well as the Section Co-Chief of Diversity and Cultural Mental Health. In addition, she is a faculty member of the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University. She pursued her psychiatric residency training at Stanford where she also completed a postdoctoral clinical research fellowship with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
As a nationally recognized leader in Muslim mental health, Dr. Awaad has been invited by Presidents Obama and Biden, the CDC, HHS, and SAMHSA to present her work at national convenings in DC. She has pioneered by establishing the first Muslim Mental Health Community Advisory Board (BAMMH CAB) in the US. Dr. Awaad has also established multiple Muslim mental health clinics as well as custom-tailored clinical and educational training programs for clinicians, and religious and community leaders to address the mental health needs of Muslim communities.
Through community partnerships established by the Stanford Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Awaad is currently the Psychiatric Director of the El Camino Women’s Medical Group where she pursues her interest in women’s mental health. Additionally, she serves as the Executive Director of Maristan, a holistic mental health nonprofit serving Muslim communities. Previously, she served as the founding Clinical Director of the Bay Area branch of the Khalil Center.
Her courses at Stanford range from teaching a pioneering course on Islamic Psychology (PSYC 144/244), to instructing medical students, psychiatry residents, and clinical psychology trainees on implicit bias and integrating culture and religion into medical care (PAU’s CLDV 700 and Stanford’s PGY-3 “Culture and Religion in Psychiatry”), to teaching undergraduate and graduate students the psychology of xenophobia (PSYC 86Q). Some of her recent academic publications include an edited volume on “Islamophobia and Psychiatry” (Springer, 2019), “Applying Islamic Principles to Clinical Mental Health” (Routledge, 2020), and an upcoming clinical textbook on Muslim Mental Health for the American Psychiatric Association. She has also produced a toolkit, fact sheet, CME course on Muslim mental health for the APA.
Dr. Awaad is particularly passionate about uncovering the historical roots of mental health care in the Islamic intellectual heritage and has two upcoming books on the topic. In addition, she is affiliate faculty of Islamic Psychology at the Cambridge Muslim College and The Islamic Seminary of America. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Yaqeen Institute and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. She also has an interest in refugee mental health and has traveled to Amman, Jordan multiple times with the Care Program for Refugees (CPR) sponsored by Al-Alusi Foundation. She worked on developing and presenting a “train the trainers” curriculum to aid workers and therapists in Amman working with Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
Prior to studying medicine, she pursued classical Islamic studies in Damascus, Syria, and holds certifications (ijaza) in the Qur’an, Islamic Law, and other branches of the Islamic Sciences. Dr. Awaad has also previously served as the first female Professor of Islamic Law at Zaytuna College, a 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. Dr. Awaad has been the recipient of several awards and grants for her work. She is a nationally recognized speaker, award-winning teacher, researcher, and author in both the Islamic and medical sciences. Follow her @Dr.RaniaAwaad
Sara Mostafavi, Secretary of the Board of Directors, Co-Founder
Sara Mostafavi is an attorney who has focused on immigration & nationality law since 2005, with practice interests including VAWA (Violence Against Women Act), human-rights based asylum cases, as well as addressing national security scrutiny faced by Muslims here in the United States.
Community service and intrafaith dialogue are guiding principles that have animated her work as a board member of CAIR – SFBA (Council on American Islamic Relations – SF Bay Area office), a board member for NCIC (Northern California Islamic Council), a member of the Community Advisory Board (CAB) on Muslim Mental Health, as well as her past work at the Hub Foundation and as a board member for ICCNC (Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California).
She has degrees in Sociology and Microbiology from U.C. Davis and has a Juris Doctorate from the George Washington University Law School. Sara lives in Danville with her husband and two daughters and enjoys hiking, camping, traveling, reading, studying about Islamic spirituality, and connecting with her halaqas in her free time.
Saha Jamshed, LCSW
Saha Jamshed is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the state of California and currently practices as a Mental Health Therapist at Axis Community Health and Maristan. Saha provides support to individuals, couples, and families from diverse backgrounds presenting with symptoms of depression, anxiety, marital conflict and low self-esteem. She completed her master’s at University of Southern California and completed her training with a focus on Mental Health at John George Psychiatric Hospital. Saha utilizes a multitude of therapeutic intervention modalities based on the needs of the client including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness, Solution Focused Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and stress management. Saha is certified as a Positive Discipline Parent Educator. She provides services in Dari and English. Simultaneously, Saha has been working at NISA, a Muslim domestic violence organization for over 15 years where she provides counseling and case management for survivors of domestic violence and abuse.
Nuzhath Quadri, LMFT
Nuzhath Quadri is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She holds a Masters in Counseling Psychology from University of San Francisco. Most of her 10+ year career has been spent working with youth and their families through the Santa Clara Unified School District school-based therapy program.
Alongside the school work, her experience also includes working in community clinics with clients experiencing anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, grief and personal life challenges. Her education focused on family systems approach but she pulls from various modalities, including CPT, DPT, mindfulness-based interventions, play therapy to meet her clients’ needs.
Hamed Fatahian, AMFT
Hamed Fatahian is a Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and Registered Associate Professional Clinical Counselor who graduated with a master’s in counseling psychology from Palo Alto University. He works at New Paths (Couples Recovery Center). He specializes in couple therapy, especially with the Muslim population. He has also trained in EFT over the past few years from ICEEFT (International Center for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy).
