Currently accepting new clients
You shouldn't have to explain your faith to your therapist.
Therapy for Muslim individuals, couples, and families across Ontario — where your deen isn't a footnote in the session, and the clinical work is still rigorous and evidence‑based.
- Format
- Virtual across Ontario
- In person
- In person in Maple
- Hours
- Evenings and weekends
Ali Raza Hasan Ali
MSW, RSW, Psychotherapist
Certified EMDR Clinician
Fitrah — the disposition you were made with
Is this the right fit?
Most people who reach out have tried therapy before and found they spent the first twenty minutes of every session explaining themselves. Here is what I actually work with — and what I don't.
What I work with
- Trauma, including childhood trauma and harm that happened inside religious community
- Anxiety, panic, and a mind that will not settle
- Grief — including grief that faith was supposed to have answered
- Anger, emotional flooding, and reactivity at home
- Marital strain and intergenerational conflict in Muslim families
- Religious doubt, scrupulosity, and intrusive thoughts (waswasa)
- Young adults navigating identity between two worlds
Where I'm not the right fit
- Active crisis or immediate risk to your safety — that needs same-day care, not a waitlist
- Substance dependence requiring medical withdrawal management
- Custody assessments, court-ordered evaluations, or formal psychological testing
- Anyone looking for a religious ruling rather than clinical care
If you're not sure which side of that line you're on, write to me anyway. I would rather point you somewhere useful than have you wait.
Shifa' — healing as a process, not an event
What it costs and how it runs
No hidden structure. Everything you'd want to know before booking.
Fee
$175
per 50-minute session
Couples and family sessions run longer and are billed accordingly. I'll tell you the exact amount before we book — there are no charges you haven't heard about first.
A limited number of reduced-fee spots are held for people who need them. If cost is what's stopping you, say so when you write — it's a normal thing to ask.
Insurance
Often covered
by extended health plans
Receipts are issued for Registered Social Work. Many Ontario extended health plans cover RSW services — worth checking yours before the first session.
Format
Virtual or in person
Ontario-wide or Maple
Secure video anywhere in Ontario, or in person at the Maple office. Evening and weekend appointments are available.
If you are in crisis right now, call or text 988 (Suicide Crisis Helpline, Canada) or go to your nearest emergency department. This page and its form are not monitored around the clock.
Bidayah — the beginning
How to start
FIRST
A free 15-minute call
You tell me what's going on. I tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it. No pressure either way, and no charge.
THEN
The first session
History, what you want to be different, and how faith figures into it — at whatever depth you want. We set a direction together.
ONGOING
Weekly, then spaced out
Most people start weekly and taper as things steady. Many courses of work run three to six months. You decide when it's done.
Pick a time
Book the free 15-minute call
No charge and no obligation to book anything afterwards. Please don't put health details in the booking form — we'll talk those through on the call itself.
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I read every message myself and reply within one business day. If you don't hear back, something went wrong — please write again.
Pick a timeAmana — something held in trust
Who you'd be sitting with
I'm a Registered Social Worker and Certified EMDR Clinician based in Maple, Ontario. My career has run through community mental health, school settings, and clinical leadership — and alongside that, serious study of the Shia Ithna-Asheri tradition, which is also my own.
That combination is the whole point. I don't treat Islamic teaching as a cultural overlay on top of real therapy, and I don't treat therapy as something the tradition needs rescuing from. The tradition already has a sophisticated account of the soul; modern clinical science describes the same person from a different angle. Where they corroborate each other, that's useful. Where they don't, I say so.
Practically: you can bring your faith into the room in full, in part, or not at all — and the clinical work will be the same standard either way.
Aliya Karmali
Behavioural Instructor & Educator
Aliya's landscape architecture thesis reimagined the Najaf-to-Karbala pilgrimage route as a series of healing gardens — the work the Tabeeah philosophy grew out of.
She works with children and families on behavioural intervention, tutoring and Qur'an instruction. More about Aliya's work.
- Registration
- Registered Social Worker, Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers
- Training
- MSW, University of Toronto — Mental Health & Health
HBSc, University of Toronto - Certification
- Certified EMDR Clinician · DBT (PESI) · CBT for Trauma (APT) · Motivational Interviewing (UHN) · ASIST
Su'al — the questions people actually ask
Common questions
Is therapy even allowed in Islam?
Yes. Seeking a cure is prophetic practice, not a departure from it. The tradition has an entire literature on the states of the nafs and their treatment. What people are usually worried about is whether therapy will ask them to give something up — and that is a fair worry, which is why I say plainly: it won't.
Are you going to tell me to just pray more?
No. If prayer alone were treating this, you would not be reading this page. Being told to make more du'a is often the exact dismissal that made someone stop asking for help. I'll treat what's in front of us clinically — and if faith is a resource for you, we use it as one rather than as an instruction.
What if someone in the community finds out?
Confidentiality is a legal obligation I hold as a Registered Social Worker, and it does not soften because we share a community. I don't discuss who I see. The limits are the standard ones — risk to your safety or someone else's, or a court order — and I go through them with you in the first session.
Do I have to be practising to work with you?
No. People come in at every possible relationship to their faith — devout, lapsed, angry, unsure, somewhere in between. None of those is a wrong answer, and none of them changes the standard of the clinical work.
Does virtual therapy actually work?
For most of what I treat, the evidence puts it on par with in-person work — including for trauma. If you would rather sit in a room, I see people in person in Maple. Some clients do both depending on the week.
I tried therapy before and it didn't help. Why would this be different?
Often it isn't that the therapy was bad — it's that half the session went on context-setting, and the half that was left never got to the thing underneath. If you've spent past sessions explaining what Muharram is, or why leaving is not simple, that's the part you can skip here.
How long does this take?
Most courses of work run three to six months of weekly sessions, then taper. Some things are shorter. I'd rather tell you at session four that you're nearly done than keep you booked indefinitely.
Do you work specifically with Shia clients?
Yes — I'm Shia myself, and much of my writing is on the Shia tradition. In practice that means you can reference Muharram, a marja', or ziyarat without stopping to explain them first. It doesn't narrow who I work with: most clients are Muslim, some aren't, and the standard of the clinical work is the same either way. There's more on what that competence actually looks like on finding a Shia therapist in Ontario.
The Mawakib -- Places of Rest
Resources & Writing
Two ways in that ask nothing of you. Both are free, and neither puts you on a list.
Private Self-Check
Not sure what kind of support you need?
Short, well-established self-checks (well-being, low mood, anxiety, trauma) paired with a faith-integrated way of understanding the results. Everything stays in your browser — nothing is saved or sent.
Allah as Secure Base
Attachment theory meets Islamic theology -- exploring divine attachment as a foundation for psychological security.
Read ArticleScience of the Soul
Imam Ali's Nahj al-Balagha as a source for psychotherapeutic wisdom and understanding human nature.
Read ArticleSacred Sorrow
The Islamic psychology of grief -- how huzn and jaza' offer a richer understanding of mourning.
Read ArticleDivine Architecture of Grief
Azadari and trauma science -- how Shia mourning rituals function as sophisticated communal grief processing.
Read ArticleMoral Injury & Tawba
When guilt becomes a wound -- exploring moral injury through the Islamic framework of repentance and restoration.
Read ArticleTawba & Self-Forgiveness
Lessons from the Sahifa al-Sajjadiyyah on repentance as a therapeutic process of self-compassion and renewal.
Read ArticleThe Arrival
Get in touch
Tell me a little about what's going on. A sentence or two is plenty — you don't need to have it figured out before you write.
- Prefer to book directly?
- Book the free 15-minute call Already know you want to book a session? Go straight to Jane Jane is my secure booking and records system — it opens in a new tab.
- Phone
- (437) 440-0602
- Practice
- Tabeeah Services
Ali Raza Hasan Ali, MSW, RSW, Psychotherapist
Maple, Ontario · Virtual across Ontario - Shia clients
- Finding a Shia therapist in Ontario
In crisis right now? Call or text 988 or go to your nearest emergency department. This form is not monitored around the clock.
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I read every message myself and reply within one business day. If you don't hear from me, something went wrong — please write again rather than assuming I passed.
You don't have to wait for me. If you'd rather lock in a time now, the free 15-minute call books straight into my calendar — pick any slot that suits you.
Book the free 15-minute call