This week we are joined by the lovely Sameera Qureshi!

Sameera started her career in 2007 as a school-based Occupational Therapist, working directly with students, teachers, and families within Islamic and public schools. After 13 years at non-profits in leadership positions, she founded her own business, focused on online education and therapy services for Muslims, addressing spiritual, mental, and sexual health.

Sameera and Jess discuss a range of topics entangled with sexual health including – shame, fear, attitudes to women’s bodies and more. Samara’s work focuses on Islamic texts to help her Muslim clients, however the topics covered are highly relevant to all women.

Sameera also details some of the strategies and techniques she employs in order to empower them to unlearn and address shame with their bodies. Jess and Sameera discuss how this can impact on one’s understanding of their own body and how this translates in to changing how we live our day-to-day lives.

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Sameera’s socials:

Website: sexualhealthformuslims.com

Instagram: @sexualhealthformuslims

Here’s a quick summary of what was covered

Sameera’s background and own work

Sameera details how she got in to the women’s health space, as well as what led her to focus on sexual health from an Islamic perspective. 

Common isssues surrounding sexual health that Sameera has encountered 

Sameera highlights some of the common concerns and issues that clients come to her with. Jess and Sameera discuss some common emergent themes including those of shame and fear, particularly surrounding women’s own bodies. They chat about how these feelings are created by society, and how this is detrimental to women’s health and wellbeing at every level. 

Strategies

Sameera highlights some of the ways in which she coaches clients to really engage with their bodies again and start listening to them. She discusses some of the Islamic texts which feature prominently in her work to show clients that the Islamic tradition really is all about focusing on and prioritising your health and wellness – with sexual health being a key component of this. Jess and Sameera discuss some of the ways in which listeners can start to integrate positive practises in to their everyday lives, and the whole host of positive impacts this will have on their health and wellbeing. They highlight some of the benefits of being empowered with your body for everyone. 

Jessica Hobbis