About
I am a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych) in London and holder of a PhD from the University of London. Previously honorary senior lecturer (associate professor) at the Bart and London Medical School, University of London, I have published over 50 psychiatric articles in scientific research, published in the most famous scientific and medical journals.
I was a consultant psychiatrist with 35 years’ experience in psychiatry and who previously worked at North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Barts Hospital, London in the UK. I had also held a visiting consultant post at Priory UK and Barts Hospital in London. I always used my long clinical experiences and wide and deep knowledge of the most up-to-date psychiatric research to practise evidence-based mental health care, especially in treating treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders.
My training in psychiatry followed completion of a doctorate in Community Psychiatry at University College London on the mental health needs of homeless people in inner London. I later trained at the Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry in London where I completed my MRCPsych.
I have special interest in trauma psychiatry and have been using eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) in the treatment of psychological trauma in veteran and non-veteran patients. I have been using EMDR and psychiatric medication in the treatment of the causes rather than the symptoms of psychiatric conditions. I have achieved the position of EMDR Europe consultant and supervisor and trainer in training with the EMDR Europe Association and Trauma Aid Europe. I am also interested in using a combination of medication and psychotherapy to treat drug and treatment-resistant psychiatric conditions like depression and other psychiatric disorders. My last job was as a consultant psychiatrist and EMDR supervisor at Combat Stress, a charity that represents the best psychological trauma service in UK according to the RCPsych.
I have had a long interest in cultural and ethnic psychiatry, related particularly, but not exclusively, to Arab and Muslim cultural backgrounds and I was previously the advisor to the cultural consultation service at the centre for psychiatry, Barts and London Medical school. I spent 4 years as the medical director and consultant psychiatrist at the first Priory centre outside the UK at Priory Wellbeing Centre Dubai in the UAE. I managed, in addition to contributing to the success of the centre, to practise my transcultural psychiatry with both residents and expats in the UAE. I hope to use all this experience in my new post at Priory Hospital North London.
Position at Priory
Visiting Consultant Psychiatrist
Training
- March 2023 PESI UK ADHD Clinical Services Provider (ADHD-
CCSP) Certification Course. - August 2016 Certified Clinical Trauma Professional of the International Association of Trauma Professionals.
- Sept 2015 Accredited EMDR Consultant by EMDR Europe Association.
- March 1998 CCST in Adult General Psychiatry and Old Age Psychiatry.
- June 1994 MRCPsych (Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists).
- July l99l PhD Faculty of Medicine, University of London.
- April 1988 Fellow of the Edwin Chadwick Trust for the year 1989.
- May l987 Certificate of the Combined Course in Medical Statistics and Epidemiology,
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
- June l980 MBChB - College of Medicine, University of Baghdad.
Research interests
- Trauma
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Transcultural psychiatry
- Using EMDR in treating mental disorders
Links to clinical articles/research papers
- Nothing new under the sun: Post Traumatic Stress Disorders in the Ancient World on: https://brill.com/view/journals/esm/19/6/article-p549_2.xml?language=en#:~:text=article%2Dp549_2.xml-,Nothing%20New%20under%20the%20Sun%3A%20Post%2DTraumatic%20Stress,Disorders%20in%20the%20Ancient%20World&text=Herodotus%27%20account%20of%20the%20Athenian,stress%20disorders%20in%20historical%20literature.
- Muslim Sufi tradition and EMDR: Sufi Dhikr and the therapy of bilateral stimulation on: https://spj.science.org/doi/10.1891/1933-3196.9.3.150#:~:text=The%20authors%20recommend%20investigating%20if,East%20and%20the%20Muslim%20world.
- Mental health and conflict: a pilot of an online eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) intervention for forcibly displaced Syrian women on: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1295033/full
Languages
- English (fluent)
- Arabic (mother tongue)
- Spanish (intermediate level)