About Us
The Muslim Mental Health Initiative (MMHI) at UC Berkeley is the product of years of collaboration, discussions, and brainstorming between Muslim student leaders and Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). MMHI was designed to address the multiple barriers that Muslim students (many also students of color) faced in seeking mental healthcare from CAPS, namely, unreasonably long waiting times, lack of diversity among counselors, and a limited number of meetings permitted per year. Through MMHI, therapists are available on a drop-in basis for students and provide a space for them to express their struggles to a professional who would not only provide comfort in the moment, but will also connect them to resources that the student may need in the future.
Beyond their Islamic identities, MMHI’s therapists are trained and practice just like any other therapist, with the exception that meetings are unlimited, free, and anonymous. MMHI also offers phone appointments so that our therapists are available to all students, on and off campus. MMHI provides a platform through which UC Berkeley students can discuss how best to confront and erase the stigma of mental health in our communities on campus and in our personal lives. Throughout the academic year, we host events in collaboration with off-campus public health-oriented advocacy organizations as a way to encourage dialogue around mental health and how to practice acceptance, inclusivity, and care for ourselves and communities in a way that upholds UC Berkeley's principles of community.
Collaboration with Maristan
Maristan is a non-profit organization that 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. Grounded in Islamic traditions, Maristan aims to lead professional clinical care, education, and research in advancing holistic, mental and spiritual wellness. Maristan provides individual, family, and group psychotherapy; Maristan also provides community workshops and seminars as well as cultural competency training for mental health providers working with Muslims.
Through Maristan, MMHI brings three culturally competent therapists to our campus to provide non-clinical consultation hours, support groups, and other services that seek to improve the holistic wellness of the UC Berkeley community.
The Wellness Fund
In 2015, the student body voted to pass the Wellness Initiative Fee, allowing the creation and continuation of wellness programming at UC Berkeley. The Wellness Initiative Fee, since then renamed the Wellness Fund provides new fee revenue that is used exclusively to support wellness services and programming for students, as well as renovations, furnishings, and alterations to existing spaces required to support these new wellness programs.
Wellness, health, and recreation services are in dire need of improvement at UC Berkeley, which lacks new, innovative mind-body services that students want. The Wellness Fund aims to address the concerning rise of mental health complications on campus and provide new support for minority student groups (ie. students of color, LGBTQIA students, veterans, student parents, international students, students with disabilities, and other student populations face unique wellness challenges that require additional support not currently available to them).
The Cal MMHI is grateful for their partnership with The Wellness Fund, without whom their vision would be unable to reach its potential. To learn more about The Wellness Fund and how it supports students at UC Berkeley, click here.
Collaboration with The Khalil Center | 2017 - 2021
The Khalil Center: A Zakat Foundation Project is a community psychological and spiritual wellness center. Khalil Center’s approach emphasizes: psychological reconstruction, behavioral reformation and spiritual elevation. Khalil Center utilizes faith-based approaches rooted in Islamic theological concepts while integrating the science of psychology towards addressing social, psychological, communal and spiritual health.
The Cal MMHI collaborated with professionals from the Khalil Center from our founding in 2017 until the summer of 2021 to bring services tailored for the Muslim community to campus. We remain grateful to the years of support they provided us and look forward to engaging with them in future endeavors. To learn more about The Khalil Center, click here.