Exploring the contributions of islamic thought to psychotherapy: A thematic analysis of Islamically integrated psychotherapy practitioners

The religion of Islam has never been seen as only a set of certain practices and beliefs in any period of time since its beginning. On the contrary, Islam has built a civilization that encompasses all of life and draws perspectives on human belief in every aspect. While this civilization built an ontological basis on human existence, it also focuses on the processes of obtaining information epistemologically. The relationship between religion and life has been severed in the modern period and this rift has expanded in every field of the social sciences. Psychology, which is one of these fields, is on the verge of abandoning religion or spirituality. Although the foundations of this break are deeper and more philosophical, it is a much more practical way to start from its reflections. Islamic thought, which can make a significant contribution especially in terms of psychotherapy, is currently ignored and not given enough attention. In this study, thematic analysis of interviews with 8 therapists who incorporate Islamic principles into their psychotherapy was conducted. A total of 22 themes were found in 5 categories. These five categories (integration of specific methods of Islamic thought into psychotherapy, integration of specific methods of other therapy methods with the Islamic psychology approach, difficulties in transferring Islamic thought to therapy, the importance of applying Islamic thought to the therapy setting and the contributions of transferring Islamic thought to the therapy environment in clinical psychology) are analyzed and discussed within this dissertation. Finally, the contributions of these themes to the current situation and future were discussed.