The potential of Narrative practice in psychological counseling of Muslim clients

The relevance of the topic of this study is determined by the mutually conditioned increase in interest in modern psychological approaches and practices on the part of Islamic psychologists, as well as the growing demand for qualified religiously oriented psychological assistance from Muslim clients. For a significant part of the Islamic client sector, not only the religious immersion of the helping practitioner plays a fundamental role, but also the religious supervision of the approach used by him. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the potential of the narrative practice in psychological counseling of Muslim clients and its compliance with the fundamental values, ideas and principles of the Islamic religion. The materials and methods include a theoretical analysis of the works of postmodernist and constructivist scholars, as well as practice-oriented works of narrative psychologists describing the principles and methods of work in the narrative approach, client cases, the essence, goals and assessment of the effectiveness of narrative conversations of different types. In addition, the author's personal consulting experience, work as a part of an intervision group of narrative practitioners and supervision of the narrative approach by a specialist in the field of Sharia sciences are also analyzed. Among the most significant conclusions there are the statements about the fundamental compatibility of the narrative approach with the ideas, principles and concepts of Islamic doctrine, about the effectiveness of using the main types of narrative conversations in working with the requests of religious clients. The conclusions also contain provisions on the specifics of using narrative practice to provide assistance to different categories of Muslim clients.