Laiqa Miriam is a Kashmiri-East Londoner and Trainee Integrative Psychotherapist, with nearly a decade of experience working in radical social-justice-informed creative spaces. She is a researcher, designer, facilitator, and integrative therapist in training at the renowned Minster Centre. She works at the intersection of visual arts, mental health, and social justice; spending her time with communities on the ground, working from a strategic bird’s eye view, or occasionally bridging these two perspectives.
Laiqa has a plethora of diverse experience across industries; from transnational FMCGs to the third sector, and everything in between. Across all her roles, she draws from her academic background in Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality, and her work typically focuses on improving the lives of marginalised communities by:
- Building research that tackles barriers by developing, organising, and implementing ideas, practices, people, and resources in service of collective liberation.
- Storytelling design that improves representation by sharing community stories, culture, and histories through art, media, and movement.
- Healing participatory engagement that tends to intergenerational and current traumas caused by oppressive systems, policy, and practice.*
(*Roles guided by Deepa Iyer's Building Movement Project. SM, © 2020 Deepa Iyer. All rights reserved. All prior licenses revoked.)
Projects
- London SleepsThe Museum of London may be closed on Christmas Day, but London's streets are always open. 'London Sleeps', stars Mohamed Mohamed, a British-Somali poet from south London, who moved to London when he was a child to flee civil war in Somalia. The Museum of London commissioned a film depicting Mohamed’s annual journey as he cycles to a central London mosque to pray.
Work history
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UKCP Trainee PsychotherapistThe Minster Centre
London, United KingdomPart Time
The Minster Centre is one of Europe’s leading integrative psychotherapy and counselling training institutes. The affordable therapy service staffed by senior trainees offers individual counselling and psychotherapy for adults suffering from a range of emotional difficulties, such as loss and bereavement, depression, anxiety and stress, and relational difficulties.
Providing nuanced and in-depth long-term therapy (a minimum of a year) for clients wishing to explore their own sense of identity and self-hood in a richer way. Drawing from an integrative approach that weaves together psychoanalysis and attachment theory, humanistic and existential modalities with a radical justice and neuroscience-based underpinning.The Minster Centre is one of Europe’s leading integrative psychotherapy and counselling training institutes. The affordable therapy service staffed by senior trainees offers individual counselling and psychotherapy for adults suffering from a range of emotional difficulties, such as loss and bereavement, depression, anxiety and stress, and relational difficulties. Providing nuanced and in-depth long-term therapy (a minimum of a year) for clients wishing to explore their own sense of identity and self-hood in a richer way. Drawing from an integrative approach that weaves together psychoanalysis and attachment theory, humanistic and existential modalities with a radical justice and neuroscience-based underpinning.
UKCP Trainee PsychotherapistMind
London, United KingdomPart Time
Mind Islington's Outcome service is dedicated to enhancing mental health support for LGBTQI+ communities, particularly those from racialised and dually marginalised backgrounds. Through the Rainbow Suicide Prevention London (RSPL) psychotherapy service, the service provides specialized care to LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugees, trans and non-binary individuals, and LGBTQI+ people aged 18-25.
Providing sensitive and compassionate psychotherapy to our diverse client base. My role is to offer affirmative and inclusive care that improves access to mental health care for underserved populations. Utilising a radical and social justice-informed perspective to weave together systemic, narrative and somatic therapies in tending to structural and intergenerational wounds and histories.
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Skills
- Project Management
- UX Design
- Social Inclusion
- Accessibility
- Design Research
- Community Development
- Art Therapy
- Research Writing
- Communication Design
Education
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Masters Degree in PsychotherapyThe Minster Centre
London, United Kingdom
The theoretical framework of the MA/Advanced Diploma (UKCP accredited) includes Psychodynamic, Humanistic and Existential, Body work and Relational thinking within a structure which contains academic, experiential and practical components. As well as being grounded in the traditional approaches to psychotherapy and counselling, our tutors also have experience and expertise in contemporary understandings, such as neurobiology, relational and embodied work.The theoretical framework of the MA/Advanced Diploma (UKCP accredited) includes Psychodynamic, Humanistic and Existential, Body work and Relational thinking within a structure which contains academic, experiential and practical components. As well as being grounded in the traditional approaches to psychotherapy and counselling, our tutors also have experience and expertise in contemporary understandings, such as neurobiology, relational and embodied work.
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Postgraduate Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy and CounsellingThe Minster Centre
London, United Kingdom
An intensive development of counselling skills and a deeper understanding of the theoretical frameworks and concepts underpinning different counselling approaches, leading to an integration of these into a personalised counselling practice.
The course will cover humanistic, existential, psychodynamic and body work approaches to counselling. As well as being grounded in the traditional approaches to psychotherapy and counselling, the course will pull from experience and expertise in contemporary understandings, such as neurobiology, relational and embodied work.
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Awards
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PCA x Terra Foundation Research Project of 2018Terra Foundation for American Art Europe
Awarded the PCA x Terra Foundation Research Project to undertake research and presentation exploring the history of American Art. Final thesis entitled "The Black & White American Dream." A study into re-establishing the image of Women of Colour in Art & Society.