Anjum Naqvi

Anjum Naqvi is a PhD candidate in Counselling Studies, a psychotherapist in private practice, and a former NHS clinician whose work brings psychotherapy into dialogue with Shi'ah Islamic philosophy and spirituality. His clinical work has spanned both primary and secondary mental health care, through which he has worked with common mental health disorders as well as severe and enduring mental health difficulties. Through his practice, he has developed a specialism in personality disorder, the psychology of racism, and diasporic experience. His therapeutic approach is integrative, informed by cognitive and relational perspectives alongside broader philosophical, social, and decolonial theory.

Prior to psychotherapy, he worked as a social worker in youth justice and a secondary school humanities teacher in inner-city Bradford. His earlier academic background includes studies in media and cultural studies, alongside work in television documentary research, followed by further study in the humanities and social work.

Alongside his professional work, he has maintained a longstanding engagement with Islamic studies and philosophy, particularly Shi'ah intellectual traditions and decolonial thought, which continue to shape his thinking across clinical and academic contexts. These interdisciplinary interests inform his current PhD research at The University of Edinburgh, which develops prayer as a method of self–other enquiry through engagement with The Sahifa Sajjadia of Imam Zayn al-Abideen. His work brings together Shi'ah Islamic and decolonial philosophy with psychotherapy studies and he is currently in the writing-up stage of his PhD.