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Witnessing the Soul: A Compassionate Journey through Struggle
Our struggles don’t ask to be solved. They ask to be met.
Many of us move through our days aware of our patterns, our histories, our pain — and yet still feel alone with what hasn’t shifted. We learn how to hold ourselves together, how to stay functional, how to keep going. But underneath, something remains tender, unfinished, waiting.
When life slows or certainty falls away, the inner world becomes harder to outrun. Emotions surface. Old responses return. And often, without realizing it, we meet these moments with effort — trying to manage ourselves, improve ourselves, or spiritually rise above what feels heavy.
Witnessing the Soul offers a different way of being with what emerges. Rather than fixing or bypassing struggle, this journey invites you into a slower, more compassionate relationship with your inner life — one rooted in presence, meaning, and Divine nearness.
Here, struggle is not something to resolve before turning toward God. It becomes a place where honesty can breathe, where softness is allowed, and where relationship — with yourself and with the Divine — can unfold in its own time.
What The Journey Offers
Witnessing the Soul is a six-session, online guided journey designed to help you cultivate the capacity to meet our struggles — emotional, relational, and spiritual — with presence rather than pressure. It is experiential rather than content-heavy; relational rather than performative; structured, yet gently paced.
This is not therapy, coaching, or group therapy. It is not about fixing yourself or achieving insight. Instead, this journey supports a quieter kind of change — learning how to stay with yourself when things feel tender, confusing, or unresolved, without turning away from God or from your own humanity.
This is a space where emotional difficulty and spiritual grounding are held together, so that being human and being devoted are no longer experienced as opposites.
Witnessing the Soul: Journey Details
Below are the practical details, offered so you can sense whether this journey fits into your life.
DATES: Sunday February 8, 15, 22, March 1, 8, and 22
TIME: 12:00pm - 1:30pm EST/5:00pm - 6:30pm GMT
FORMAT: Online via Zoom
Participants receive:
Ongoing access to session recordings, materials, and resources
Access to a private Circle space for continued reflection, integration, and periodic check-ins beyond the live sessions
Live, on-camera presence from a private space is required. Participants may miss one live session if needed. While recordings are available, the depth of this work unfolds most fully through shared presence during live attendance.
A Personal Reflection
Last year during Ramadan, I facilitated a small, intimate online healing journey. What unfolded surprised me. When the space was slow, relational, and gently held, people didn’t show up to fix themselves — they showed up more honestly. Over time, I witnessed how meeting regularly in a contained, compassionate way helped participants feel less alone with what was difficult and more able to stay with their inner experience.
This year’s journey grows directly out of that experience. Witnessing the Soul: The Journey is deeper and more spacious, shaped by what I learned last year and by my ongoing clinical and spiritual work. It feels like the right first journey under this new Witnessing the Soul container — an offering rooted in lived experience and a trust in what can unfold when struggle is met with presence rather than urgency.
I look forward to journeying with you!
-Sameera
The Arc of the Journey
Session 1 (February 8) — Learning to Witness the Soul
This opening session explores what it actually means to witness the soul — and how this differs from fixing, analyzing, or spiritually bypassing. We establish safety, pacing, and permission to meet what is present without overwhelm.
Session 2 (February 15) — Awareness is not Enough
Many of us understand our struggles deeply, yet still feel stuck. This session explores why awareness alone does not lead to change, and what becomes possible when awareness is met with accompaniment. We begin practicing how to stay with inner experience as it unfolds, rather than narrating or correcting it from a distance.
Session 4 (March 1) — Working Compassionately With Patterns
As patterns become clearer, we explore how to meet recurring struggles and inner conflict without self-attack. This session supports understanding patterns as meaningful responses rather than personal failures, allowing self-judgment to soften into curiosity and accountability.
Session 3 (February 22) — Staying With Discomfort Without Losing Yourself
This session explores our habitual responses to struggle — avoidance, pushing through, bypassing, or collapse — and gently builds the capacity to remain present while honoring limits. The focus is steadiness, not endurance.
Session 5 (March 8) — Compassion and Self-Accountability, Together
This session explores one of the most delicate balances of inner work: holding tenderness without excusing harm, and accountability without harshness. We practice relating to ourselves with dignity — learning how responsibility can coexist with compassion, and how discipline can become relational rather than punitive.
Session 6 (March 22) — Integration
The final session is not a conclusion, but a continuation. Together, we reflect on what has shifted, what remains tender, and how witnessing the soul can become an ongoing orientation — carried into daily life beyond this journey.
Reflections from Past Participants
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Sameera helps you grab on the the strings of your inner knots, making an overwhelming mess clearer and clearer as we speak. She does this on all planes. It was important for me to find someone who not only understands my religion, but also believes in the holistic nature of being human and approaches therapy in that holistic lens. Sameera does this beautifully! It was genuinely a lovely and safe space to consider such difficult topics.
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Through working with Sameera, I have re-learned that holding on to your faith and its teachings and preserving one's inner peace and happiness are not mutually exclusive. Sameera's calm demeanor and ability to intently listen allows one to open old and sometimes deep wounds to identify the root cause of coping mechanisms and behaviors that may have directly and indirectly impacted my choices in life.
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I have just started a journey to understand myself better. This course was an eyeopener for who I am as a Muslim! Sameera is clear and articulate, and the content she puts forward is easy to follow and understand. It was genuinely a lovely and safe space to open such difficult topics. I loved how Islamic healing practices were distinguished from western practices because it helped me identify missing gaps in my care.
Enrollment Options
Choose the option that feels most supportive and sustainable. This journey is intentionally limited to 20 participants to support depth, presence, and care.
One Payment of $495 USD
Two Payments of $247.50 USD/month
Three Payments of $165 USD/month
This online journey takes place within a private, closed Circle community. Upon enrollment, you’ll be automatically added to this journey’s community on Circle, which will hold all session links, recordings, and discussion spaces.
Frequently Asked Questions
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When we use the word struggle here, we’re not referring to crisis, trauma, or acute distress.
Struggle can look quiet and ordinary. It might feel like carrying something that hasn’t softened, repeating patterns you understand but can’t seem to shift, or feeling emotionally or spiritually tired despite doing “all the right things.” It can show up as numbness, feeling distant from God, restlessness, self-judgment, longing, or a sense of being slightly braced with life.
You don’t need to be in a specific state to be a fit for this journey. It’s for those who are willing to turn toward their inner life with honesty — and who sense that what’s needed now is not more effort or insight, but accompaniment.
If you’re curious about slowing down, meeting yourself with more compassion, and exploring a gentler, more relational way of being with what arises — especially in the presence of God — this journey may be supportive.
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Each session will begin with a grounding and arrival practice, allowing us to slow down, settle the body, and gently orient toward what is present. From there, I’ll offer a brief reflection and framework that relates the topics being explored within that session.
Sessions will include a balance of individual reflection, small-group breakout conversations, and large-group sharing, with invitations to participate rather than expectations. The focus throughout is not on thinking about or analyzing, but on learning how to stay with yourself — and with others — with greater gentleness, clarity, and presence. Sessions will end with assigned soul-work (i.e. homework!) and closing reflections.
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Yes! Many participants in my previous journeys have been in therapy or have done significant inner work.
This journey is not a replacement for therapy, nor does it duplicate what typically happens in individual sessions. Instead, it focuses on building and practicing the skills of witnessing the soul — learning how to notice, stay with, and relate differently to your inner experience in real time.
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Yes please!
Being on camera and present is an important part of this journey. Witnessing is relational, and the depth of the container rely on shared presence and forming a sense of community. Participation does not mean sharing details about what has led to these struggles or even speaking often — it means arriving attentively and fostering presence with yourself and God, also feeling the compassion and support of others who present with you.
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Yes. This journey is intentionally limited to 20 participants.
Keeping the group small allows for a greater sense of presence, care, confidentiality, and spaciousness. It supports pacing, depth, and a container where people can feel accompanied rather than anonymous. This is not a large or passive program — it’s a relational journey that unfolds best when the group remains intimate. If the journey fills, enrollment will close to honor the integrity of the space.
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Live presence is strongly encouraged. Participants may miss one live session if needed
While session recordings will be available, relying primarily on this changes the nature of the experience, so this journey is best suited for those who feel able to attend live most weeks.
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Yes. Emotional discomfort is often a natural part of turning inward with honesty - and it’s also what we’ve often learned to avoid since it can feel so uncomfortable :)
This journey is intentionally designed as a supportive and paced container, where you are invited to practice being with what is difficult while remaining rooted in God’s presence. You will not be asked to push past your limits or force vulnerability.
Support here does not mean the absence of difficulty. It means learning how to meet it with God, rather than alone.
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Yes. This journey is rooted in an Islamic understanding of the soul, the heart (qalb), and struggle as part of the human condition.
My approach is informed by Islamic psychology, alongside clinical and somatic training. I am currently completing Level 3 training in the Shifaa Method, an integrative model of Islamic psychology and therapeutic practice developed through Dar al-Shifaa.
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This journey may not be the right fit if you are experiencing acute crisis, require intensive trauma treatment, or are seeking individualized therapeutic intervention.
It is also not suited for those looking for a content-heavy course or quick solutions.
If you’re unsure, you’re invited to pause and listen inwardly — that discernment is part of the work.
Meet Sameera
Sameera Qureshi is a leading voice in Islamic soul-centered mental, emotional, and sexual health. For over seventeen years, she has supported individuals and communities through life’s hardships and struggles—working across Islamic schools, universities, community institutions, and clinical settings at the intersection of faith, psychology, embodiment, and holistic healing.
Trained as an Occupational Therapist and Islamic Psychology practitioner, Sameera brings advanced expertise in trauma-informed and somatic, body-based healing, grounded in Islamic traditions of the soul. She launched her private practice in 2020, expanding her work globally through therapy, education, and professional training under the name “Sexual Health for Muslims.” Sameera’s specialization in sexual health culminated in her debut book, Soulful Sexual Health for Muslims (Routledge, 2025). She is currently pursuing advanced training in the Shifaa Method under Dr. Abdallah Rothman, deepening her clinical and spiritual integration.
Today, Sameera’s work integrates mental, sexual, and spiritual health expertise towards one purpose: helping people understand why they struggle and how to meet those struggles with compassion, responsibility, and faith. Drawing on Islamic principles of Divine mercy, accountability of the soul, and the inevitability of struggle, Sameera supports individuals in moving through what once left them stuck—offering clarity, presence, and guidance toward healing and a deeper relationship with God.
