Inshirah Academy
A course is six short lessons that build on one another, four to eight minutes each. You can move between them freely and stop whenever you like. Nothing is timed, nothing is scored, and nothing here counts against you if you put it down for a month.
Every course carries the evidence behind it, and an evidence tier saying how strongly that evidence supports it. Inshirah is educational and is not therapy.
If you are not sure which course you want, start from the thing that is happening rather than from a title.
Worry loops, avoiding things, panic, and the fear of being judged.
A false alarm, a habit of thinking, and a religious accusation that has no text behind it.
Teaches Cognitive behavioural therapy for worry
Written for
Anyone whose worry has stopped switching off, anyone who has had the surge and thought they were dying, and anyone who has started avoiding places or people because of it.
Waswasa, what the law already settles, and why reassurance makes it louder.
Teaches Treating reassurance as the fuel, on top of the rule the lessons set out
Written for
Anyone caught in repeated doubt about purity, intention, prayer or belief, and anyone who loves someone who is.
Worry is a behaviour rather than a character, the loop runs both ways, and the verses about rizq do not say what the posts say they say.
Teaches Worry specific cognitive behavioural therapy, plus problem solving
Written for
Anyone whose money situation has taken over their thinking, who is not opening the post, who lies awake doing sums, or who has been told that if their faith were in better shape a door would have opened.
Two things that look identical from outside, and only one of them is answered by an answer.
Teaches The maintenance model of intrusive thoughts, with intolerance of uncertainty as the target
Written for
Anyone whose doubt about belief keeps returning in the same form, who has been answering it for months or years, and who finds that a good answer lasts about an hour.
The moment before you snap, and what sits underneath it.
A few seconds, a body that moves before you do, and a verse that has been read as an order to say nothing.
Teaches Cognitive behavioural anger control with distress tolerance
Written for
Anyone who has gone from calm to shouting in about four seconds and could not tell you afterwards what happened in between.
Flatness, shame, urges, and feelings you would rather not have.
What depression actually is, why doing comes before feeling, and what the tradition really says about grief.
Teaches Behavioural activation
Written for
Anyone who has been low, flat or exhausted for weeks, anyone who has stopped being able to do things they were doing three months ago, and anyone who loves someone in that state.
Three different states wearing one name, a body doing what it was always going to do, and a concession the religion already gave you.
Teaches Behavioural activation, with what is specific to the first year
Written for
Any woman in pregnancy or in the first year after a birth who is not herself and does not know whether that is normal.
Getting started, losing time, and working with the brain you have.
Putting it off is a way of managing a feeling, not a verdict on your character, and tawakkul was never a substitute for opening the book.
Teaches Implementation intentions, and what the procrastination research actually found
Written for
Students, and anyone sitting a professional exam or a qualification.
Breathing, movement, food, touch, and settling a nervous system.
Four different problems with one name, a bed that learned the wrong lesson, and a night prayer that was never meant to come out of a short night.
Teaches Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia
Written for
Anyone lying awake doing arithmetic about how many hours are left.
Closeness, conflict, repair, and the small things that hold it together.
Four behaviours that corrode a marriage, one skill that repairs it, and an honest account of how good the evidence for any of this really is.
Teaches The Gottman findings on bids and repair, with the pursue and withdraw cycle
Written for
Two people who both want this to work, in a marriage where neither is afraid of the other.
Why shouting works tonight and stops working by next year, what the religion actually asks of a parent, and the one swap with evidence behind it.
Teaches Behavioural parent training
Written for
Any parent who has ended a day feeling worse than their child did.
What the religion actually asks of you, what it does not, and how to hold a limit without cutting the tie.
Teaches Boundaries, and the difference between the two kinds of control
Written for
An adult child who dreads the phone ringing.
Worth, boundaries, and asking well.
Fatrah, the difference between the feeling draining and the practice draining, and how to set a floor.
Teaches Behavioural activation, borrowed and kept honest
Written for
Anyone whose salah has gone flat, anyone who has dropped a wird and taken it as a verdict on themselves, and anyone who came out of a Ramadan or an intense stretch and found nothing left in the tank.
Two questions that are not one question, and the cost of answering only the first.
Teaches Differential reasoning, held carefully
Written for
Anyone who has been told it is the eye, or sihr, or a jinn, and anyone who has been told the opposite and found it dismissive.
A measuring habit, a standard that keeps rising, and a verse that was never about your face.
Teaches Compassion focused therapy, with the social comparison research
Written for
Anyone who comes off the phone feeling smaller than they went on.
A gap rather than a headcount, a threat filter that makes you harder to reach, and an ummah that was never automatic.
Teaches The cognitive model of loneliness
Written for
Anyone who has people around them and still feels unmet, anyone who has drifted out of contact and cannot see the way back, and anyone who has started assuming in advance that they are not wanted.
Shame and guilt are doing different jobs, and only one of them has an exit.
Teaches Cognitive behavioural work with compassion focused therapy, and urge surfing
Written for
Anyone caught in the loop of doing this, hating themselves for it, and finding that the hating makes the next time closer rather than further away.
Carrying a loss with patience, and with hope.
Grief comes in waves and not in stages, and the tradition already gave you more room for it than you have been allowed.
Teaches Continuing bonds and the dual process model
Written for
Anyone who has lost someone and is being measured, by themselves or by other people, against a schedule that does not exist.
Grief for a future, with no body, no funeral and no witnesses, and a set of forwarded messages that turn out not to be sound.
Teaches Acceptance and commitment therapy
Written for
Anyone who has lost a pregnancy at any stage, anyone who has had a stillbirth, and anyone who has been trying for a child for a long time and is grieving something month after month.
Safety, grounding, and going gently.
What harm actually looks like, why it does not feel like harm from the inside, and how to reach people who do this work.
Teaches Stabilisation and grounding, and nothing else
Written for
Anyone who has started to wonder whether what happens at home is normal.
Most people arrive with a question rather than with a topic. These answer first and explain afterwards, in about the time it takes to read a long message.