Beyond the Barriers: South Asian Women’s Experience of Accessing and Receiving Psychological Therapy in Primary Care.

The aim of this review is to explore the effectiveness and the feasibility of adapting Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) interventions for Muslim populations. To gain an insight into the degree of effectiveness that CBT has on this chosen population a review that was conducted systematically was performed. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed method papers were included for review. The results yielded 408 articles, 8 of which were eligible for inclusion. The 8 studies which fell within the scope of the inclusion criteria used cognitive or cognitive behavioural models as the basis for faith-adapted treatment studies. Results from these studies suggest that religiously adapted CBT for some Muslims can be equally as beneficial as standard CBT and psychotherapy. In most cases, CBT has been shown to reduce symptoms of distress quicker than standard treatment. There are also contributory factors such as; client-therapist matching, therapist confidence, social context and religiosity that are discussed and given due consideration within the studies.