Austin Eating Disorder Specialist

Najeeha is a Licensed Professional Counselor-Associate in the state of Texas. She graduated with her Masters in Counseling Psychology in 2020. Najeeha has been working with survivors of trauma since 2016 and has had training in providing services for diverse and minority populations.

She has experience with eating concerns, body image, self-esteem, identity development, spirituality, depression, anxiety, and more. Her orientation to counseling is relational, dynamic, and client-centered.

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Najeeha is passionate about the intersection of cultural identity with one's relationship with food and body. She believes that healing is a multidimensional process that involves a holistic approach to the mind, the body, and the soul.

Najeeha aims to cultivate a safe space where these processes can be explored, with a focus on how societal messages, oppression, and privilege impact these components. Najeeha aspires to be a guide in the journey of self-discovery and to provide the tools that will help folks recharge the unique superpowers they possess.

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Najeeha is EMDR trained, and specializes in eating disorder and trauma therapy in Austin, Texas.  EMDR therapy can help people rapidly heal from unresolved wounds and negative core beliefs.

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Najeeha currently provides counseling/therapy services through video and phone sessions. 

Fees:  $145 per session  

Superbills provided to seek insurance reimbursement

Sliding scale slots may be available, based on need.

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Education

• University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2017, Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Global Health

• University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2020, Masters of Science in Counseling Psychology

• Licensed Professional Counselor-Associate 84670, Supervised by Jennifer Buffalo, LMFT, LPC-S

• EMDR trained

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Call or text Najeeha directly at: (512) 877-7797

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Or use the Contact Page

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50 minute session with Najeeha: $145

Areas of Focus:

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• Trauma Survivors

• Anxiety/Depression

• Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders

• Body Image

• Fat-positive

• Health at Every Size aligned

• Intuitive Eating/Anti-Diet informed

• EMDR trained

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Special Communities Served:

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• Asian Community

• Muslim Community

• Communities of Color

Eating disorder treatment for teens and young adults

Eating disorder therapy for adults

EMDR Therapy Austin

Written transcript of video on Ramadan and Eating Disorders

​

​

assalamualaikum everyone my name is

00:01

maliha and i'm a licensed therapist who

00:04

loves sharing information about mental

00:06

health

00:06

ramadan is around the corner and while

00:08

it comes with its own set of blessings

00:10

and challenges

00:11

this time can be especially difficult

00:13

for muslims who are struggling with

00:15

eating disorders

00:16

today i invited naji han who's a

00:18

therapist that specializes in working

00:20

with eating disorders so that she can

00:22

shed some light on this topic thank you

00:23

so much for joining us najiha

00:25

thank you for having me of course i'm so

00:27

excited to talk about this topic because

00:29

i feel like

00:30

it's going to be very beneficial for a

00:32

lot of people one of the first things i

00:34

kind of wanted to start off with was

00:35

talking a little bit

00:37

about the prevalence of eating disorders

00:40

in the muslim community

00:41

yeah you know it's unfortunate that

00:43

there's just not a lot of research

00:45

at all on muslims and i mean mental

00:48

health in general in muslim communities

00:50

but

00:51

um eating disorders especially there's

00:52

not a lot of numbers in the us

00:54

on what that looks like however there's

00:56

no reason to believe

00:58

that it isn't just as prevalent if not

01:00

more prevalent

01:01

as compared to the general population so

01:03

with the general population you know

01:05

the numbers vary depending on the type

01:07

of eating disorder it could be anywhere

01:09

from

01:10

one to ten percent of people that are

01:12

living with an eating disorder

01:14

there is research that suggests that

01:16

minorities tend to have higher rates

01:18

of eating disorders and especially

01:21

racial and ethnic minorities and so

01:23

you know we can safely assume that a lot

01:25

of muslims might be experiencing eating

01:27

disorders at higher rates the numbers do

01:29

show that minorities tend to be under

01:31

diagnosed

01:32

with eating disorders so clinicians

01:35

therapists

01:36

people just aren't as likely to notice

01:38

these behaviors in people who are

01:39

minorities and so

01:40

the numbers again might be high in

01:42

muslim communities but

01:43

it might just be getting missed there

01:45

was actually a study done in the uae

01:47

that showed that

01:49

teen girls had higher levels actually

01:51

twice

01:52

twice the number of cases of anorexia

01:56

than teen girls in britain what are some

01:58

of the common misconceptions that

02:01

muslims have about eating disorders the

02:03

biggest misconception might be that it

02:05

doesn't even exist

02:06

in our communities people tend to think

02:08

that you know if you have a good

02:10

relationship with god then you're going

02:12

to be able to feed yourself and to

02:14

to just not have these struggles and

02:18

obviously that's not true right those

02:20

things are not correlated

02:22

and another big misconception is that

02:23

eating disorders

02:25

only happen to women or that they only

02:28

happen to teenagers and that's also not

02:30

true we have people who have a lifetime

02:32

of eating disorders that they're dealing

02:34

with we have men who have eating

02:35

disorders and that's

02:36

that's way more common than we might

02:39

think another one is that

02:41

i think because a lot of muslims come

02:43

from more collectivistic cultures here

02:45

in the us

02:46

they might think that we wouldn't have

02:48

eating disorders because we live in

02:50

these

02:50

family groups that would protect us from

02:53

that and that

02:54

people would be able to pick up on it if

02:55

you have an eating disorder and that's

02:57

also not true because

02:58

eating disorders can very easily be

03:01

hidden they can very easily fly under

03:03

the radar

03:04

a lot of people they don't lose an

03:06

immense amount of weight as you might

03:08

think they might just be around their

03:09

regular weight so

03:10

you wouldn't be able to see that on

03:12

somebody and also just diet culture

03:14

that somebody who is restricting their

03:16

food intake who is over exercising

03:19

that those things are celebrated so you

03:21

know and

03:22

that's really unfortunate they associate

03:24

eating disorders with

03:26

being very thin or looking a certain way

03:28

and so

03:29

it can go under the radar when we don't

03:32

know what to kind of

03:32

look out for right right and that's yes

03:35

and there's

03:36

several different ways to have an eating

03:38

disorder you know there's

03:40

people who might be experiencing

03:41

anorexia there's people who might be

03:43

experiencing bulimia and folks with

03:45

bulimia

03:46

again their weight may not fluctuate

03:49

that much

03:50

if they may not be any drastic changes

03:52

they might look the same as you've

03:54

always seen them

03:55

even though there's a lot of changes

03:57

going on internally in their body

03:59

um due to the purging binging cycles

04:02

that they're in

04:03

and then there's folks with binge eating

04:05

disorder who might be experiencing

04:07

weight gain

04:08

or no weight gain um you know everyone's

04:10

bodies are so different

04:12

and then there's also our fed which is

04:15

avoidant restricted

04:16

food intake disorder yep and with that

04:19

you know it's not even about body image

04:22

folks with arfid are not

04:24

refraining from eating because they want

04:26

to lose weight but it's something

04:28

out of their control and so sometimes

04:29

those two things might get conflated

04:31

that oh if you're not eating then you

04:32

must not be happy with your body which

04:34

is not always true either

04:35

also i think helpful to look at what um

04:38

influences your loved one is a part of

04:41

so like athlete culture sport culture

04:43

eating disorders are highly prevalent

04:46

there um

04:47

just because it's the environment that

04:49

they're in right already over exercising

04:52

being told what they should or shouldn't

04:54

eat how much they should weigh

04:56

and so i think that's also a

04:57

misconception that if someone is

04:59

over exercising and they're an athlete

05:00

then it's okay but that's not

05:02

necessarily true

05:03

i've noticed this happening in the uh

05:05

they see brown community that

05:07

conversations surrounding weight

05:09

especially for women is something that's

05:11

discussed quite a lot

05:12

right and conversations those can be

05:15

very detrimental

05:17

for someone who is recovering from an

05:19

eating disorder or experiencing that

05:22

but it's really unfortunate that

05:24

although those conversations are so

05:25

prevalent

05:26

the conversations surrounding recovery

05:28

and

05:29

healthy eating habits and all of that

05:31

that's something that's

05:32

that's not talked about at all you

05:35

really hit the nail on the head

05:36

i think that in our cultures like people

05:38

almost feel like they have a right to

05:40

your body and

05:41

they can just make these comments about

05:43

you and how you're looking these days

05:45

and oh you look like you haven't been

05:46

eating much

05:47

like that's such a common thing for us

05:49

without realizing that that's not

05:51

helping that individual it might

05:52

actually be really harming them

05:54

what are some of the challenges that

05:56

muslims face in ramadan

05:58

when they're struggling with eating

05:59

disorders a lot of cultural practices

06:02

during ramadan

06:03

can really trigger the same eating

06:05

disorder behaviors that people are

06:07

trying to heal from so

06:08

a good example of that is when you know

06:10

like you're expected to not eat anything

06:12

all day and then come sunset

06:15

you most of us have a whole feast in

06:16

front of us that we're expected to eat

06:18

and for folks who are trying to heal

06:21

from binging behaviors

06:23

or from restricting purging cycles

06:26

that can really you know light up that

06:29

part of themselves that they're trying

06:30

to heal from

06:32

because it just puts their brain back in

06:33

that spot that they're trying to grow

06:35

from

06:36

part of healing from disordered eating

06:38

is to get back in touch

06:40

with the natural cues your body gives

06:42

you for hunger and fullness

06:43

and in ramadan you're you know you're

06:45

expected to kind of ignore those cues

06:47

and just not

06:48

eat and not listen to your body not

06:49

listen to your stomach when it grumbles

06:51

and so that can also kind of set

06:52

somebody back

06:53

and throw their healing off course that

06:56

offset and somebody's schedule can

06:58

throw off their healing as well and i

07:01

think you know one big one

07:02

that we don't talk about enough is just

07:04

the guilt that people feel for not

07:05

engaging in this religious obligation

07:07

that's just a very unique thing that

07:09

people with eating disorders deal with

07:11

in ramadan that everyone around them is

07:13

fasting and

07:14

they can't participate in it not because

07:15

they don't necessarily want to

07:17

but because of an illness that they

07:19

can't even always verbalize to the

07:21

people around them

07:22

when we're trying to help people to eat

07:24

again after

07:25

a period of restricting themselves we

07:27

want them to get back on

07:28

a schedule that they can regularly eat

07:30

and monitor their eating

07:32

and it's again really hard to do that in

07:35

ramadan when

07:36

you don't really have an eating schedule

07:38

most people will just

07:39

not eat when the sun's out and then eat

07:41

when the sun's down and there's no real

07:43

schedule to that

07:44

and that can make it really tricky so

07:46

how does someone decide if fasting in

07:48

ramadan

07:49

is the right thing for them when they're

07:50

in recovery talk to

07:52

your recovery team so if you know people

07:55

with eating disorders

07:56

will probably have a therapist a

07:58

dietitian a doctor they'll have all

08:00

kinds of people on their team

08:02

so you know pick one of them whoever you

08:04

you feel like you can have this

08:05

conversation with

08:06

and talk to them about this when you're

08:09

in the midst of your own

08:10

eating disorder you might miss certain

08:13

things you might not

08:14

know the full context of what's going on

08:16

around you so it can just be helpful to

08:18

get a second opinion

08:20

a professional opinion on what can be

08:21

healthy for you

08:23

some questions that they might ask you

08:24

to help you figure it out is

08:26

um are you at your goal weight yet

08:29

if you're not yet at your goal weight

08:31

then they may not want you to fast yet

08:33

they may want to get a feel for what

08:34

your coping skills are like so if you're

08:36

planning on fasting during ramadan you

08:38

might get triggered by the people around

08:40

you you might get activated and so it's

08:42

going to be

08:43

really important to be able to cope with

08:45

those negative

08:46

emotions that will come up and so um

08:49

just making sure that your coping skills

08:51

are set before ramadan starts will be

08:53

important

08:54

if you've been through an eating

08:55

disorder it will be difficult to

08:57

separate that part of yourself that

08:58

that used to fast for other reasons from

09:01

fasting for god

09:02

and so if there's a part of you that's

09:04

feeling like you're not going to be able

09:05

to separate those things

09:07

then it might be a good idea to take a

09:09

step back how can

09:10

friends and family help their loved ones

09:12

when they're going through

09:13

so i think malia you mentioned it really

09:15

well earlier when you said like just how

09:17

we comment on other people's weight

09:20

and bodies so really to refrain from

09:23

doing that it could really trigger

09:24

someone even if you think you're helping

09:26

um but you know even a comment that you

09:28

think is harmless like oh it looks like

09:30

it looks like you've

09:31

put on a little bit of weight or you

09:33

know you look good you lost weight

09:36

all those things can be really harmful

09:37

for people and one thing people

09:40

also don't think about a much more

09:42

insidious way that this happens

09:43

is commenting on your own weight and

09:46

your own body

09:47

so saying things like i i need to get

09:49

back in shape

09:50

i don't want to eat eat this cookie or

09:52

something because it's

09:54

unhealthy so refraining from commenting

09:57

on yourself is also really important you

09:59

know you may think that it's just

10:01

if i'm just talking about myself like

10:02

how can that person be impacted by it

10:04

but it is getting internalized for them

10:06

so so not asking invasive questions so

10:09

like i noticed i noticed you were not

10:10

fasting today or

10:12

um you know how come you're eating that

10:13

much or asking these questions can be

10:16

really hurtful and just puts that person

10:19

in a painful place that they're trying

10:21

to heal from

10:22

so don't force conversations onto people

10:25

but

10:25

be there for them when they are ready to

10:28

talk about it my final question for you

10:30

was what are some resources that people

10:32

can utilize

10:33

and i'll go ahead and i'll link that

10:35

information in the description box for

10:36

the video so that

10:38

people can keep coming back to it if

10:39

they need to the national

10:41

eating disorder association crisis text

10:43

line is is

10:45

really a great resource to use um i

10:47

think you can just text

10:48

neda 2741741

10:51

so the alliance for eating disorders um

10:54

there's eating recovery center erc

10:57

that does great work and they have

10:58

locations in texas

11:00

um and then for people who want to

11:02

educate themselves there's also

11:03

something called

11:04

edie catalog you can find a lot of

11:06

different books online

11:07

that are really great for just body

11:09

image disordered eating

11:11

the social justice impacts of eating

11:13

disorder

11:14

and yeah there's a lot of great

11:16

resources on there as well

11:17

that's awesome i think that could be so

11:19

helpful for a lot of family members too

11:21

because

11:21

i feel like in our community especially

11:24

information about mental illness or

11:25

eating disorders

11:26

it's just not talked about so people

11:28

don't even know where to start

11:29

and if they can have somewhere to go to

11:31

where they can learn about hey how do i

11:33

help my loved one

11:34

you know cope with what they're going

11:36

through it could be something that's

11:37

very helpful

11:38

i wanted to say thank you so much for

11:40

for doing this video with me i think

11:42

it's going to be so helpful for a lot of

11:43

people who are who are

11:45

struggling with an eating disorder or

11:46

loved ones who don't even know kind of

11:48

where to start

11:49

with this whole process so i'm really

11:51

happy that you were able to make time

11:53

and enjoy today yes thank you this is

11:56

really lovely thanks for having me

11:57

if you found this information to be

11:59

helpful make sure to share this video

12:01

like it and subscribe to my channel so

12:04

that you can learn more information

12:05

about mental health

12:06

don't forget to share this video on your

12:08

social media platforms so that more

12:10

people can learn and benefit ramadan

12:12

mubarak and i'll see you in the next one

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