Dear Friends,

In the last couple of decades the number of South Asian immigrants in Europe and North America is steadily increasing. Moving from one culture to another has never been easy. Many such immigrants face adjustment problems. There are others who have a family member who has serious emotional problems or suffer from mental illness. Such families are not familiar with main -stream mental health services. Language and cultural differences also become obstacles between immigrants and Canadian therapists.

Last year I was approached to give a lecture on Mental Health in Urdu. In that conference I met many mental health professionals and volunteers. In my lecture I focused on the stigma of mental illness and presented my Green Zone Philosophy to help people struggling with emotional problems.

After the conference when I met with my friends, we felt that South Asian immigrants do not have literature about Mental Health in their native language. They also need resources to contact in case their family members are facing emotional difficulties.

That discussion inspired me to create an anthology of literature in Urdu and English to serve our community.

A few months ago my dear friend Mohammad Gill introduced me to www.chowk.com

by writing an article Dr. K. Sohail…A Pilgrim’s Progress

and then asked me to write articles about Mental Health and Psychotherapy and submit them to the editors. I was surprised to get a positive response from the editors as well as the members of that website.

After submitting articles to www.chowk.com I also wrote articles for Dawn Newspaper of Pakistan and Medical Post of Canada. I was pleased that they published my articles about psychotherapy as well.

I hope you find these articles informative and useful. Feel free to send your stories and struggles with mental health issues.

Sincerely,

Dr. Khalid Sohail

Psychiatrist

Creative Psychotherapy Clinic

Whitby Ontario Canada