I am reeling from the murder of a former client, someone who I worked with for three years.
A beautiful soul was this lad.
As a Social Worker, dealing with trauma is something I have done for three decades.
But it is never easy holding space for those traumatised and marginalised.
However since 2014, what youth offending teams up and down the country are facing is unprecedented.
The rise in youth violence and violence in the U.K. generally is unprecedented and the rise in so many dying unnecessarily and for reasons that are nonsensical is beyond tragic.
I arrived at work yesterday at 935am to be told by one of the Managers that my former Client was murdered very near his home and died on the spot, stabbed by several young people.
I had to sit down.
I let the news sink in.
I cried.
I had a deep connection with the Client.
I had really advocated for him in prison and in the community.
I had really gone out of my way to help him.
To know he was no longer in the world, hurt.
He was a talented athlete, rapper and actor.
He just did not know it.
He was beautiful inside and out.
He just did not see or recognise his talents.
He just did not know his destiny was based on his choices.
He felt his destiny was trapped in being a Londoner and like me London was in his blood and he couldn’t get it out of his system.
I spent the morning phoning his dad, mum and sister and uncle and all the Professionals that I knew had worked with him.
His dad and mum thanked me for all the hard work I had put in with him.
Some of the Professionals I phoned started crying.
Some were a little more collected only because they had heard the news on Saturday.
I spent the whole day at work trying to get on with other cases, but not succeeding.
Management were very understanding. My team were very supportive.
The work we do is not easy.
We touch lives and the young people we touch with our care and compassion touch us.
It is a natural human reaction and response to be touched.
I received the news at 935am and left work at 515am and somehow got home.
I spent the evening at home alone. My family had gone out to football and work and poetry events.
I had told them earlier what happened. They asked after me.
But what do you say?
There are no words.
I spent the evening praying and thinking and reflecting.
I broke my fast and I watched some TV.
I thought about my Business and the lives I want to touch and the more I connected to my deep yearning to heal via my Coaching and the joy I get from healing, the more realised that is my why of the Business.
I suddenly understood that getting time freedom or financial freedom are all side benefits. They are the wrapping paper the real gift is joy i.e. contributing to the world and loving it and feeling fulfilled.
I got clarity on my Business: it is to touch lives and get paid for it.
I know this journey is not an easy one and these next few days and next few weeks are going to be hard.
I feel lost after my loss.
I just know that with these lows there are highs and the Client that died would want me to continue the journey. This is because he loved it when I encouraged him to dream.
He always thanked me for being there.
I so much want to be there for others too so there are no more needless deaths and I can fund knife crime awareness projects and sessions.
I see more and more the foundations of this Business.
I feel more and more aligned to make a success of this Business and am committed to emerging as an Entrepreneur.
Right now being an Employee and being an Entrepreneur is hard as I have to switch from one to another in quite a few times
One thing I love about being an Employee is that you have supervisors that care about you and a team that watches over you and supports you.
I envision to have a team member around me too as an Entrepreneur. I really want to encourage and support.
I am emerging.
I am blossoming.
I hope for you to continue in accompanying me on this journey.
If anything in this blog has really resonated with you and you would like to discuss the subject further with Taniya privately then use this link.
Taniya Hussain qualified as a Social Worker in 1991 from Coventry University in England, UK. She has been working on the front lines in London UK, consistently holding space for individuals and families in chaos and crisis for three decades especially, children and young people on the margins of society. Taniya studied Psycho-dynamic counselling from 1991 to 1993 at Goldsmiths College in London. Taniya met Sheikha Halima Krausen in 1992 and has been studying Islam with her ever since especially Mystical Islam, Tassawuf (Sufism) and walks on the Chisti path. Taniya fuses Jungian Pyschology and Islamic Psychology and this fusion can best be understood if you read her book Dancing with Darkness which is available on Amazon. It became a Best Seller on Amazon in the UK, U.S and France in April 2025. The book tells the story of Tamara Alvi, a fictional charachter and is a psychological thriller and a story of healing. Taniya started her coaching and consulting business in January 2018 and she works mainly with High Achievers and High Performers and High Performing Leaders, offering reflective spaces since 2018 and what she refers to as THE REFLECTIVE SPACE. Taniya since starting her busines discovered that she is a powerful healer and was shocked that clients were relieved from pain even though they have been diagnosed with a chronic illness. Taniya is delighted to have discovered Paceology, which is the detailed study of PACE. She is the first paceologist. She noticed when working with high performers when you slow down in one area of your life, this causes you to speed up in another area and vice cersa thus leading to increased levels of productivity, creativity, clarity and energy. She brands herself as the Muslim Alchemist because she really is The Muslim Alchemist as she guides you to transfom the base, in other words the shit that you have experienced into GOLD whether that is love of yourself or God or another human being or a healthier body or a life where you feel at peace and calm and fulfilled or more energy or more money. You definintely will feel lighter, more freer and more clearer even if you book one consultation with her or several sessions.
Taniya has a very holistic approach when working with individuals and works with you on multiple layers, the emotional, the psychological, the social, the physical, the mental and the spriritual. She uses stories from the Quran and the Bible when working with clients on a one to one basis or in group workshops as well as breathwork, body scanning, cognitive behavioural therapy, neuro linguistic programming, motivational interviewing. systems theory, neuro science. She is trained in multiple modalities as well as using her own Paceology and insists on offering her clients a trauma informed and trauma responsive service.
She is constantly integrating her knowledge of the Quran and Bible with her vast social work experience and training. Taniya's extensive ability of applying psycho-dynamic theory to organisational settings, teams and groups as well as to individuals results in those who attend her sessions or workshops as feeling lighter and more energised. Taniya uses skillfully her understanding of the Shadow, that Jung constantly talked about and her Mystical Training. She also has integrated her passion for inter-faith dialogue and the archetypes that Jung often refers to, come alive in her one to one sessions and her group workshops thus resulting in individuals feeling more freer and fulfilled after they stop working with her. Taniya just does not provide clarity she WAKES you up to. Taniya has a great skill in being able to see the blind spots in others and does this in a non judgemental way and a way that you feel safe. She also "untangles energetic knots" (a term she uses for Shadow) in your body to promote healing from mental and physical disease. Clients usually are healed in a short amount of time because she pinpoints the memory, the event, the thought that first caused the disease. She also provides one to one sessios or training workshops to social work teams, school, secure and prison estate on youth justice, knife crime prevention as well asidentification and prevention of early onset of burnout.
Taniya has three sons, who were born in 1996, 2001 and 200 and lives in Surrey, England and when she is not coaching or writing songs, blogs and poems, she loves to spend time, travelling, walking, listening to music, watching films or playing cricket.
She speaks fluent English and Urdu and basic German and French and is learning Arabic and Hebrew.
I’m seeing a trend in the online space and offline space in social work, therapy circles amongst coaches etc. And I am VERY observant of trends of reading between the lines, spotting patterns in the transformation of #consciousness Having studied Jungian Psychology...
Heroes quote themselves according to Manny Wolfe the author of The Tao of The Unbreakable Man.So here is me quoting myself "Trauma is the Training Ground for Leadership"This is something I have said to myself, to my clients, to my friends and seen in my 50 plus years...
Eight ago exactly I was debating on Boxing Day 2018 whether to pay a $500 deposit which was going to be non refundable to an online coach. I hardly had any savings and I was going to sign up to a 12 month contract with this coach that called herself a Success coach....
0 Comments