February 28, 2024

Elevating Performance: The Importance of Reflection and Continuous Learning in February

In February, high performers and high achievers like you and me prefer to take time to reflect on our progress, seek feedback, and invest in continuous learning and development.

Although I am The Muslim Alchemist,the fact that I am was something I only discovered in the last few years. You may be surprised to learn throughout my whole life,I have invested in continuous learning and personal and professional development. I qualified at the tender age of 22 as a social worker back in 1991. I qualified at the age of 24 as a Therapist. I prefer to use the word Psychodynamic Counsellor. You may not know this but it is necessary to practice as a social worker to invest in continuous professional development. 

In my three decades as a practicing social worker, I have trained in different modalities and love learning about different approaches.

Reflection is a necessary element in this  professional development.

As social workers undertaking reflection of our practice with ourselves and our peers is drilled into us from the beginning of our training and continues no matter how experienced we are.

As a social worker in England we need to register with Social Work England every year and demonstrate that we have engaged in this self and peer reflection.

Otherwise we cannot work as a registered social worker.

Reflecting with others and self reflection becomes so natural to us it is like breathing.

That is why I find it very alien when I come across a Coach or a Consultant or a Therapist or a Healer that does not invest in continuous personal and professional development.

Of course I come across many that invest in professional development but are scared to invest in continuous personal development.

I find many find it too scary and uncomfortable to do that on a deep level.

Yes many do it on a superficial level including us social workers but not at a deeper level. This is because it means diving into events in your life that you find painful and uncomfortable and even traumatic.

I find in my experience as an online coach that many high performers who are coaches, therapists, healers shy away from this due to unpleasant and traumatic experiences of therapy or personal development courses.

I can understand why this is, trust is broken and when you are baring your soul, and you are not understood of shamed or blamed, it is hard to bare your soul again.

I remember when I was in my early twenties and I booked some sessions with a National Health Service Counselor. The sessions were free and arranged via my General Practitioner, my medical doctor. The Counsellor that I had was an English White Woman. She was, I recall very threatened by me because I told her I was a social worker and a qualified counselor.

She did not judge me. However I felt this coldness from her and she seemed to not understand my world.

I did not feel held by her at all.

The sessions we had together were only six but each session seemed to last like it was an eternity.

 She said so very little and I wondered did it feel so difficult because they were free. 

You would be surprised to find out that I did invest in counseling again but this time I made sure I booked more than six sessions and I paid for them and I chose someone from my background.

I wanted someone from my faith background not necessarily from my cultural background.

To be understood and seen is so important would you agree?

I am not dismissing free counseling but I find for some issues especially extremely traumatic experiences especially if you have experienced complex trauma, six sessions or free counseling is counterproductive.

Why?

Because there are so many layers to trauma and it takes TIME to build trust and rapport with another person.

Especially one you have chosen to bare your soul.

That is why my signature program called The Spiritual Alchemy Quest is a maximum of 28 months.

The minimum amount an individual spends on the program is 28 weeks.

By the way although I am referring to it as a program it is NOT a series of audios you need to listen to or videos you need to watch.

Actually there are NO videos to watch or audios to listen to.

The Spiritual Alchemy Quest is actually PURE LIVE Coaching.

I realize I am the bridge for high performers and high achievers who have had terrible or traumatic experiences of coaching or therapy to lead them to a non judgemental experience of transformational coaching.

Yes when you embark on the Spiritual Alchemy Quest with me you receive LIVE Coaching with me on a platform of your choice.

I will be your guide on the side because I know very intimately what courage it takes to bare your soul when you have been betrayed by a Therapist or a Coach.

I am not the sage on the stage and although that feels magical and exciting, be rarely it is.

Most of us seek guides from the side not sages on stages.

I am also the bridge for high performers and high achievers who have flirted with personal development but have only embraced it on a superficial level and I lead you to experience a container with me that feels therapeutic but it is not therapy instead I gently lead you to be able to dive deeper into parts of your unconscious and spirit that you were scared to explore.

Exploring the unconscious and soul requires skilful and experienced hands.

I definitely have these with my thirty years of experience as a social worker and counselor.

I tend to find many high performers and high achievers become personal development addicts due to the fact that you don’t dive deep and only explore superficially your unconscious.

Working on yourself does not have to result in decades of therapy. For some it is important to have years of therapy but if you feel you are in the same place then when you started, perhaps a change of therapist or coach is needed.

I find many of my clients who hire me only hire me again for a different problem, never for the same issue.

I find many choose not to hire me again as you attain rapid and lasting transformations in your lives. This is because the feedback that you eceive from me is honest and blunt and although it feels like death to the ego is a catalyst to transformation, rapid transformation.

I provide The Reflective Space and on many occasions am like the mirror pointing out the blind spots. For me they are easy to see. I cut to the chase and am not shy to do so due to my decades of dealing with individuals who have suffered from traumatic experiences including complex trauma.

Unlike many coaches I do not assume you know your point A. You see many think they know their point A. VERY few actually do. I take the time in the first few sessions to actually look in detail where you are actually in your life and get to know your point A. I don’t hurry you or rush you. So you are ready to get to your point B.

One cannot fly before one can walk can one?

Would you agree?

taniyahussain34

taniyahussain34

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.

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