Dargah and temple healing

Domain XI · Traditional medicine & indigenous healing · South Asia

What it is

"Dargah and temple healing" is not a therapy or a single tradition. It names a widespread South Asian pattern in which people with mental distress, usually brought by their families, stay at or repeatedly visit a Sufi shrine (dargah), a Hindu temple or a Christian shrine known locally for healing,…

Format

• This is a framework for the psychotherapist's own work with a client (or family) who uses, plans to use, or has returned from shrine or temple healing. It is not a phase model of the shrine practice, which the shrines do not publish as one. Phases, session counts and transition criteria below are…
• Phase A. Engagement and cultural assessment (sessions 1–2, 50–90 min).

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Why safeguarding is central. On 6 August 2001, 28 residents died in a fire at the Badhusha private mental asylum at Erwadi, primarily because they were chained. Scroll.in reports 25 shackled people died at once and three later of burns, out of 43 inside. The Supreme Court of India took suo motu cognisance; the unlicensed homes were closed, more than 500 residents were moved to government care, a commission under…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Goals: address the presenting problem with the therapist's usual evidence-based approach, adapted to the formulation; help the client make sense of shrine experiences; work with the family.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• a trip planned without the client's agreement; loss of contact abroad. It is working when the client makes the decision themselves with a plan.
• missed school during long stays, untreated physical illness, fear in the child. It is working when the child is safe and the family stays engaged.
• self-blame, shame, dissociation in session, avoidance of all care. It is working when the client can talk about it without being overwhelmed and stays in care.
• an interpreter softening questions about restraint or adding their own opinion of the shrine. It is working when the client's own religious terms come through in translation.
• one family member making all decisions; the client's wishes being overridden; carer depression. It is working when carers describe a safety plan they believe they can follow.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.