Yazidi pilgrimage to Lalish

Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines · Lalish, Iraqi Kurdistan

What it is

Lalish is a valley in Iraqi Kurdistan, about 62 km northeast of Mosul, holding the main Yazidi sanctuary and the shrine of Sheikh ʿAdi. Yazidis visit its holy places and shrines (ziyaret, "pilgrimage") and, above all, gather there for the seven-day autumn Feast of the Assembly (Jamaiya, also called…

Format

• No treatment protocol exists for working alongside the Lalish pilgrimage. The phases below are a working structure built from the trauma-care phases described in Kizilhan's Baden-Württemberg project (stabilisation and orientation, then psychoeducation and psychotherapy) and the Cultural Formulation…
• Phase A: Engagement and cultural assessment. Goal: understand the client's Yazidi identity, caste and community ties, relationship to Lalish (visited, never visited, cut off by displacement or exile), and current problems. Format: individual sessions, with a trained interpreter where needed; use…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Phase B: Safety and stabilisation (trauma-exposed clients). Goal: housing, legal status, daily structure, medical care and symptom stabilisation, which Kizilhan and Weigelt treat as prerequisites for mental health care. Move on when the client can talk about the past without sustained dysregulation and basic needs are met.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• 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?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• 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

• distress the child cannot verbalise; family pressure on adolescents. Working: the child experiences the visit as safe and welcoming.
• prolonged grief; survivor guilt; collective narratives that leave no space for personal loss. Working: the client can hold both grief and connection, and finds community contact.
• the client deferring to you as an authority; mistrust if your faith resembles the perpetrators'. Working: questions about doctrine are routed appropriately and the alliance holds.
• community gossip risks; leaders' positions that conflict with the client's wishes (especially on women's choices); caste dynamics. Working: the client feels supported by both therapy and faith…
• confusing trauma-related contamination feelings after sexual violence with OCD (assess both); clergy who unknowingly provide reassurance. Working: less time spent on rituals; the client reports…

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.