About
Aaliyah is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool, a research consultant and trauma-informed educator.
At Liverpool, she has worked as an Independent Research Consultant on AHRC-funded research into health and social care with and for people living with energy-limiting chronic illnesses. Through the University’s Impact Accelerator Award, she contributed to an education toolkit for healthcare professionals and practical guidelines for improving appointment and booking systems for people with chronic illness, drawing on interviews and her own lived and professional knowledge as part of NHS-facing knowledge-exchange work.
Alongside her academic and consultancy work, Aaliyah develops trauma-informed design and content for practitioners, researchers and educators through A.C.E. Design Labs.
Her emerging research interests focus on late-recognised and undiagnosed autism in women, particularly its relationship with trauma, masking, nervous system functioning and chronic conditions such as hypermobility, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. She is especially interested in how hormonal changes and grief affect autistic experiences, and how culture, health inequalities and discrimination shape recognition and support for South Asian, Muslim and other marginalised women. She hopes to contribute to these under-researched areas and welcomes enquiries about potential collaborations.
Aaliyah is the founder of ‘The RAHMAH Approach to Psychology: Trauma-Informed Systems Thinking’, a faith- and culturally attuned framework for building physically, emotionally, relationally and sensory-safer spaces, services and systems across healthcare, education, community and organisational settings. It integrates nervous system awareness, sensory safety, lived experience and relational leadership to support sustainable, people-centred change. She has delivered training on the approach to staff at an NHS Talking Therapies service and to doctoral students. She is also the editor of the forthcoming book, Muslim Women Shaping Psychological Knowledge and Practice (Routledge, February 2027), to which she contributes the first published account of the RAHMAH Approach.
Aaliyah holds a Certificate of Higher Education in Psychodynamic Counselling Skills (University of Leicester, 2006), a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Sciences (UEL and the Tavistock NHS, 2009) and an MEd in Psychotherapeutic Counselling (University of Cambridge, 2015). She completed her PhD in Health Psychology at City St George’s, University of London (2023), where her thesis explored British Muslims’ experiences of the perinatal period.
She is also an Honorary Research Fellow at City St George’s, where she delivers a lecture on perinatal mental health, cultural awareness and inclusivity in work with families and communities. She has also taught cultural and faith-integrated, trauma-informed care as a visiting lecturer on the Cross-Cultural and Anti-Discriminatory Practice module of the Counselling Psychology Doctorate programme. She trained as a psychotherapeutic counsellor before moving into research, design, consultancy and education. She is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and currently leads the Psychology and Mental Health community within the Muslim Researchers Network.