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Anne Crowley and Sarah Major, 2016. Obituary: Zoonia Nazir. Reformulation, Winter, p.43.
The following is dedicated to Dr Zoonia Nazir, our dear friend and colleague.
Very sadly, Dr Nazir died suddenly of an acute illness in October 2015. She was a CAT practitioner and a valued member of MCAT, the Midlands CAT group. She was passionate about CAT and supported its development in the Midlands and offering CAT within the Specialist Psychotherapies service of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust (BSMHFT). What we will most remember her for is her kindness, unassuming nature, and generosity of spirit. We (Anne Crowley and Sarah Major) were in a peer supervision group with her. Latterly, I (A.C.) and Zoonia were doing peer supervision just two weeks before she died; I sent her an email thanking her for her insightful and helpful input (she didn’t have a CAT case to bring at the time and I feared that she had gained less from the supervision than I had) and she replied with her characteristic humility: “It is so useful to have the discussion with you. I really appreciate it”.
I approached her colleague Dr Simon Heyland, Consultant Psychiatrist in Medical Psychotherapies in her work place (Specialist Psychotherapies Service) who wrote the following:
“Zoonia was raised in her native Pakistan but moved to the UK and settled in the West Midlands where she trained in the psychiatry of learning disability and in medical psychotherapy (adopting British nationality along the way). She practised psychoanalytically and in CAT. Her other interests included the interface between spirituality and psychotherapy, and the fortunes of the Pakistan cricket team. Zoonia was appointed consultant psychiatrist in medical psychotherapy in BSMHFT in 2009 and quickly made it her mission – as psychotherapy tutor – to improve the psychotherapy training for trainee psychiatrists in the trust. It was a delight to see her commitment to her work, her determination to help others, her wisdom and at times her mischievous humour express itself, in her more relaxed moments. Zoonia has an impressive ability to combine gentleness with firmness which made her a very effective colleague. She made a very positive impact in raising the compassion and understanding of her colleagues towards their patients, right across Birmingham and Solihull. Zoonia was a very special person. She will be sorely missed.”
Zoonia had only returned from adoptive maternity leave a little over a year before her untimely death. Her little girl Zara was much loved and will continue to be by Zoonia’s brother, and family. We are missing Zoonia but have been honoured to have known her and have had her as a friend and colleague for even such a short time.