All Christians

Can artificial intelligence (AI) understand the complexities of mental health? Does it understand the nuance of integrating faith into the conversation? Is it coming for my job? (Maybe that last one was a bit dramatic.)

If you have not heard, AI is starting to become a thing. For those that do not know, my undergraduate degree is actually in computer engineering which makes a conversation of mental health and AI a perfect intersection for me to explore.

[Read more…] about Christian Mental Health and AI

The book Try Softer by Aundi Kolber is a book written by a Christian clinical counselor for those seeking to deal with mental health problems or those who are currently struggling. When our natural orientation for dealing with difficult things to do more, work harder, and push through, sometimes the opposite reaction is actually better.

[Read more…] about Try Softer [Book Review]

TBRI, or Trust-Based Relational Intervention, is a way of interacting with children as a parenting model for children who have complicated problems. This may include having been physically, sexually, or emotionally abused or neglected, severe mental health, or any other kinds of concerns of the family system being broken. TBRI is an attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention for therapists and practitioners to be used by everyone, including caregivers, foster families, care ministry volunteers, aunts and uncles, and counselors. Developed by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross at Texas Christian University, the model is making significant changes for hurting families.

My Experience

Part of my job is working with the county Child Protective Services (CPS) for families who have been disrupted primarily due to substance use, though many of my supervisees have other CPS cases for reasons such as neglect, abuse, or other concerns. The juvenile court has incorporated this training as an expectation for treatment providers to be using for in-home services for high-demand or high-risk families.

Further more, my church has also begun to work with the local fostering ministry who facilitates the TBRI trainings for CPS but also trains up individuals and communities/congregations as support groups for the families. The hope is that families receive direct care, counseling, and training in treatment and then have ongoing support during treatment and into aftercare when discharge from counseling and CPS. It’s a full wrap-around, wholistic model.

If you are interested in completing an initial 8-hour course, you can do so at a self-paced, online license here. For churches that want to incorporate this into their care ministry, youth ministry, or foster care ministry, we encourage you to do a community/congregation training through here.

For the past year, my wife has been leading our Sunday morning community group chapter by chapter through Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard Foster, a book copywritten 30 years ago and still fully applicable today. The book divides prayer into three sections: Inward, Upward, and Outward.

This month, we went through one of the more loved chapters of Intercessory prayer, our ability and expectation of praying, individually or corporately, for the needs of others. The book notes how Jesus’ death on the Cross was His action to be mankind’s intercessor to God and as Christians, we are expected to pray for those who ask for our prayers.

[Read more…] about Prayer Is Where Change Is Found

Holly Oxhandler is not only a Christian who understands mental health, but has her own Christian mental health podcast that she co-hosts at CXMH Podcast and an associate professor and associate dean for research and faculty development at Baylor University in social work. If you follow her online or read any of her other material, you will find she is a caring person not only for the individual who is struggling from mental health, but those that have made a choice to serve people with mental health problems, whether professional or otherwise.

This book The Soul of the Helper follows this look at wanting to help individuals who are helping people with mental health or disability problems. For the person who wants the professional or clinical understanding, you will get that. For the person who needs to find some rest within a book, you will also find this. I feel there was a fair balance between the two that was inviting and encouraging.

The Good

This topic is sorely needed. We throw volunteers into groups and young pastors into ministry until they fizzle out and then look for the next one. We cheer on parents of families who may have a hidden or developmental disability, but only offer short term resources and personal support and leave them high-and-dry after only a few months or a year. May is a great time for discussing mental health within the Church, but we do not continue the conversation and miss out on supporting individuals who may be victims of domestic violence, special needs ministry and the Buddy Programs that go with it, and so much more.

Holly looks to bridge that gap to cheer on the helper in a way many in ministry tend to do, by tending to the soul. God created us for connection with Him and through this with each other. May we take care of those who take care of others.

The Break From Conservative Christianity

I respect Holly in her work, putting her own personal story out there, and her desire to further the Church in their pursuit to help those with mental illness. Yet, while I read the book, I found myself wondering, will pastors and conservative Christians be able to read this and glean from it? My guess is that Christian counselors, may be able to see the clinical work being shared through the text and appropriately apply it with professional application.

Lay Christians or pastors who are still very conservatives may find it difficult to make the transition of “counsel-ese” that non-Christians in the same way struggle when pastors speak Christian-ese. Namaste has negative connotations and while the description is an easy connection for counselors who may be versed in Dialectic Behavioral Therapy, Person-Center, or Attachment theory will appreciate, those who are not trained may see it as simply “inviting pluralism” as I saw one commenter online make.

Whether you are a pastor in charge of volunteers, a person on the compassion ministry, or a Christian counselor, this is a must read to support your local Christian leaders looking to give back to their congregation and community. I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.

Editor’s Note: If you want to read more up on what Scrupulosity is, check out this previous article on what this diagnosis is as well as an article 5 Ways The Church Perpetuates Religious OCD that we did as a follow up.

I trust my testimony will give the reader helpful insights into this subtype of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Moreover, for those who can personally relate to what I am sharing, may my words offer comfort amid your suffering.

I’ve walked with God for about as long as I can remember. I asked Jesus into my life around age four after “praying through” with my dad on our living room couch.

[Read more…] about How God Used My Struggles with Scrupulosity to Teach Me His Amazing Grace

The new year is here, 2023 is for some the time to move forward in life, especially for those who the last three years have been very difficult for them for a variety of reasons, including due to lose of loved ones or financial security, fear, medical concerns, or conflict in relationships. In a sermon I just heard from our pastor at the beginning of the month, he talked about the idea of not getting stuck in our past that we are tied to it, quoting most of Deuteronomy 8, though I’ll share the key point for this article.

Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day… But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today… If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.

Deuteronomy 8:2, 11, 18-19 (NIV)

While the text does reference that we need to not forget the blessing, power, and majesty of God, we also need to put it at the forefront of what we do today. In this context, Moses commands the Israelites who were in the wilderness for 40 years to not forget that they were in the wilderness specifically because they did not trust and put their faith in God after He did miracles and blessings for His kingdom. This is not a call to lament the time lost because the rest of the Scripture we didn’t cite is all about living life according to God’s will which means we need to remember the past but not let us be stuck in it.

Grounding Technique

Clinically, we would have a lot of coping skills to be able to use this for our clients, including grounding. For counselors, the term grounding may very quickly take your mind to the Dialectic Behavioral Therapy technique that utilizes mindfulness. The idea is we find ourselves stuck to our past misery and failures, pouring shame and guilt on ourselves, or trying to predict the future, anxious about what is to come, instead of being in the moment. Grounding technique helps you reinforce that “in the moment”-ness through your five senses. Here’s a video to help explain the clinical technique:

Grounding With Scripture and Prayer

Grounding Yourself in Scripture and Prayer is different than the de facto Grounding Exercise shared above in that you are putting God’s breathed Word in your life daily and talking with Him. This goes beyond an art piece of Jeremiah 29:11 or Joshua 24:15 or having the Serenity Prayer hung on your fridge, though these are excellent, daily reminders.

Instead, we need to take time to sit in Scripture and prayer to listen to what God has for us. Sometimes it is a quiet stillness that we need before a chaotic day or a strong push of devotions and prayer reminders for those who are hurting. Other times, it is a complete worship experience of confession with tears and sorrowful petitioning of repentance for what we have done or felt. Many times, it is simply being present within God’s presence and being fully aware of who God is for ourselves, our service in His holy family, and renewing our calling that He has put before us.

This takes intentional time to read Scripture, talk with your pastor or discipler, give more than a brief moment of prayer that is practiced, and reaching for the quiet to hear what God has for us instead of only giving Him, our Creator, Lord, King, and Comforter, the briefest of moments in our day.

Go, connect with Him in ways that you are able to hear and truly be present. Let the past be a reminder, but not a chain, to what has happened and what God has done so that you may be present today to fulfill His will.

My wife and I’s hearts has a special place to help destigmatize special needs, neurodivergent, and developmental disabilities within our everyday life. This includes, especially, within the church. This statistic blows my mind every time I read it:

Did you know that there is an unreached people group in your neighborhood? Only 5-10% of the world’s disabled population are effectively reached with the gospel. That makes people with disabilities one of the largest unreached people groups in the world!

Couple visible disabilities with hidden disabilities such as mental illness or substance misuse, and we have a HUGE population that we are not sharing Jesus with.

[Read more…] about Embracing Special Needs Families [Video]

First, from our family to yours, happy Thanksgiving. If you do not live in a place that nationally celebrates Thanksgiving, we hope this time helps in finding more gratitude in your faith journey and giving thanks to God and those around you for the many blessings you have received. We know that within “positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” [Harvard Health Publishing]

We’ve talked previously about how the holidays can be a difficult time for those with mental health, writing about how Christians can manage mental health over the holidays, the worries of addiction during the holidays, how to help loved ones with mental illness over the holidays, and, previously if we weren’t in a pandemic with restrictions looming, ways to find peace and joy over this holiday. Today, we want to discuss ways we can give thanks that integrates mental health and our Christian faith. We suggest you print these off, put them in your calendar, add them to your journaling, and pass them along as gratitude and thanks giving only grows when you do it more and share it with others.

1. Giving Thanks Daily

As of the time of this writing, we have 38 days til the new year. That’s 38 opportunities to make this the most thankful year you’ve ever had. With something as simple as writing a text message every day to someone in your life to give thanks for what they have done for you or to give a new thing you are thankful for to one person who had truly been there for you every day. Search yourself and find what they have done for you, being mindful of all the ways and things they have done. Also, make it intentional in your prayers for thanksgiving daily.

If you are as bad at this as I am, schedule out your text messages. For the next hour, identify those 38 people and schedule a text message to send them on December 17 or November 29 and fill every day. With prayer, write down on a calendar or prayer journal for the next 38 days a new thing to thank God for. But in all things, give thanks.

2. Gratitude Journal

We find that giving thanks in the moment to be one of the best ways to be mindful of all of the things God has done for us and set our hearts and minds on what can be done today. But in times of difficult struggle with anxiety, depression, or trauma, even that task can be hard. Having a journal of thoughts you have done in the recent days and weeks before hand can give you the opportunity when it feels like there is nothing to be grateful for and see all that you have had.

For this, we suggest starting a gratitude journal where every day in your prayer, devotional, and meditation time that you take some time to journal about things you are grateful for. Whether it is a running list or a narrative format of your collective thoughts, have a book solely dedicated to thankfulness. When you can, be unique in what you write so that you are always looking for new things to be thankful for. Do not start it when you are struggling, instead start it now for later. And if you never need it, then you instead spend wonderful minutes before God counting your blessings and finding humility before Him.

3. Serve Others

Different than the first two that look to others who have blessed us, we can also go and bless others. We have found that even the most altruistic actions by you will still promote a sense of thankfulness as well as tend to be moments seared into one’s own memory, creating moment after moment of kindness and thanksgiving. Whether you find a day to serve on one of the big holidays at a soup kitchen, take part in the Adopt-A-Child event or Operation: Shoebox through your church, or find yourself devoting days and weeks through Habitat for Humanity or with your local foster care system, give back.

4. Reflect and Memorize Scripture of Thanksgiving

Whether you tend to struggle memorizing anything or not, spend time in Scripture with verses of thanksgiving. Whether you go through the Psalms which are filled with them and find verses like Psalm 103:1-4 or the many times Paul is giving thanks for the new Church in their efforts to be Christ to all people in all things:

Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,

Psalm 103:1-4 (NIV)

If you need help, the Internet has a whole list of verses you can go and find to reflect on every morning or evening.

So what do you do with your Thanksgiving that you can promote a sense of gratitude in the busyness of the holiday as well as in the ordinary every day? Leave your comments below.

Over a year ago, I was asked by Dr. Jared Pingleton to be part of a new book Mental Health Ministry which is a follow up to The Struggle is Real that released today. My contribution is ‘Chapter 11: Ministering to Mental Health Needs in Youth Ministry’. With my history of working in youth ministry, doing family counseling in a clinical setting, and having a heart to see the family unit healthy and God at the center of it, it was a perfect fit.

[Read more…] about Interview with Jared Pingleton about Mental Health Ministry