Hope for Mental Health

  Yes, it's 2023, but I couldn't find a graphic for this year's summit:)  It runs from May18-19, 2023. I did attend in 2021, however, and I found the presentations useful and engaging.    This summit focuses on mental health for church leaders, especially pastors. Areas of focus include:  Self-care practice that help avoid burnout, Fostering and supporting mental health for your team, and strengthening resilience for you and your team. As with most online summits, access is free for a limited time period, and you have the option to purchase the videos.  Even if you only watch the videos you're interested in that fit your time frame, it will be time well spent and encouraging. For more information and free registration: Thrive and Cultivate Registration

One of the best free resources I've found online is Therapy in a Nutshell.  Emma McAdam is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist , (LMFT) and a Christian.   She has, at last count, about  30 educational videos on YouTube focused on how to process your emotions , and  a FREE mental health course, Grounding Skills for Anxiety on her website.   There are also  3 Free Downloadable Tools:  a Habit Builder, an Emotion Tracker, an Emotion Processing  Overview in PDF form. I've posted about Therapy in a Nutshell before, but having run into some new videos, I thought I'd pass along some links: The Physical Symptoms of Grief And near and dear to my heart:   Emotional Eating Check out her website:   Therapy in a Nutshell If you're not familiar with Emma, her videos are short, fun to watch, and easy to understand.   Most important is that you can learn skills!  Blessings! Berta Aronson, MSW Coordinator, Hope for Mental Health, a ministry of Monmouth Christian Church HMH@mymcc.

Share the Struggle, (STS), is a new mental and emotional health resource for churches.  STS is a non-profit organization that seeks to showcase God's redemptive power through media.  They've combined Biblical principles with the best practices of psychology to create a Christ-centered environment for life's greatest and most common struggles. A few months ago I got their free "check us out for a month" subscription, and watched all of their current videos and checked out their workbooks.   I was really impressed and encouraged! Current 6-8 week courses include: Helping the Helpers, Loss of a Loved One, Freedom from Anxiety, and Moving Through Trauma.   Those three alone could change the culture of the church and community!  However, there are a few more to pick from, plus a number currently in production. Another thing that I appreciate about Share the Struggle, is their view of our current mental health crisis as a mission's moment.  Given that there aren'

"It's impossible to be spiritually mature, while remaining emotionally immature."  Quite a statement!  I recently listened to Pete Scazzaro's leadership podcast, where he talked briefly about the history of this idea.  (Actually, it's more than an idea, it's a way of following Jesus more closely.) In 1996, when he started out with this concept, it was most often considered off the wall.  Now, it's a buzz word.   It's also a course, and comes with the book, a workbook, and a Day-by-Day devotional book.  Part of the course is about exploring various aspects of emotional health and means of growing emotionally, and part is about contemplative practices that help you slow down your life.  Both parts aim at having a closer relationship with God.   I taught the course last year at Monmouth Christian, and it was as awesome to teach, (and per feedback from the participants, awesome to take:), as it was to experience when we used the course in my small group.