FAITH-BASED PEER SUPPORT GROUPS FOR MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS –

Living Room is the spiritual mental health model designed to give support to groups of people with mental health conditions. All members of Living Room groups, including the facilitator, have experienced, or are experiencing similar mental health issues. It’s this commonality that pulls them together. Groups are not led by professionals and don’t offer clinical therapy.

Peer support groups are an important element in the needs of those living with mental health issues. Support by peers has been shown to be more effective than support from healthy individuals. Those who don’t have lived experience can’t hope to empathize in the way peers can empathize.

Participants gather on a regular basis to support each other by sharing their experiences of struggle and pain. Members receive social support, but they also share ideas on strategies that will help them cope with the struggles they are facing. Together, in the company of others who can relate, members find out they’re not alone.

But Living Room differs from other kinds of support groups in that our spiritual needs are also addressed. Those needs will be different for all. You may be Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, or follower of some other religion, wanting to bring messages of your faith to people in need. Research has found that a healthy faith life will help to positively affect mental health. And so, spiritual topics are introduced by the facilitator and explored as a group.

There is a way in which all participants are alike, no matter what they believe. In a world that rejects so many of them, the message that they are accepted and loved is one that they all need to hear.

The historic Jesus and the unconditional love he is known for is the foundation on which Living Room rests. To some he is the Son of God; to others he is a Prophet. To most he is regarded as a someone to be revered.

Jesus is the best example we have of love shown to all people, no matter who they are, where they are, or how they worship. This love has brought healing to many and it continues doing so today. He showed special love for rejected people—for those the world had turned its back on.

Through Living Room groups and the love of Jesus, participants can find peace and healing.

The devotionals included in the Living Room website are very important. They form the “meat” that provides the spiritual mental health support.

Living Room must remain a free-standing initiative—not attached to any organization, including religious institutions.

marja

For more, check https://marjabergen.com/support-groups