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SPIRITUAL MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT GROUPS

As I put together this study guide to describe Living Room’s Open Door groups,  giving spiritual mental health support, I knew that I would be talking to readers from many different backgrounds—culturally and spiritually. They would include people working in the mental health field and people with lived experience.

Many of you may have trouble accepting this approach because it features a man called Jesus who lived two thousand years ago and I know that many are just not religious people. But the truth is that he had a dramatic effect through the things he did and said. He became an example that millions followed.

This book will have a lot to say about him, not to convert anyone from the religious beliefs they hold, but because the whole foundation of Open Door rests on the unconditional love that he modelled during his three-year ministry.

Jesus is central to the Christian religion which believes him to be the son of God. The Bible has the most detailed account of his life and the things he said. Jesus is also included in Islam’s Qur’an which recognizes him as a major prophet. He’s revered by most people in the world.

When I became a Christian, the stories I read about him and the things he said meant more to me than anything else I was being taught in church. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe the more complex truths that are part of the Christian religion, they just weren’t as important to me. My relationship to Jesus was what I valued most.

Jesus was known for his kindness, humility, and gentleness. He included people that everyone else left out—those who were being rejected by the world he lived in. He was a radical in the way he treated social outcasts like prostitutes, the poor, the sick, lepers and others. Before Jesus came, such acceptance was a rare thing. He changed the status quo.

And so it was that I virtually entered the world he lived in some two thousand years ago. I came to appreciate Jesus in the way those who first experienced his physical presence did before the Christian religion developed. He was the man who did and said wonderful things—the man who loved unconditionally in a way no one had ever loved before.

This Jesus, as the man he was known to be by those who lived during the time of his three-year ministry on earth, is the person who I’m hoping that people of other faith traditions will be able to accept. Christians will continue to see him as their faith has always seen and worshiped him. But for those who do not know him as God’s son, I’m hoping that Jesus can be seen as the example he was and is for the world to follow.

From the time I founded Living Room, this Jesus was central to my faith and came through in my messages to those who came to meetings. During our devotional times, his love and what he offered us through that love was what we talked about more than anything else. This helped us sort out our mental health problems and find encouragement for our pain. This is how many found healing, especially healing from the effects of the stigma they experienced.

Because of my belief in him, I could not help making Jesus a big part of the devotionals I presented at meetings and the devotionals I sent out by email. These devotionals became the key that made the spiritual mental health support I offered what it is.

I come to this book as an author who happens to belong to the Christian faith, but with a great desire to extend what she has learned about giving spiritual mental health support to include people of all faiths. I hope that this concept of support will help all people with mental health challenges find a measure of healing, no matter who they are, where they are, and how they worship.