Living Room and Open Door

PEER SUPPORT WITH A DIFFERENCE

Living Room, the original faith-based mental health support group was founded in 2006 at a time when the Church was in the dark about mental health, many believing that mental illness was a spiritual problem. People with mental health challenges were being shamed out of their churches, left without spiritual support.

There were secular mental health peer support groups. But they were not places where our faith and its effect on our mental health could be addressed. Living Room gave Christians a place where they could safely talk about both—their mental health and their faith. With the help of devotionals their faith grew and they found a healing from their mental and emotional struggles.

The group was founded on the unconditional love of Jesus and it was that sense of love that seemed to carry the healing power. Interactive devotionals prompted discussion that featured some of the problems our lives with mental health issues had.

The spiritual mental health support provided by Living Room was so successful that I realized it should be available to all who deal with mental health conditions. The world is full of people with such challenges, all of whom could benefit from spiritual support. Gradually, with God’s step by step leading, the Open Door concept was born.

Now people from all faith traditions will be able to benefit from groups offering spiritual mental health support.

The devotionals I include in this website are very important. They form the “meat” that provides the spiritual mental health support that I’ve been talking about.

Probably most important to facilitators are the interactive devotionals that are designed for group use. They will make it easy for you to plan topics you could bring to your meetings. Questions throughout will prompt discussion on faith and mental health issues and lead to good reflection for all members there. Make sure you don’t miss them.

Living Room and Open Door Explained PDF [471 KB]

Facilitator’s Manual PDF [290 KB]

Group Devotionals 46 PDF’s [2 MB]