Faith and Therapy

Compared with when I first came into contact with Mental Health Services in the 1980s there is a growing openess to the benefits of faith in recovery. Recent studies on Suicide have demonstrated that the most significant protection factor is finding hope and meaning in life. It is rare for therapies outside of addiction to even discuss spirituality in its broadest sense.

It is in this vacuum that faith communities and particularly churches in the UK can offer something to recovery from Mental Illness. My own therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy is one of the few to significantly include beliefs in its treatment model. During my time in DBT I was actively encouraged to become involved in my church, to pray as a means of combatting emotional distress. One of the most significant summaries of the treatment model which we were taught is the 'Serenity Prayer' - I actively shared encouraging Bible verses with my individual therapist and she in turn passed them on to others she felt shared my beliefs. Such openess to faith in treatment seems to be too rare. However, this morning I came across the following link to a blog exploring the relationship between faith and recovery from mental illness. It makes interesting and challenging reading to those of us involved in seeking to engage our churches in mental health issues: Advice about Therapy, Religion and You (http://blogs.psychcentral.com/therapy-soup/2014/08/advice-about-therapy-religion-and-you/)