What’s Up With Mental Health in Our Community? Ask the Therapists, October 28, 2023. Moderator: Rev. Martie McMane, Panelists: Dr. Karen Rice, Liz George PhD, LPC, Marc Esenwein LCSW. CLICK HERE FOR PRESENTATION
Creating Caring Communities: Responding to Mental Illness, March 5, 2023. Presentation by Rabbi Sandra Cohen, followed by an Interfaith Panel Discussion featuring Rev. Lydia Ferrante Roseberry, Dr. Jed Shapiro and Anne Weiher, PhD. CLICK HERE FOR PRESENTATION
Breaking the Silence: Youth Mental Health, October 9, 2022. Pre-recorded introduction by Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund. Panel discussion and breakout groups. CLICK HERE FOR INTRODUCTION AND PANEL.
Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness by Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund, May 1, 2022. CLICK HERE FOR PRESENTATION Author, Advocate and Pastor Sarah Griffith Lund explores the power of storytelling to help end the stigma of mental illness. Stigma remains one of the most common barriers to getting help for mental health challenges.
When We’re Triggered, by David Richo, PhD, October 14, 2021. CLICK HERE FOR PRESENTATION. CLICK HERE FOR NOTES. A trigger is any word, person, event, or experience that touches off an immediate emotional reaction, especially sadness/depression, anger/aggression, fear/panic, or humiliation/shame. Some triggers are reminders of an irritation from the recent past. Some are examples of post-traumatic stress going all the way back to childhood wounds. Some are collective in origin, for example, mass shootings, war, hate crimes. We carry their triggering impact until we process and resolve the pain we have absorbed. This program will help us find out what triggers are, where they come from, and how to use our psychological and spiritual work to turn our reactions into healing responses.
Spiritual Practice and Suicide Prevention: The Roles of Faith Communities in Prevention, Intervention, and Crisis Response, by Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, May 15, 2021. CLICK HERE FOR PRESENTATION. When people think of suicide, they often conceptualize it as a crisis of mental health. While this framework is often times helpful in understanding the thought processes and emotional states and how to help someone through treatment, the framework does not fully take into account the role of spirituality and faith. ally Spencer-Thomas is a clinical psychologist, inspirational international keynote speaker, podcaster and an impact entrepreneur. Dr. Spencer-Thomas was moved to work in suicide prevention after her younger brother, a Denver entrepreneur, died of suicide after a difficult battle with bipolar condition. She has a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Denver. There will be a panel for conversation. Interfaith Panel featuring Brandon J. Johnson, Dr. Farha Abbasi, Rev. Talitha Arnold, and Rabbi Daniel A. Roberts
Post-Traumatic Growth, Chris Cole MA LPCC, February 21 2021. CLICK HERE FOR PRESENTATION. Chris Cole explores tenets of Post-Traumatic Growth as a way to imagine a path forward for mental health workers, spiritual counsel, and all of us. In traumatic times, reorienting to issues of identity, meaning, and values become imperative. The pandemic and cultural climate calls us into a growth process. A growth orientation to trauma lends itself to hope despite our challenges. Recorded on 2.21.21. Chris Cole, MA, LPCC is a therapist, coach, speaker, author, and podcast host who utilizes his own lived experience with mental health challenges to inspire change. Chris offers a mindfulness-based approach with a wide range of goals and challenges. He is passionate about intersections of mental health and spiritual awakening. Learn more at colecoaching.com and mindthecenter.org
Holding Your Center in Anxious Times, Jerry Ruhl, November 21, 2019. CLICK HERE FOR PRESENTATION. We live in a time of tumultuous social, political, and psychological upheaval. Today, many people experience, in their families and faith communities, a divisiveness that triggers pervasive stress and anxiety. How are we to manage anxiety, heal moral injury, and sustain a healthy center in these times? This inspirational and liberating program will help participants hold the center—individually, in relationships, and in community. It explores the primitive psychological defenses that our society increasingly resorts to as we cope with life’s conflicts and demands: splitting, projection, and scapegoating. Conscious, mature self-management requires that we move beyond anger, fear, and divisiveness. These reactions are unsuited to deal with the complexities of modern life, yet they are constantly inflamed by news media, internet trolling, and political bombast. The program also will explore a powerful concept drawn from conflict resolution: the gap between good intentions and impact on others. Narrowing this gap leads to meaningful dialogue and greater consciousness. Opposites, when viewed with greater maturity, are seen as complementary and mutually dependent.
Moral Injury-Moral Stress: Searching for Meaning, Carrie Doehring PHD, February 22, 2019. CLICK HERE FOR PRESENTATION. Carrie Doehring, PhD will speak on the topic of Moral Injury and Moral Stress. Unlike post traumatic stress, which is rooted in the fear of life threats, moral injuries and stress arise from shame, guilt and betrayal of not practicing one’s core values. This cuts people off from social support and makes them question the value of their life which can lead to hopelessness and suicidal ideation. Strategies for coping and finding means for support will be explored.
Internalizing Insanity – Waking Up Bipolar, Chris Cole, February 10 2019. CLICK HERE FOR PRESENTATION. As you’ll hear in this talk, psychosis offers an opportunity for all of us to open our hearts more fully, to feel more deeply, and to know a love big enough for recovery and care. My hope is that more communities throughout the United States of America consider the opportunity for reconciliation of spiritual, humanistic, and trauma-informed mental health reform.
Sacred Matters: Spirituality as a Vital Resource for Resilience, Health, and Well-Being, Dr. Ken Pargament, May 16 2018. CLICK HERE FOR PRESENTATION. Kenneth Pargament is professor emeritus of psychology at Bowling Green State University and Adjunct Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry at Baylor Medical School. He has served as Distinguished Scholar at the Institute of Spirituality and Health in Houston. He has published over 300 articles on religion, spirituality, and health, and authored The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice and Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy: Understanding and Addressing the Sacred. Dr. Pargament is Editor-in-Chief of the 2013 two-volume APA Handbook of Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality.