Community and Mental Health Resources

woman holding black sand on seashore du

Justice Resources–commends to you my other website, Christian Minus Christianity, which is a website designed to fight racism, supremacy, and Zionism in many forms of white American Christianity. It also has some PDFs that may be useful.

Houselessness and Community

I corresponded recently with an author whose work has focused on homelessness in Seattle. He said that when he listened to people on the streets talk about how they were not religious and how many problems religion has caused, it seemed to him that they were trying not to suffer. Like they were trying to free themselves and others from a social wound that went soul deep. Like they were trying to catch a new, good, and empowering wind. People like Wendy Farley and Thich Nhat Hanh and others showed him the importance of deep listening–compassionately open to real difference, not, to the degree possible, imposing a theory or text on a unique person who by nature is mysterious.

Click to see the books he recommended.

Jarrett Zigon – How Is It Between Us? And War on People. 

Elizabeth Drescher – Choosing Our Religion. 

Fenella Cannell – Anthropology of Christianity

Christian Smith on religion – so many good things from him!

Octavia Butler – The Parable of the Sower

gOD-Talk

He also valued empirical literature on religion and human flourishing and said it is also really important to pour into – from scholars like Tyler VanderWeele at Harvard and Harold Koenig at Duke. They show that religion can have really positive impacts on one’s health and capacity to flourish. 

He signed off writing, “Christianity, is, as you know, so complex. On the same street there is one church that might devastate you – and another that will help restore you.”

mental health:

Don’t delay in case of emergency:

Call 911 and share the person is in a mental health emergency and advocate that first responders with mental health training be sent.

For urgent and yet not immediate danger crises:

Read this post first by my friend Beatrice (“I texted, I screamed, and someone answered”) about how 988 is not necessarily the best option for queer people to try first, but how there IS hope. (The article features ample resources at the end.)

And then, after weighing your options, call, if you still need help:

See additional resources and hotlines on the UCC website. Specifically Christian Resources: here.

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): https://www.nami.org/

Inclusive, loving services for suffering youth:

Addiction/Substance Use Disorder can accompany mental health conditions. Seek professional help and try, in no particular order,

Objectively the best book for navigating the mental health system in the US:

  • You Are Not Alone, by Ken Duckworth, PhD.
  • It helps you get your footing in the very difficult-to-navigate US mental health scene.

Online trainings for multiple-faith-tradition based spirituality+mental health resources:

Restoration through storytelling:

Christian Writing for Post-Traumatic Growth

Sexual Abuse/Trauma

A lot of books may be triggering and upsetting, depending on degree of recovery, but these two are solid:

  • Peter Levine, In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness
  • Phillip Zombardo, Richard and Emily Sword, The Time Cure: Overcoming PTSD with the New Psychology of Time Perspective Therapy

Secular Mental Health

  • Elyn Saks, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey through Madness [schizophrenia]
  • Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness [bipolar disorder]
  • Pat Deegan trainings, https://www.patdeegan.com/