Category: mental health
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Music Therapy
Many Christians think worship must include a particular brand of music, and although I do love old Gospel Hymns as well as current Christian artists (my favorite being Casting Crowns), I have found worship, comfort, and healing in secular music as well. (I can feel the gasps from naysayers as I type these blasphemous words.…
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#ChurchHurt
I have been hurt by the church . . . and I am a pastor and chaplain. Religious trauma is now a clinical diagnosis. If it had not been for a trip back to Nashville this past summer, attending a conference with 400 other lonely and hurting pastors, reconnecting and healing with/by my home church,…
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Colleen Hoover’s “It Ends with Us” broke me – in a good way.
At the end of my week one session for my trauma care curriculum beta class, I asked the group to consider a literary, movie, or art reference about trauma. One of the first examples given is a book by Colleen Hoover called It Ends with Us. I was given a copy and encouraged to read…
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Summer SAD
Feeling unusually low this summer? I certainly have not been my usual energy-filled summer version of myself. I am willing to bet that many people all over the world are feeling the same – not just those of us in south Texas who have experienced the hottest May and June on record and who are…
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Just Do the Next Thing
The saying “just do the next RIGHT thing” has been floating around more often during these unpredictable and tumultuous times. However, during my darkest moments of despair, I repeat to myself, “just do the next thing,” intentionally excluding the word “right.” For those in the midst of debilitating depression, survival is not a matter of…