An assessment for mental health is very easy. Are you living in the present? If you are you are probably mentally healthy. If you are living in the past or for the future you are going to be challenged in being able to enjoy your family, friends and job. Those who have not processed trauma in their lives or never experienced attachment commonly live in the past. If you are living for what you might have in the future it is not possible to be present and you are missing out on life. If you are waiting until you retire, get out of school, or until the right person comes into your life your life is on hold. That is not what positive mental health looks like.
Am I a Christian counselor?
I am sometimes asked if I am a Christian counselor. I am not a Christian counselor, I am a counselor who is a Christian. It makes no more sense to ask if someone is a Christian counselor than it does to ask providers if they are a Christian dentist or a Christian neurosurgeon. If someone provides counseling for Christian spiritual belief challenges, which happens often, it is appropriate. However, as a mental health provider the term Christian counselor leaves one with the belief that all counseling is provided based up on Christian teachings and based primarily from the Bible. The science of psychotherapy is based upon what has been learned from the fields of neuroscience, biology, philosophy, psychoanalysis, pharmacology, religion and other fields. I feel it is important for an individual to identify their spiritual self, whether they are in touch with it or not, to be whole. For many of us that is our Christian beliefs and it is an important aspect of who we are and provides strength in dealing with the challenges of life and death. I have also worked successfully with those of other religions and have found their spiritual identities to be important in being mentally healthy. I regularly see individuals who have been traumatized by others within the environment of the church. For an individual to be whole and mentally healthy my experience has been that there is a strong spiritual belief present. It is sometimes necessary to separate our spiritual self from negative influences of past negative personal experiences within a church setting.