maybe mental health isn't the problem...

[Christ_empowered]

...I had reservations about going into mental health because I had such terrible experiences. Then I realized: mental health tends to be a reflection of the surrounding culture. So...OK...in my case, a prematurely aged junkie with obvious brain damage probably didn't count for much.

Now, I've been restored. And I need to get a job. And there are plenty of wretched people who need mental health treatment (generally speaking, happy people don't go to therapy/counseling).

So, its easy to point at mental health and go all anti-psychiatry. Its far harder to point at the secular culture, unless you're a Christian, in which case you know (because the Bible says so) that the world is stained by sin and in need of a Savior.

I'm thinking I can do mental health, now. I'm restored, I'm smart, I'm healthy, I have lots of social science college credits. Right? Right. I'm thinking Public Mental Health, since they deal with those with few resources and, more so than private practice, those with the most severe problems.

I'm hoping this will be a good thing for me, financially and with the whole delayed "growing up" thing, as well as good for me as a Born Again Christian, trying to do good work "as unto the Lord." Lots of ungodly people in mental health. One of my ex-counselors--she hates me, btw--is into Deepak Chopra. Sad thing is, she gets paid (even through Medicare) to walk people through her anti-Christ nonsense. Its "therapeutic," right? Right. Its a quasi-religious, pseudoscientific exercise in...I dunno...self-everything, it seems.

Still, people need people to talk to, and if I can't offer Christ, I can at least be Christ-like...right?

 

[stovebolts]

Ever hear of Jay E. Adams from http://www.nouthetic.org/

You may be interested. I've got two books from him and they are pretty good.

 

[Christ_empowered]

do you find him to be too judgmental, too confrontational? I've only read about him and his approach, but not all that I've read is all that encouraging...

 

[stovebolts]

Well, I've never really read "about" him. I bought Competent to Council years ago as well as his book A call to discernment and thought at the time that he was well reasoned and well established with biblical principals.

As far as confrontational, he calls sin sin and for some, that may be hard to swallow.

 

[Willie T]

I have to admit, Matthew 15:14 comes to mind.

 

[GrannyJ]

CE, I think you'd do a really good job. You've been on the receiving end of everything that's bad in mental health care, and I think you would really care about doing the best you could for anyone needing help. And yes, with God's help, you could be one of the very few Christ-like counsellors. What an asset to the community.