Calm Posted January 27, 2022 Posted January 27, 2022 (edited) The Church is putting out a lot of useful content these days, IMO. https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/finding-strength-in-the-lord-through-emotional-resilience-training? Quote The Church’s “Finding Strength in the Lord: Emotional Resilience” program is now available in English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Another 10 languages will be added in March. Some of the videos for these 10 languages are accessible online. I wonder how much of a stigma is left on seeking help for emotional/mental issues in the Church in general and various regions. I remember being grateful in seeing well done articles on depression and anxiety in the early 2000’s in the Ensign (not that there weren’t before, it may have been family circumstances that caused them to be so noteworthy at that time). 15 years later it feels like upgrading, a natural progression, but not unexpected in the least. Course materials here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/self-reliance/course-materials/emotional-resilience-self-reliance-course-video-resources The intro to the SR group meetings felt artificial, scripted, but still informative. They worked hard to make it not into just another Sunday School class type of thing, but also not a therapy group session…something more accessible and less restrictive. Felt kind of like an upgraded version of group ministering for those looking for additional support and personal interaction. Edited January 27, 2022 by Calm 2
JustAnAustralian Posted January 27, 2022 Posted January 27, 2022 It can also be targeted to different groups. I know at least one stake over here that that ran the emotional resilience exclusively for the young women, via zoom, and run in a way that no one felt pressured etc. 1
Calm Posted January 27, 2022 Author Posted January 27, 2022 (edited) 5 minutes ago, JustAnAustralian said: run in a way that no one felt pressured They made it clear in the intro video that it was meant to be a positive experience, no “fault finding”, safe space. They were a bit too cheerful to feel real, triggered my perfectionist alert, lol…as in 12 weeks, there will still be members of the group likely struggling still and stuck, it comes across as a bit too simplistic, but 4 minutes isn’t enough time to get into complex nuances. And I assume there is no reason one couldn’t repeat the course. The point was to convey the interactive supportiveness of the group. It would be something I could get into doing if I get to the point I can interact for 2 hours in an upright position…though if done by zoom, I could suppose I could be as easily horizontal as vertical. Edited January 27, 2022 by Calm
LoudmouthMormon Posted January 27, 2022 Posted January 27, 2022 (edited) 17 hours ago, Calm said: I wonder how much of a stigma is left on seeking help for emotional/mental issues in the Church in general and various regions. I remember being grateful in seeing well done articles on depression and anxiety in the early 2000’s in the Ensign (not that there weren’t before, it may have been family circumstances that caused them to be so noteworthy at that time). 15 years later it feels like upgrading, a natural progression, but not unexpected in the least. Update from a ward full of holdouts: We have a couple of older former High Priests who have been fairly loudly critical of therapy and counseling and whatnot in years past. These are the folks who contribute something to every lesson straight out the book of Bruce, which they seem to have memorized. Anyway, a few months ago in EQ, our EQP gave a lesson on strength and resilience. He talked about some of his own personal mental health struggles, and wanted to make sure that if anyone was struggling, to please call him because at the very least, they could compare stories. One of our older holdouts raised his hand, with that certain set to his jaw that said he had lots to say to put us on the straight and narrow again. He asked if someone could give him a clear and unambiguous definition of 'mental illness'. It appeared to be yet another bit of bait, luring the poor animal into his trap, something we've experienced a hundred times. Good guy, it's just that he likes to expound and argue a lot. I tried to give him a brief summary of my thoughts, it went a little something like this: The phrase Mental Illness covers quite a range of things. At the highest level, it's basically any of a thousand different challenges some of God's children face that make life a little harder than it would otherwise be. You have your blues and depressions and shames and sadnesses. The trick is to figure out whether you're bringing this stuff on yourself with your behaviors, or if there's something wrong with your beliefs, or if there's some biochemical imbalance with your brain. It's hard to tell if you need to buck it up, or maybe a blessing would help, or perhaps repentance, or if you could use counseling or even medication. Some folks simply are unable to feel the spirit, or anything more than empty low-grade dread, despite living the gospel well, keeping the commandments, and having zero unresolved sins in your past. Sometimes medications can help these folks have a level playing field so they can reap the blessings of a spiritual nature like most of the rest of us. You also have your schizophrenias and psychoses and dissociative identities and other such things. If you're literally hearing voices telling you to kill your wife, that may not be because you watched football on Sunday. Or if you black out and wake up in a new place, with a bunch of people looking at you like you're crazy, and you didn't drug or drink yourself into that, a blessing may not hurt, but it's probably time to see a doctor, to look for a biological cause. Folks who have mental illness are well-advised to figure out why it's there, and what ought to be done about it. So you don't end up getting medicated when you just need to do more service, or you don't try to pray your way through a violent schizophrenic episode that will put your kids in danger. He thanked me, said it made sense, and actually looked grateful. No lecture was forthcoming. Hooray for lessened stigmas! Edited January 27, 2022 by LoudmouthMormon 4
CA Steve Posted January 27, 2022 Posted January 27, 2022 7 minutes ago, LoudmouthMormon said: One of our older holdouts raised his hand, with that certain set to his jaw that said he had lots to say to put us on the straight and narrow again. He asked if someone could give him a clear and unambiguous definition of 'mental illness'. I'd love to be able to make people like this have to attend a NAMI course on mental illness. 8 minutes ago, LoudmouthMormon said: Folks who have mental illness are well-advised to figure out why it's there, and what ought to be done about it. Of course the difficulty with many mental illness is convincing the affected person of the need for professional help. My MIL was a perfect example of this. No matter how hard her kids tried to get her to seek help she was sure her problems were because of other people, not her. As your example above shows another part of the problem is with people who expect that reason and logic are the way to help someone struggling. In many cases they are not. 13 minutes ago, LoudmouthMormon said: or you don't try to pray your way through a violent schizophrenic episode that will put your kids in danger. One danger with trying to use a religious approach to help schizophrenia is it can actually do more harm than good as religious delusions are common and, I suspect, many of the stories from history about demonic possession or a voice crying from the wilderness were likely people suffering from schizophrenia. Dan Carlin does a great podcast called Hardcore History. He has one called Prophets of Doom - Dan Carlin's Hardcore History about "murderous millennial preachers and prophets who take over the German city of Munster after Martin Luther unleashes a Pandora's Box of religious anarchy with the Protestant Reformation". It is clear at least one of these prophets is suffering from schizophrenia and fully believes that God will protect him as he ride out of the city with a few followers to meet the King's army. 2
Popular Post Calm Posted January 27, 2022 Author Popular Post Posted January 27, 2022 (edited) 41 minutes ago, LoudmouthMormon said: Some folks simply are unable to feel the spirit, or anything more than empty low-grade dread, despite living the gospel well, keeping the commandments, and having zero unresolved sins in your past. Thank you for saying this. We teach the Spirit is always there for those members who are worthy (and worthiness is as much about trying as succeeding in righteousness), which makes the inference that we can therefore feel the Spirit at all times if we are just worthy enough very easy to make as well. I know this isn’t true as I had no new spiritual understanding and was not doing anything different besides medication when the darkness lifted and I could sense what I believe is the Spirit there for me, but I have had arguments with some members who do. And being taught that if they don’t feel the Spirit it is because they are not good enough or sinning (by commission or omission) can be devastating to someone already feeling worthless, numb, or powerless for other reasons. Edited January 27, 2022 by Calm 7
Fether Posted January 27, 2022 Posted January 27, 2022 (edited) 18 hours ago, Calm said: The intro to the SR group meetings felt artificial, scripted, but still informative This has been my experience with many resources like this from the church. I find that outside sources tend to be FAR more helpful. Edited January 27, 2022 by Fether
Calm Posted January 27, 2022 Author Posted January 27, 2022 7 minutes ago, Fether said: This has been my experience with many resources like this from the church. I find that outside sources tend to be more helpful. Just to be clear, I am talking about the quality of acting and the dialogue in the video, not anything about actual meetings or course materials. I haven’t looked at the course material in detail yet, so can’t offer my opinion, but I would say that in these types of support groups experience or even professional training outside of church context can be very helpful. One example in the video of support being given was the group helping by sharing advice on a business. So the Church itself is presenting the course as being useful as a resource of “outside sources” so to speak.
bsjkki Posted January 27, 2022 Posted January 27, 2022 I was a facilitator for this class this fall. Missed the last few lessons due to the death of my mom. It is a good course. I would like to take it again. It is important to gain trust in the small group but it is emphasized it is not group therapy. The course is designed to be strictly followed and as a facilitator we were not supposed to 'add' to the materials. You are not teaching a lesson. You are just there to keep things moving as you go through the course materials. I was there to push play on the videos and begin and end discussion. As a facilitator you are not supposed to talk more than the participants. I found alot information very helpful. One critique is on the goal setting. There are personal goals but you add to/change them weekly. For me, this was a bit too much. It felt somewhat like a 'firehose' of information' and goal setting. A lot to take in in a small amount of time. I plan to join the group again and finish the course. 2
Calm Posted January 27, 2022 Author Posted January 27, 2022 Can you share the range and limits of what is discussed among members of the group?
Lonewolf8128 Posted January 27, 2022 Posted January 27, 2022 Hello, new member here. I am looking forward to this course. It looks really good.
bsjkki Posted January 28, 2022 Posted January 28, 2022 1 hour ago, Calm said: Can you share the range and limits of what is discussed among members of the group? Training in manual: 1
bsjkki Posted January 28, 2022 Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) My go to chart for what not to say to someone experiencing trauma/grief. Edited January 28, 2022 by bsjkki 3
Fether Posted January 28, 2022 Posted January 28, 2022 2 hours ago, Calm said: Just to be clear, I am talking about the quality of acting and the dialogue in the video, not anything about actual meetings or course materials. I haven’t looked at the course material in detail yet, so can’t offer my opinion, but I would say that in these types of support groups experience or even professional training outside of church context can be very helpful. One example in the video of support being given was the group helping by sharing advice on a business. So the Church itself is presenting the course as being useful as a resource of “outside sources” so to speak. I gotchya. In my experience, if I am looking for help on developing charity, learning how to lead, developing scripture study habits, developing determination / diligence or really any other desirable attribute, the content on YouTube helps me far more than church resources.
Calm Posted January 28, 2022 Author Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, Fether said: I gotchya. In my experience, if I am looking for help on developing charity, learning how to lead, developing scripture study habits, developing determination / diligence or really any other desirable attribute, the content on YouTube helps me far more than church resources. Having a chance to discuss it with others and then even work on it with them outside of meetings as is described as possible would be more useful for me in the areas that bsjkki posted. Edited January 28, 2022 by Calm 2
bsjkki Posted January 28, 2022 Posted January 28, 2022 1 hour ago, Calm said: Having a chance to discuss it with others and then even work on it with them outside of meetings as is described as possible would be more useful for me in the areas that bsjkki posted. I found the group discussion very helpful and I was sad not to be able to finish the class with my group. You do build relationships with people. The 'action partner' component was a bit new for me and I struggled with it a bit but I can see how it would be helpful. Some people ended up going to lunch each week and others just texted. Whatever worked. 2
Tacenda Posted January 30, 2022 Posted January 30, 2022 Listening to Sacrament Mtg and a woman mentioned this program. She mentioned purchasing something that goes along with it. Or were my ears playing tricks? I can't rewind and hear again. Is there something to purchase that goes along with the program?
Calm Posted January 30, 2022 Author Posted January 30, 2022 (edited) The manuals cost 2-3$, which would most likely be at cost. But you can read them for free online. Edited January 30, 2022 by Calm 1
bsjkki Posted January 30, 2022 Posted January 30, 2022 39 minutes ago, Tacenda said: Listening to Sacrament Mtg and a woman mentioned this program. She mentioned purchasing something that goes along with it. Or were my ears playing tricks? I can't rewind and hear again. Is there something to purchase that goes along with the program? Not that I know of and we were provided free manuals.
Tacenda Posted January 30, 2022 Posted January 30, 2022 4 minutes ago, bsjkki said: Not that I know of and we were provided free manuals. I swear I heard the word tapes. But who sells tapes anymore!
bsjkki Posted January 30, 2022 Posted January 30, 2022 28 minutes ago, Tacenda said: I swear I heard the word tapes. But who sells tapes anymore! The videos are all available online. So, I don't know what you heard. Maybe she got an external resource to help her. 🤷♀️
The Nehor Posted January 30, 2022 Posted January 30, 2022 On 1/27/2022 at 6:11 PM, bsjkki said: My go to chart for what not to say to someone experiencing trauma/grief. Which column is my go to consolation in? ”Cry me a river, build a bridge, and get over it.” 3
Calm Posted February 9, 2022 Author Posted February 9, 2022 https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/president-oaks-byu-pathway-worldwide-devotional? Quote President Dallin H. Oaks of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoke to BYU–Pathway Worldwide students on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, to help them become “self-reliant servants of Jesus Christ and of [their] fellowmen.”
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