Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY230042A
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00:04 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:15 ♪ I want to spend my life removing pain ♪ 00:26 ♪ Lord let my words heal a heart that hurts ♪ 00:36 ♪ I want to spend my life mending broken people ♪ 00:59 ♪ ♪ 01:07 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn 01:09 I'm J.D. Quinn 01:10 And we welcome you to 3ABN Today I'm so excited about this 01:15 program. I'll tell you why. How many calls do we get at 3ABN 01:20 people who are looking for a resource for mental health 01:26 coaching. You know the Bible says in Proverbs 11:14: Where 01:30 there is no counsel for the people fall. But in the multitude of 01:38 counselors there is safety. And if you are a regular 3ABN viewer 01:45 our guest today will be no stranger to you because she 01:52 actually has two different programs on 3ABN. One is titled 01:56 A Multitude of Counselors and one is called Intimate Clarity. 02:02 So without further ado my dear friend and sister in Christ 02:08 Dr. Jennifer Jill Schwirzer. 02:10 Good to see you, great to be here. Happy for the opportunity. 02:13 Well we're just so glad you're back again. It's just...it's 02:18 wonderful. Jennifer, we're going to have music but before we go 02:21 to our music tell us just a little of your personal walk 02:29 with the Lord. When did He become real to you? (Oh wow) 02:32 I would say He was always real to me throughout my childhood 02:35 but I didn't have a lot of religious training, I didn't 02:38 really know the Bible, I didn't know a personal Jesus, I wasn't 02:42 like led to Jesus by family members or anything like that 02:45 but I always had a sense of God especially in nature. And then 02:50 around 19 years old, 18, 19 years old, I had you know my 02:55 first experience. I was in the middle of a very secular 02:57 environment surrounded by all kinds of...I was in a college 03:01 on a college campus surrounded by really high levels of what 03:05 you might call debauchery and craziness and in the middle of 03:09 all that I was you know witnessed to by some Christians 03:12 and ended up...it was really kind of like well I've tried 03:16 everything else because I had experimented with a number of 03:18 different religions and I was like I might as well try 03:21 Christianity you know. So I sort of road-tested it and God 03:24 just...He was willing to work with me and He revealed himself 03:28 to me during that time. 03:29 Praise the Lord, praise the Lord Well this woman obviously you've 03:36 got your doctorate in psychology and we are going to have just a 03:39 rousing conversation. But first we've got some special music 03:44 We do have some special music. One of our favorite singers, 03:49 Stephanie Dawn, and she's going to be singing One Pair of Hands. 03:53 ♪ ♪ 04:22 ♪ One pair of hands formed the mountains ♪ 04:28 ♪ One pair of hands formed the sea ♪ 04:34 ♪ One pair of hands made the sun and the moon ♪ 04:40 ♪ Every bird, every flower, every tree ♪ 04:46 ♪ One pair of hands formed the valleys ♪ 04:51 ♪ the ocean, the rivers and the sand ♪ 04:58 ♪ Those hands are so strong so when life goes wrong, ♪ 05:05 ♪ put your faith into one pair of hands ♪ 05:13 ♪ One pair of hands healed the sick ♪ 05:16 ♪ One pair of hands raised the dead ♪ 05:24 ♪ One pair of hands calmed the raging storm ♪ 05:30 ♪ And thousands of people were fed ♪ 05:37 ♪ One pair of hands said I love you ♪ 05:42 ♪ And those hands were nailed to a tree ♪ 05:49 ♪ Those hands are so strong so when life goes wrong ♪ 05:56 ♪ Put your faith into one pair of hands ♪ 06:04 ♪ ♪ 06:16 ♪ Those hands are so strong so when life goes wrong ♪ 06:21 ♪ Put your faith into One Pair of Hands ♪ 06:40 ♪ ♪ 06:47 Amen and amen. 06:48 Aw that took the wind out of my sails. That was just ooof. That 06:52 was a gut punch. Yeah. Beautiful. 06:54 Well if you are joining us just a few minutes late our special 06:59 guest today is Dr. Jennifer Jill Schwirzer. That is a doctor 07:05 in psychology. She is the director of Abide Network and if 07:11 you've watched on 3ABN her program Multitude of Counselors 07:15 is so popular. And she has a network of Adventist Christians 07:22 who work as mental health coaches and counselors. So whoo! 07:29 We're just glad to have you back Just kind of kickstart this for 07:32 people who may not be familiar with your program. What is 07:36 Abide Network? 07:39 The simplest explanation is it is a mental health coaching and 07:44 education network. So those are the two main features. The 07:47 services you might say we offer is mental health coaching and 07:52 education. A lot of what we do is virtual, not all. We're 07:55 starting now that COVID is kind of passing into history we 07:58 hope. We are starting to have more live events and things like 08:02 that but it kind of grew really during COVID to the current 08:07 level that it's operating at and when a lot of businesses were 08:11 dying it was exploding for obvious reasons because we were 08:14 offering virtual coaching and education. 08:17 And you're still doing that. I refer a lot of people to you 08:21 Jennifer. 08:22 Oh I get a lot of referrals from 3ABN. There's a strong 08:25 connection there. 08:26 Yes, there is. So take us back to the beginning. How did 08:30 God get this started? 08:31 So my kids were growing up. I was very dedicated to my kids 08:35 when they were small. And then they got to that age where you 08:38 kind of as a mother have to reinvent yourself and decide 08:40 what you're going to be once your kids are gone. And 08:42 motherhood is so emotionally intense for mothers that it's 08:47 kind of hard to see who you're going to be in the future and I 08:51 knew that ahead of time that I have to kind of work hard and be 08:53 intentional about reinventing myself so I decided I wanted to 08:57 go back to graduate school and I was thinking about seminary 09:01 and then I was thinking about counseling, school for 09:05 counseling and I really wanted to go to seminary but 09:11 circumstances were such that I chose counseling and I got a 09:14 master's degree in counseling from Capella University. So then 09:18 I started a private practice and pretty soon because I had books 09:22 already published and people kind of knew who I was from many 09:25 years I was in speaking and music ministry and so people 09:27 kind of knew...I had a little bit of a network you might say. 09:31 And people heard that I was counseling now and they were 09:34 seeding me out and I was doing phone and some internet 09:37 counseling at that time. And so I was getting people from all 09:40 over the world quite literally. And I soon had too many so I 09:46 found a couple other Adventist you know providers and I started 09:50 giving clients to them and then at a certain point, we said well 09:53 we should have a brand so to speak. And we came up with Abide 09:59 it was Abide Counseling initially but now it's Abide 10:01 Network. And that was the beginning and it grew from there 10:04 and now we have 40. We call them mental health coaches and the 10:07 reason we do that is because we do virtual work so it's across 10:11 state lines and you're not really allowed to counsel across 10:15 state lines so we do limit the types of cases we will take. 10:18 If someone really needs a professional a local licensed 10:22 professional we have an intake supervisor who's actually a 10:27 human being, not just a computer and they make sure that the 10:30 cases go to the right person so that we're not operating outside 10:32 of our scope of practice. So we call it mental health coaching. 10:35 But we now have...and they are a mixture, the coaches are a 10:38 mixture of licensed professionals and then just 10:42 entry-level lay coaches. And we train them. So we have 40 of 10:45 them now or close to 40, I think it's 39 that are active. 10:48 So it's crazy you know. So...and 10:50 it really exploded during COVID. 10:52 Well and you could see why because there were so many 10:55 people, more people who needed the service. To me, it's a 11:00 beautiful thing that you can have people through a Zoom call 11:06 or what do you call it? 11:08 Usually, we do Zoom but here's how it works is that we have the 11:12 website and people have to go through a training and 11:14 certification process to get on the panel so to speak and then 11:18 an intake form comes in and our intake supervisor places it with 11:22 one of the providers and they take it from there. So they use 11:26 whatever means they want to use. Some people use phones, some 11:29 people use Zoom. But it's up to them. It's there. It's a network 11:33 not a practice. So we don't govern like their billing and 11:35 their scheduling and all that. We just give the client to them 11:37 and then to keep the financial piece afloat they return a tithe 11:43 to Abide Network and that's how we're running it right now. 11:47 Yeah, that's wonderful so what psychological modality 11:51 do you follow? 11:53 Well for me my grounding modality I would say is Biblical 11:57 But what I've done is I've studied the other modalities 12:00 and the other theories and I've found I use all of them frankly. 12:04 Some more than others. I would say cognitive behavioral is 12:07 really high on my list but I'm not a dogmatist when it comes 12:12 to secular models for counseling I'm a dogmatist when it comes, 12:18 not a dogmatist but I really ground everything I do in 12:19 scripture. And there are some clients that respond to very 12:23 well, many actually, that respond very well to cognitive 12:25 behavioral therapy which is basically a system of thought 12:28 management. You know you just... 12:30 Take no thought... (Laughs) 12:32 Exactly, exactly. Corinthians Casting down imaginations and 12:36 every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of 12:39 God and bring every thought into captivity to Christ. That 12:43 was before Aaron Beck and all the people that developed 12:47 cognitive behavioral therapy but that's what it is. So you manage 12:51 your thought life? And it's very very effective especially if 12:55 it's grounded in scripture and you connect people to the power 12:57 to be able to change their thought life. Because all change 13:00 is a power dilemma. We have the advantage of connecting people 13:04 to God, you know. But there are cases where that approach might 13:09 not be the ideal approach so we encourage people to have technic 13:14 flexibility or modality flexibility and fit the modality 13:18 to the client rather than the client to the modality. 13:22 Okay so break that down in laymen's talk because you know 13:26 you're out there. We're talking about dogmas and modalities and 13:31 basically what I love about a Abide Network is everyone on the 13:37 team is an Adventist Christian and you know this is something 13:42 that I am so cautious about referring someone to a secular 13:49 counselor because you'll get non Biblical advice. With Abide, no 13:58 matter what modality they're using you are going to get... 14:04 nothing will contradict the Bible. And I love that because 14:08 You're blending. But tell us what kinds of clients you have. 14:15 Tell us...break down what you're talking about modalities. 14:19 Before we go there one word that to me as I was...I went and 14:25 studied out _ okay. And one word that kept coming up 14:31 was practical. So now we're bringing it down to everyone's 14:37 level because as you are sharing you're beginning to see where 14:42 the pluses. You have someone who's maybe more of an 14:45 intellectual type. You have other people you know that are 14:49 down here...the practical. 14:52 We have a toolbox. We encourage a toolbox approach. Now let me 14:55 say that we have these...we train these providers, meaning 14:59 the people that provide the services and they can do 15:04 whatever they want because we're not in their sessions and we 15:06 don't tightly govern it but we train them and we train them in 15:09 what I call a toolbox approach so you have your toolbox and 15:13 depending on what's broken you pull out the right tool and you 15:17 have that ability because you get to know the person to fit 15:21 the tool to the person because each person is different. 15:24 So we have 15:26 a whole toolbox and we actually provide the toolbox on our 15:28 website for free so people can search around on the website and 15:30 they can get all the worksheets But I've tried, I've written a 15:33 number of worksheets myself that make things very simple and 15:38 practical and applicable to people's everyday life so we 15:41 don't just...what I hear from a lot of people is that they go to 15:46 a therapist or counselor and the counselor just listens and maybe 15:50 gives a little bit of input. But we give homework especially when 15:53 you get to the workshops that we offer. We're going to give you 15:57 worksheets and we're going to give you action steps and ask 15:59 you to try different things to see if they make a difference in 16:02 your life because we believe in being practical, so yeah. Did I 16:08 clear up the thing about modality and... 16:10 Yeah, it helps a lot. So talk about the types of clients that 16:16 you're getting. What types of cases, what problems are you 16:20 finding most? 16:22 That's a really important question. So the majority...we 16:24 have basically created a brand. I believe when I started out 16:29 that Seventh-day Adventists were an underserved population 16:33 because Seventh-day Adventists have a history of resistance to 16:37 psychology. For some reason we got in our sort of collective 16:40 mindset that psychology in and of itself was evil. And you 16:45 cannot sustain that biblically because psychology just means 16:47 the psyche is the immaterial part of man, the inner life of a 16:51 man and ology is the study of it. Certainly, the Bible has a 16:54 lot to say about the inner life of human beings. So you can't 16:56 sustain it biblically and then Ellen White used the word 16:59 psychology positively quite a bit. So somehow we got in our 17:05 collective mindset as Adventists that psychology was somehow 17:09 dangerous. But it's not psychology that's dangerous. The 17:13 best defense is a good offense. We need to have something better 17:16 than what the world has to offer So that's kind of what I set out 17:18 to do is provide that something better that's grounded in 17:22 scripture. So the kind of cases that come in...so again, I was 17:26 trying to create this brand that would serve the underserved 17:31 population which I consider Adventists to be. You know we 17:35 just don't have...And the reason I believe that is because when I 17:38 was in my 30s I had clinical depression. I was a mom at home 17:41 homeschooling my kids. I didn't have great social circles, 17:45 social support. A lot of different factors were kind of 17:50 starting. I had health problems A lot of things converged and I 17:51 developed clinical depression. I had a trauma history. So 17:54 developed clinical depression and couldn't figure out where to 17:58 go and how to get help for it. Tried to find a local Adventist 18:03 provider but it turned out they really weren't biblical and then 18:07 tried to find other means of local...I just couldn't find 18:10 anything. If I had had what Abide offers at that time in my 18:15 life I would have spent a lot less time in clinical depression 18:19 And so that was the fire in my bones that got me to say well I 18:23 didn't have it but I'm going to make sure other people have 18:26 access to this service and I'm going to build this brand. So it 18:29 isn't that we don't take clients from outside of Adventism at all 18:32 We take anyone. It's that we want to provide a kind of 18:39 approach that people that want to be deeply biblical and have 18:43 what I believe to be a biblically informed world view 18:46 which is to me the same as an Adventist worldview can come 18:50 knowing that the provider will get them and they won't have to 18:55 convince the provider or explain themselves to the provider or 18:57 risk that the provider is going to think, what, you're crazy you 19:00 know. They're going to support their world view and then the 19:02 person can open up with more confidence usually is the way 19:05 that works. So that's what we want to provide and we hit a 19:09 nerve. We hit a nerve. Yeah, yeah. 19:14 Well so you know I think what happens is...I'm going to say 19:20 this and I mean it in a loving way. You know we love you. 19:25 Sometimes what happens is we are going through something and I've 19:28 talked with church leaders who are going through something and 19:33 they don't know where it is safe to talk about it. One thing 19:41 about...You know we do a lot of counseling, JD was working on 19:44 his doctorate in psychology when we first met but he had too kind 19:51 of put all of that beside, down, till he learned about the Bible. 19:55 But we've done a lot of counseling and people will come 20:00 in. I remember a lady came into my office and she said I need to 20:05 talk to you about something but I don't want anybody to know. 20:09 Nobody. Not even JD. And I said okay if it is that confidential 20:16 I don't think you should share it with me in the workplace or 20:22 even at the church because we don't have a "counselor" at the 20:25 church. I said if it is so confidential that you would 20:31 absolutely faint if anyone inside your personal circle knew 20:36 I said you need to talk to Abide You need to talk with someone 20:42 that you know it will never, ever, ever leak out and you know 20:48 what? That's a natural thing. I don't know what her situation 20:51 was. But there are times that we all need mental health coaching. 20:57 We need to be able to talk about our problems and get healthy 21:04 Christian feedback and that's what...Okay, that's what you all 21:09 are providing and by the way we'll be putting this up quite 21:14 often but Abide. Network that's all you have to do to get 21:18 to their website is Abide. Network 21:23 No.com, no.org. Just Abide.Network 21:27 Abide.Network and you can fill 21:28 out a form. Now you've got people, we've got the depression 21:35 What else is common? 21:37 Yeah, what are the common presentations. So the two most 21:40 common clusters of disorders are anxiety and depression. I think 21:46 a global prevalence, lifetime prevalence of anxiety some 21:48 studies say is around 35, like a third of people at some point in 21:51 their life will have a diagnosable anxiety disorder. 21:54 Of course, that's a cluster of things. It's like social anxiety 21:57 and specific phobia and generalized anxiety. There's a 22:00 number of different things but they're all characterized by 22:03 anxiety. So that cluster is the most common cluster and then the 22:08 second most common diagnosis is depression, major depressive 22:11 disorder and there are other forms of depression but that's 22:14 the most common one. So really the two big hitters you might 22:17 say when someone comes to someone like me when they come 22:21 into the office, it's going to be one of those two things or both 22:24 that you're going to end up diagnosing that person with. 22:28 Chances are. There are some psychotic disorders. There is 22:32 bipolar which is a little more of a kind of a serious chemical 22:36 imbalance, serious mental health presentation. But most 22:41 of it's going to be either involving anxiety and depression 22:44 or it's going to be just anxiety and depression. So those are the 22:49 two most common ones that we... 22:51 How about marriage because we get so many calls about that 22:55 Yeah. I see it like two realms like in the individual realm 22:59 you're going to find anxiety and depression. But in the 23:02 relationship realm which is the second realm of counseling yeah 23:05 marriage is a big...it's probably the most common you 23:10 know presentation is marriage problems. Yeah. 23:13 So who would benefit from Abides services? 23:15 All those people. So we have had only the coaching but what we 23:19 have are...we have workshops and we're developing more workshops 23:24 The workshops are six week, once a week, change-oriented, growth 23:30 oriented educational events that we do on...exactly, and 23:36 that we do on Zoom or sometimes in person or a combination. And 23:40 so the three main workshops that we offer are anxiety and 23:44 depression relief. That's one of the most common and the one that 23:48 we've been doing the longest. Six weeks, talking on Zoom with 23:52 a group of people. One person making a presentation about some 23:57 aspect of anxiety and depression Action steps assigned at the end 24:00 of each night. Community support building community which is the 24:04 big part of Abide that I need to return to and then we just work 24:09 through that six weeks and once a week and then the workshop is 24:13 over but often people will then go to a coach or they'll have a 24:18 coach working through the workshop with them so there's 24:21 a connection between the educational and the coaching. 24:23 Then the second workshop we have is called Abuse, Trauma and 24:27 Faith. So it's a trauma-oriented workshop which has a little bit 24:31 different set of practical tools because you have to deal with 24:34 the emotional fallout of whatever trauma and it's 24:37 particularly focused on abuse related trauma but people who 24:40 have had other kinds of trauma can also come and get something 24:44 out of it. So that's the second workshop. Then the third one is 24:46 the marriage workshop. Actually David Asscherick and I are 24:50 working on developing a series of workshops that support the 24:54 family because he and I have been in discussions about what's 24:57 going on in our world and in our church and we decided that the 25:01 family unit is ordained by God, designed by God and it's just 25:05 the first and premier social institution in the human family 25:09 and we need to support it. And that our marriages are being 25:12 attacked from the outside. But they're also kind of some of 25:15 them are families rotting from the inside you might say. So 25:17 people need support, they need tools, they need skills and so 25:23 are determined to provide these workshops. So we want to do one 25:27 on marriage. We are doing one on marriage already. We just 25:30 finished one last weekend in Nashville and we're going to do 25:32 one on parenting and we hope to do one on dating. We might do 25:35 one on sexuality. He wants to do one on aging and death and by 25:39 the time we get to that one I'll probably be about ready to age 25:43 and die. We do have the marriage one ready to go and we're 25:48 actually doing it and it's really helping people and it's 25:51 very again tools and skills oriented so people can come to 25:55 any one of those workshops and they can bundle it with coaching 25:57 and get a coach to walk through it with them or they can go 26:00 through it at the workshop and then get a coach. It just you 26:03 know depends on what they want and how things flow. But there's 26:05 a lot of interaction between the coaching and the education. 26:10 All right so let's rewind it of a minute because you mentioned 26:13 community support that you wanted to come back to that. 26:16 Yeah. (What is the community?) And this kind of developed...you 26:22 know people are like how did you get this vision for Abide 26:24 Network. And I'm like I really didn't. I didn't see it coming. 26:27 I just followed God like every step as the Director and you 26:31 know He said try this and I would take the step forward and 26:34 this is what happened. It really wasn't that I envisioned what's 26:38 happening in the present state that it's in. So here's one of 26:42 the things that developed that had sort of a serendipitous 26:48 effect that I did not anticipate and that is that people start 26:52 helping each other. When people are allowed to talk about what's 26:55 going on inside of them which is what happens in these circles 26:58 where you discuss mental health people will admit that they have 27:02 depression or people will admit that they're anxious. I call it 27:06 the Velcro effect. People start admitting what's going on inside 27:09 they start bonding with each other. Because you open up your 27:13 heart and it creates this attachability you might say and 27:17 so what I find is we do this teaching but the experts, the 27:21 teachers and the coaches aren't the only ones that are helping 27:24 people. It's the students and the people coming to the 27:28 workshop and the coaches that are helping one another. It's 27:31 amazing and so it's what we might call a community model of 27:34 mental health where everybody kind of knows that we're all on 27:37 this journey together to be mentally healthier and to lift 27:41 up Jesus in the midst of that and we want to help each other 27:44 get there. There's really that method that sort of developed 27:48 naturally in Abide and I'm just kind of astonished at what God 27:52 has done. So that's closely connected to what I would call 27:55 the discipleship model of Abide. So what we do is we help people 27:59 but we also train them how to help other people. So we have a 28:04 training called the Abide Coach Training and people can actually 28:08 attend that training. It's a one day intensive training and then 28:12 from that training, they can go through a certification process 28:15 where they read different books and they attend different 28:18 workshops so they kind of develop this basic understanding 28:21 of how to coach people with mental health and then develop 28:26 a set of tools and when they're done with that certification 28:28 process they can get on our panel of mental health coaches. 28:32 And what I have found is that even people...and I believe in 28:37 degrees, I have two graduate degrees and I think that it's a 28:39 blessing to have those things and so I would encourage anybody 28:43 who wanted to get a graduate degree in any form of counseling 28:46 or psychology, go for it. I'm not against those things, but 28:49 like we do with nutrition at Adventist churches we have ye 28:57 cooking class right? And the guy gets up and he talks about 29:00 vegetarianism and plant based protein and all the 29:04 different facets of health and he's not necessarily a doctor. 29:05 If you have a doctor use the doctor but if you don't people 29:09 could talk about nutrition. You don't have to be a doctor. And 29:11 we've always done that. We've encouraged lay people to get 29:14 involved in health ministry. And so we're doing essentially the 29:18 same thing with mental health. We're getting laypeople 29:22 equipped. We don't like just cut them loose. We do give them a 29:26 training and there is oversight. But the training is brief. It's 29:29 inexpensive. It's accessible to most people and they end up 29:32 helping. And what we find is that when people help people 29:34 they help themselves. 29:35 Amen. 29:36 What I have found is that most people want to be heard and in 29:42 being heard they get excited because someone will listen and 29:46 then because they've been working on this they have fine 29:51 tuned their issue. They're just trying to be heard and rehearse 29:59 what they're going through. And you learn so much on my end 30:03 because they've gone through it so I can see from a profile 30:08 standpoint how they would be a perfect candidate to be a 30:12 teacher. And then you are rewarding them because of what 30:17 they have gone through and I'll be, there's other people going 30:20 through the same thing. But anyway... 30:26 Powerful. I love that. In listening we train people in 30:28 active listening as a really important basic skill of 30:31 a coach. It was early in the game that I started having 30:35 clients who I was trying to help come to my training to train 30:40 people how to do coaching. And they would come. I'd be like 30:43 okay. I wonder if this is weird you know. Should I do this? And 30:47 what I found was like one person in particular, I could not get 30:50 her off of being severely depressed. She came to the 30:55 coaching training and she learned how to help other people 30:58 and she got better. I couldn't help her but she by helping 31:04 other people started thriving. 31:07 You know what I love, Jennifer Jill, is what Ben Franklin said 31:11 We learn to teach and we teach to learn. It is. And I just have 31:20 to say this to you at home. When we start talking about mental 31:24 health a lot of people get very unnerved by it. They like, I'm 31:28 not mentally ill. We're not talking about mental illness 31:32 We're talking about having a mind that is renewed. Having a 31:38 mind where you take your thoughts captive, the mind of 31:44 Jesus. The Bible has so much to say about the health of the mind 31:50 The health of the heart and it's something that you have to have 31:55 a good mental attitude to have a good spiritual life. So our time 32:07 is ch, ch, ch. So tell us because it's so interesting 32:09 to me during COVID Abide Network started doing something that's 32:14 actually helping the proclamation of the 32:16 Three Angels Messages. 32:19 Yeah, it's really cool and like I said I wanted to go to 32:22 seminary so I'm an avid Bible student and then I like to 32:24 preach you know so God gave me this opportunity in this thing 32:28 that developed called Food for the Heart Bible Study. So what 32:31 happened was COVID happened and then I did a Sabbath School 32:35 for a while called Ten Ten with Jen Jen. And then we moved it to 32:38 Friday night when the churches started opening back up but it 32:41 was a viable community by that time of people that they weren't 32:44 going to church because their churches were closed. So they 32:47 ended up going to this event online and what happened is over 32:51 the long haul this is still going today. We have about 50 32:54 people, not huge but we have about 50 people consistently 32:57 coming and it's formed a church. It's an online church. We just 33:02 basically, show up talk a little bit, fellowship, have a 33:07 presentation of some kind from scripture. Then a follow-up group 33:11 discussion and we do breakout groups after that and sometimes 33:14 we have a prayer session with a girl named Moray so they call it 33:17 pray with Moray and she's amazing. 33:19 So if somebody wanted information on that you can just 33:23 go to Abide. Network no extension no.com,.org,.whatever. It's 33:32 just Abide. Network. That's kind of the clearing house. That will 33:37 bring up their internet site and it's the clearing house that you 33:41 can find all of this information 33:43 And you can find it. It's called Food for the Heart Bible Studies 33:46 and I believe it's on the Events tab. But if you just look around 33:50 you'll find it and you'll get the Zoom number and you can go 33:52 ahead and join us. So anyway it developed and I just finished 33:58 the series. I had written a series of Bible studies on the 34:00 28 fundamentals and of course I moved things kind of or brand 34:03 them with a mental health angle but you can bring these 34:08 wonderful biblical teachings into that mental health realm 34:11 with great benefit. I taught the sanctuary and how it's really a 34:14 form of helping people deal with the fact that they've been hurt 34:19 by certain religious authorities or religious powers and that the 34:24 message of what we call the "investigative judgment" holds 34:29 those religious power responsible for the harm they 34:32 inflict so it's kind of trauma oriented and so there's ways of 34:35 taking our teachings and making them very friendly to mental 34:39 health and creating a lot of integration. So I just finished 34:42 that whole series and now we're going to be doing some other 34:44 things from here on forward. But you know it's awesome what 34:48 God has... 34:50 Let me share this. I took this off of the website again 34:52 Abide. Network and it had...I was talking about the practicality 34:57 earlier. It also had what one of your goals is or are. Ready to 35:05 provide compassionate support, personalized guidance and 35:09 evidence-based strategies to help you navigate through life's 35:14 Love it. 35:15 I do too. I mean you're covering all the bases because you are 35:21 loving, you are caring (try to be) Yeah. 35:26 People don't really get into this field...I remember when I 35:31 started counseling it occurred to me one day, very few people 35:35 drawn to this field can be totally narcissistic, selfish 35:40 people because you spend all your time absorbing other 35:43 people's struggles and you really can't do that if your 35:46 brain functions narcissistically There is a lot of love. The team 35:51 that I work with, the people that have come and become part 35:53 of Abide are just some of the best people on earth. 35:55 I just love them. 35:56 And you are making a difference. Give us some of the stories that 36:00 you wanted to share. 36:02 Well this is kind of where it all comes together because we 36:03 have been talking in concepts here. But let me put a face on 36:06 it here. So this is Bitsy. She signed up...This gives us some 36:10 idea of how all the components of Abide kind of work together. 36:13 She signed up for, she accidentally signed up for 36:17 anxiety and depression workshop. And then she realized that she 36:21 was an anxious person in the middle of it. And she said, I 36:23 was run by my anxiety. Since going through the class I've 36:26 been able to overcome things I never dreamed I would be able to 36:30 overcome. I still have a way to go but I can recognize the issue 36:33 and now I have the tools to be able to deal with it 36:37 appropriately and effectively. It has saved my marriage and 36:40 my children. A lot of challenges and it has made me happier and 36:44 better able to cope with life. In fact, I go so far as to say 36:47 it has saved my life. I now have a life worth living and I feel 36:51 like I'm learning to be in control of my life instead of my 36:53 anxiety being in control. I now have a coach through Abide 36:57 Network and she is phenomenal. I need that accountability and 37:00 support to keep track of my anxiety. So here's a person who 37:02 came to an educational event but then ended connecting to a 37:06 coach. That's wonderful. She's a great presence in our community 37:10 and continues to be connected. So this is Sharon. This is 37:13 amazing. I mean I get these every once in a while. I should 37:16 seek them more often because I know there are more testimonies 37:19 like this if we would seek them out but I'm so busy you know 37:22 actually running the show that I don't have time to do that. 37:24 But sometimes they come in. This just came in a couple of weeks 37:27 ago. This is Sharon. It has been a year since I took your class 37:31 on trauma and began coaching, and the coach's name is Kaitlin. 37:35 She says I'm so grateful for what I learned from the class 37:38 and for coaching. I'm about to be 71 and she says she went to 37:42 various therapists for 40 years and none of them addressed the 37:47 issues of trauma that had impacted her the way this 37:51 individual, Kaitlin, did. She says it has and is continuing 37:54 to change my life in such a positive way. Finally I have 37:57 learned to recognize harmful thought patterns and correct 38:00 them before getting depressed or angry or anxious or insecure. 38:03 She says it's a work in progress This is the thing, we don't have 38:08 this like everything is great now. You know we're realistic 38:11 about this. We call that a flight to health in counseling 38:14 when it's just a little too good So people do still struggle but 38:17 they find ways of struggling less... 38:19 We all still struggle, we're all flawed. 38:23 Yeah, that's right. But she says the biggest regret she has is 38:25 that she didn't have the opportunity when she was 38:27 younger. She says I asked the Lord to make my end better than 38:31 by beginning (she's 71). And she says I know this entire 38:35 experience is causing that to happen. And then she goes on 38:38 about the coach. She says she's a phenomenal coach. Her ability 38:42 to listen to my madness and redirect. So you don't just 38:46 listen to the person. You actually, give them some 38:50 constructive steps to take. You help redirect them. We're not 38:54 just passively listening, we're actively listening. So she 38:57 redirects and then she can see for herself the distorted 38:59 thinking patterns that she has and she says now I'm self 39:04 correcting which I could not do before. She mentions that she's 39:07 overweight and she says she's losing weight. She says her 39:11 relationship with food is changing and she's exercising 39:13 her spiritual life is improved because she's thinking more 39:16 clearly and her image of God has improved. It's so powerful to 39:20 bring God into this because He's not only the source of power but 39:24 when we understand His character and love and compassion for us 39:27 then we're inspired to feel more positive emotions. It kind of 39:32 gives you permission to feel hopeful and joyful you know. 39:35 So she says I could go on but I just want to thank you for this 39:39 program and express my appreciation. And then finally 39:41 one more is Maria. She says she had one session with me and then 39:47 I referred her to a coach. She was having postpartum depression 39:51 and anxiety and insomnia. She was on five medications and she 39:55 was in a very bad state and couldn't even function. She 39:57 could not afford inpatient treatment and that's one of the 40:00 things about Abide is that it's accessible, affordable and 40:03 biblical. So we love the in...we love Nedley' s program. We 40:07 encourage people to go there when they need that but some 40:10 people can't afford that... 40:11 Let me just hit the pause button because Dr. Neil Nedley runs a 40:17 depression clinic and that's what you were referring to and 40:22 that's at Weimar (multiple voices) 40:26 That is a great program and sometimes people need a complete 40:29 change of environment and are surrounded with therapeutic... 40:32 But that takes a little financing... 40:34 As I said it takes a little money and they don't all have 40:36 that. And so what we do is like a little bit of a more 40:39 preliminary level and they may not need that full treatment. 40:43 And so this is what this lady is saying. She says about her coach 40:49 she has been such a support throughout this hard journey 40:50 She believed that God will help me. She held my hand and helped 40:54 guide me through this dark time. She's a knowledgeable caring 40:58 person. She showed me tools to help. There's that tools theme 41:01 again. I just want to say that I'm doing so much better. I'm 41:03 down to one antidepressant, she was on five medications and I'm 41:07 already tapering off of that. She started working from home. 41:10 She said a year ago or even six months ago I wouldn't believe 41:13 that it would be possible. I don't want to be ashamed of what 41:20 God is doing here and He's taking people with a simple 41:23 training, some of them licensed professionals, some of them 41:27 coaches. We have an intake supervisor who places them 41:30 this person with severe, severe you know mental illness issues 41:35 Sometimes we can't even take them. We just say you need to 41:38 see someone locally. But if we can take them and we try to use 41:41 you know clinical judgment. If a person is pretty severe we put 41:45 them with a licensed professional and make sure that 41:48 there's enough knowledge base there to be able to deal with 41:50 like chemical imbalance issues and so forth. So we try to be 41:54 very responsible about it. We are finding that lay people can 41:57 be very effective. This person that she's talking about is a 42:02 retired teacher and she went through our training and she's 42:05 doing great. 42:06 You know I'm going to say something. I don't know if I 42:09 should but we grew up I always remember people saying, anybody 42:15 who is a psychologist or a psychiatrist, they're in the 42:19 field because they had problems of their own. 42:23 I know that's true of me. 42:27 Well there's a lot of truth to that but I think speaking from 42:31 experience sometimes you know, you said people like to be heard 42:36 well some people just want to rehearse their problems. I 42:40 actually told a woman who I'd been counseling with for about 42:44 four months hearing the same thing over and over and I said 42:47 do you just want to be heard or do you want to be helped? 42:54 Because I would give her little assignments, I'd give her 42:56 scriptures, I'd pray and she'd just as soon as we'd finish 43:00 praying, regurgitate the same thing. She couldn't get to that 43:05 point of recognizing her need her part in making a change. 43:10 But it's so beautiful because you have people who have empathy 43:17 who knows what God can do for them. That's beautiful. 43:20 So two things, one is that when we do the training we teach that 43:24 there's two basic facets to helping people in this realm. 43:28 One is empathy where you listen, you take in what they're telling 43:32 you, you empathize with them, you feel what they're feeling, 43:35 you join them in their struggle. But also engagement which is 43:38 where you actually help redirect you help give them tools, you 43:41 help them reconsider, you help them think through the problem 43:44 and you come alongside them for action purposes. And there are 43:48 people that really don't want to they don't want to change, they 43:52 just want to vent. I call them my pay-per-vent clients. I don't 43:58 know what to do because I feel sometimes like I'm actually just 44:04 watching them get worse and worse. So sometimes I will say 44:06 something like I don't think this is helping. Or I will say 44:10 I've done all I can do. I've learned that the hard way 44:13 because I've learned that I'm not like a slot machine here. 44:16 Just because people sign up for my services don't mean I don't 44:20 have some discretionary power in the relationship. That's been 44:23 a learning curve. But you're absolutely right that there has 44:26 to be both of those two things. And there are types of 44:30 counseling actually Christian counseling that emphasizes the 44:32 latter where the whole point is like getting the person to 44:35 repent for their sins and that can be damaging too so it seems 44:39 to be like the Good Samaritan model where you come alongside 44:42 and then you empower the person and then they go home and they 44:45 live you know. 44:47 That's Jesus. So let's go... 44:51 And also they may start talking to someone else and their 44:56 technique, maybe just their voice or something or their 44:59 listening may get them past that thing on high center and they 45:03 sit there spinning...they're spinning all four wheels you 45:05 know and getting nowhere. 45:07 So you're saying they might change their provider. (Yes yes) 45:12 We do that with Abide if it's not working because there is 45:16 sort of a compatibility issue sometimes. And so if the person 45:19 you know gets referred to a particular provider and they 45:22 really aren't jelling with that provider, they just go back to 45:24 the intake supervisor and they put them with someone else. 45:27 So here's what I'm going to do. Once again the website is 45:33 Abide. Network That's all you need to put in. 45:37 Abide. Network Now tell us how...because I know 45:44 there are people who are at home and if I weren't in full-time 45:46 ministry I would be jumping on it is probably as he would be to say 45:52 okay I want to go through...I want to become one of these 45:56 mental health coaches so you can go...Tell us the process of your 46:02 website. (How to navigate the website) Maybe that's how 46:05 to navigate it. I just know some of you at home are saying I need 46:11 coaching or I'd like to attend that workshop or maybe you're 46:16 looking and you've been saying Lord give me a ministry. I want 46:20 to be trained to do this or for the Bible studies or you said 46:25 there was a toolbox. Now that's all on your website. 46:29 It's all on the website and if you get...it should be fairly 46:32 easy to navigate. Just click on the different tabs. You're going 46:34 see the workshops there. You're going to see the events. We have 46:38 our summit coming up. It's called the Jesus Psychology 46:41 Summit. We hope to run it each year. It's going to be an in 46:45 person event. You're going to see that there and you're going 46:47 to see the contact form. So if you get lost on the website just 46:51 send us a contact form and we'll receive it and we'll help you. 46:55 But you should be able to find everything you're looking for 46:58 including the training if you want to become a coach. It's 47:00 called the Abide Coach Training and then the workshops that I 47:04 mentioned Anxiety and Depression Relief; Abuse, Trauma, and Faith; 47:07 and Try This At Home are the workshops we're currently 47:09 offering. Those are on there and then I have another training 47:12 called Project Safe Church for people that want to work in 47:16 sexual abuse response in church work, which is kind of a 47:19 separate field but it's one of the things we really care about. 47:22 And so all of that is there and more. Just click around and 47:27 you'll find it very navigatable. 47:29 Jen, I knew you before Abide but I just have to say 47:34 I'm so excited 47:35 that you answered God's call and that you've been led by the Lord 47:39 because I know you didn't expect this. Tell me, tell us, how has 47:45 this affected your life personally? 47:48 I feel like so many years I was in music ministry and I was more 47:51 of a creative and an artist and then I sort of had to for 47:58 various reasons change to the direction of my life and got 48:00 real involved with this coaching and counseling and psychology 48:04 related ministry and sometimes I just look up to heaven and I 48:07 say God you know who do you think I am, you know, I'm so 48:12 limited and I'm a child. I feel like Solomon when he said I 48:16 don't know how to go out or come in. But then I think you know 48:19 it's not me who's going to do it. I have two graduate degrees, 48:22 I have years of clinical experience. If not me, I don't 48:27 know of any great group of people somewhere that can 48:29 handle this level of responsibility but sometimes it 48:32 becomes overwhelming. And I just pray. I go...I live on a lake 48:35 and I go out to my lake every day and I use P.R.A.Y. Praise, 48:41 Repent, Ask, and Yield and I pray that formula every morning and 48:45 just say God please you know I need your help. 48:51 You know one thing I was reading one of the sentences: The 48:55 journey towards health begins with the step of self-care. 48:59 How neat that is. 49:02 So a lot of times Christians get hung up on that. Not so much 49:06 anymore but it used to be we thought that if you're going to 49:10 serve people you never do anything for yourself. But it 49:12 doesn't work that way. Because if you don't care for yourself, 49:15 if you're not a good steward of your emotional and physical 49:19 strength, you're not going to have anything to give people. 49:21 And service is going to become associated with exhaustion and 49:25 burnout. So I like to see self care as grounded in good 49:31 stewardship. You know present your bodies a living sacrifice 49:35 and it applies to our emotions as well. We need to care for our 49:39 emotions, not in a selfish way but in a responsible way so we 49:42 can be better at serving others. Yeah. (Amen) Yeah. 49:47 That's something that I need to learn as well. 49:50 Well there are little things people could do and one of the 49:52 things we've discovered are that sometimes small steps are very 49:56 profound in their impact. So even a little bit of self-care 50:00 maybe getting off of your screen and just doing 10 deep breaths. 50:03 Or taking a walk. Or making a little better quality food for 50:09 yourself or something can make a profound difference sometimes. 50:12 I just know that at least verbally what keeps me somewhat 50:18 in balance is that I do know that I am a work in progress. 50:21 No more, no less, I'm just doing the best that I can do. 50:27 But I feel like I am progressing I feel like you are progressing 50:34 Well, that's what the Bible says. It says the outer man wastes 50:37 away but the inner man is renewed day by day. And so the 50:41 things with which we deal at Abide work, we deal with the 50:43 inner life of human beings and that part continues to grow 50:46 throughout life. I mean that's what I see in scripture is that 50:49 that gets better. It's so comforting because everything 50:53 else gets worse. But that one thing if we follow on to know 50:57 the Lord whose going forth is prepared as the morning 51:00 character can grow throughout life till we're more and more 51:04 like Jesus. 51:06 Yeah aging is humbling but the beauty of aging is hopefully 51:12 you're beginning to understand God's love more and you can be 51:16 of better service to Him. Well we are going to take a short 51:21 break and we have an address roll to show you how you can 51:25 get in touch with Jennifer Jill, Dr. Jen, and how you can contact 51:32 Abide Network. 51:35 If the Holy Spirit impresses you to contact Abide Network you can 51:41 do so by writing to 5832 Conner Trail, Orlando, FL 32808 You can 52:00 also, visit their website at https:/Abide.Network |
Revised 2024-04-29