The Office with Two Doors: Developing Collaborative Partnerships Between Faith-Based Counselors and Churches Focused on Holistic Healing 

In the United States (U.S.), the majority of people with mental health conditions are not receiving appropriate treatment due in part to a deeply entrenched mental health stigma, lack of affordable services, or gaps in services for true healing. The chronic disability associated with mental health problems (and insufficient attention by the local and global church) has left large groups of people suffering under the stigma and shame of mental health issues. The numbers highlight a growing priority, one that requires church involvement to discuss how pastors and mental health professionals can address a gap between those suffering and those who receive treatment to ensure affordable counseling services are accessible to marginalized groups of people.
Using Refuge Counseling and Wellness Center (RCWC) as a model, this project explored the benefits and limitations of a church-based counseling center in addressing mental health challenges, and how collaborative partnerships among counselors, pastors, and nonprofit leaders impact the stigma of mental health and remove roadblocks to healing.
The research data gathered from this study’s focus group and email questionnaire showed that hope and the ability to endure internal distress and suffering were the most improved areas of overall well-being in clients who participated in holistic, faith-based counseling through a church-based counseling center. Additionally, the results of this project showed that collaborative partnerships between church staff and mental health professionals could positively address the stigma associated with mental health. A
clinical case study provided an additional source of research data that was consistent with
the outcomes of the focus group and email questionnaire. Case study clients reported hope, reconciliation, and endurance were outcomes of their counseling process. The case study also demonstrated how a holistic approach to counseling, one that addressed mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational healing, provided the necessary support for Christian clients to re-engage in relationships with God and a faith community, even while working through underlying issues that brought them to counseling.
Existential positive psychology, which attempts to integrate the positive and negative aspects of human functioning to improve well-being and answer the question of what makes life worth living provided the framework for this study. The results were analyzed using the constructs of virtue, meaning, resilience, and well-being. The transformational strategy for this project was to develop a resource book for faith-based
counselors and churches focused on holistic healing to encourage collaboration and address the growing mental health needs in communities and culture.