Heartfelt Newsletter Winter, 2015

Steve Bloem BA, MM

Robyn Bloem, Co-founder

Heartfelt Counseling Ministries

4371 Northlake Blvd. Suite 256

Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410

561.909.9109 www.heartfeltmin.org

Counseling-Educating-Advocating

Fall 2015

What is CAMI?

CAMI stands for Christians Afflicted with Mental Illness and is an organization within Heartfelt Counseling Ministries. We have support groups through CAMI and have ongoing training. One of our greatest achievements has been to write our own CAMI Material. This includes Leader and Student Guides with all the instructions on how to start, lead and maintain these valuable groups.

Mental Illness is a disease that begs for community and it is often more subtle and much more prevalent than we imagine.

CAMI Guide

These provocative and interesting manuals pose questions relating to the issues so relevant to those who live with these diseases. Each lesson has sections entitled Key Verse, Theme of the Week, Talking Points and The Crux of the Matter. There are six lessons in each workbook with approximately eight questions each. The Leader’s Guide has an additional section with all the questions answered and helps to lead the discussion.

The subjects for the lessons in the first series are as follows:

     The Providence of God and

     Mental Illness

     Breaking the Stigma of Mental Illness 

     Elijah, a Depressed Man

     The Lethality of Mental Illness

     Shepherding the mentally ill

How would you or your friends benefit from a CAMI group? Or why buy the material?

1) There is nothing similar available

2) It is scriptural

3) It is affordable

4) Easy to read

5) Stimulates discussion

6) Tells you from A-Z(ed) how to start and conduct a support group

We have recently decided to offer this material to the public. This is not a repeat of our book, Broken Minds. There is new information and the Leader’s Guide answers over a hundred and twenty questions about mental illness. The Leader’s Guide is only $12.50 and the
Student Guide is just $8.50. Training for using this material is available from Heartfelt Counseling Ministries if you feel you need it.

Just go to: http://heartfeltmin.org/how-can-i-get-involved.html  Donate Now page and order your books today!

 Steve is a BLOGGER!

Have you caught Steve’s Blog?

He writes on topics related to three suffering “people groups.” It is part of our purpose statement; helping those who suffer from disturbances of the mind and mood; those dealing with bereavement and loss; and keeping the spotlight on the persecuted church across the world. He has over 1700 hits each month on his provocative blog.

sbloemreflections.blogspot.com

 

If you help us -
       We will help others!

Counseling

Steve continues to counsel individuals, couples and families. Besides the mental health clients with diagnosed illnesses, he has a ministry with those who have Borderline Personality Disorder. Steve is a certified Dialectical Behavior Therapist and received intensive training from Dr. Marsha Linehan at the University of Washington, Seattle. He does mindfulness exercises from the wisdom literature of the Old and New Testaments.

CAMI Thursdays

We are very thankful for the opportunity to meet at our home church, Boca Glades Baptist, every Thursday evening from 7:00- 8:15 for one of our CAMI Support Groups. We have good discussions as we study God’s Word.

We hear almost daily of people who have either stopped going to church or have become so guilt-ridden that they are hiding their illnesses from their friends and leadership within the church. We are regularly challenged to educate pastors and leaders on mental illness, to advocate for the sufferers and counsel as many as possible while they go through this fiery trial of the mind and mood.

Sliding Scale For treatment

We continue to offer counseling at reduced rates. We calculate that 90% of our clients pay less than full price fee and most are at least 50% discount. We try to be the best stewards we can be to our donors and to the Lord.

Please prayerfully consider what you can do to help finance Heartfelt Counseling Ministries. You may desire to offer a Faith Pledge for the coming year, which of course is not binding, but is a way for us to plan for the year ahead.

When people call for help they are usually severely depressed and often suicidal.

Does that seem like an important ministry?

We think so, too.

Who do we help?

Here are a few of the examples of people we minister to regularly: 

• Our CAMI members

• Christian woman who recently contacted us who is in an episode of depression and feeling isolated from the Lord. She has read Broken Minds and now has ordered CAMI support group material. This spiritual  emptiness is a typical emotion depressed people feel. 

Steve and Robyn are uniquely equipped to minister to people with mental illness or have a family member who does. I have been blessed and encouraged by them both. God has sovereignly allowed them to go through some very deep waters so they are able to come alongside the rest of us during our dark nights. JH

• A client with borderline personality disorder who has been re-directed and counseled for months.
•  A young woman, a Bible College Student contacted us because she was in horrible depression and anxiety. Her college did not believe in mental Illness but Steve was able to help her and restore her to a “normal life” This took some time but we were able to do it.   
• A young woman with OCD and depression who was using Alcohol to cope. She is clean and sober and living for the LORD.  A deeply depressed recent college grad who didn’t think he could take his new job. We got him in quickly with a doctor did some family and individual therapy and he is working that job today!

Heartfelt as many other non-profits depend on end of the year donations. When you give to Heartfelt you should know that we are one of a few agencies that give a major discount to people who cannot afford counseling. You can give to Heartfelt Counseling Ministries on-line or with a check.  Please visit the link below.  We are a 501 (c) (3) and all gifts are tax deductible.

 http://heartfeltmin.org/how-can-i-get-involved.html

In 1985 when mental illness hit our family the first time, we didn’t understand what happened. We had pain, fear, false guilt and a major disruption in our lives.   Well, NOW we know what to do and we effectively help others in their journey with these painful

Mental Illness Highlight

From Steve's e-letter. copy right 2006

Effectively, recognizing and treating mental illness involves having a clarity of understanding regarding the 'pathology' of mental illness.  Many counseling movements don't like the term. Many years back, I was attending a multi-national behavioral training course given by Dr. Marsha Linehan. It lasted for a week. The subject of the training was Borderline Personality Disorder and its treatment by by using, Dialectical Behavior Therapy.  This took place at  the University of Washington (Seattle). I asked Linehan early on in the training;  "what do you think of the term, "the pathology of mental illness?"  She replied to me, what are  you are talking about? Why don't you look at a dictionary  and tell us your definition  tomorrow?"  Her point was made and I was not called on the next day. 

 In the United States for many years the Freudian movement neglected the biological pathology of mental illness.  Even the recovery movement in mental health does not fully explain what includes  the pathology of mental illness.  Please read below on the subject from the writings of one of my psychiatrists, Donald Goodwin who was chair of psychiatry at Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - University of Kansas.

Dr. Donald Goodwin  says, "a  disease is a cluster of symptoms and/or signs with a more or less a predictable course.  Symptoms are what patients tell you, signs are what you see.  The cluster may be associated with physical abnormality or may not. The essential point is that it results in consultation with a physician who specializes in recognizing, preventing, and, sometimes, curing diseases. {Goodwin, Donald. Anxiety. (c.1986). New York: Ballantine Books. p. 81.} 

 

 

Quotes Worth Quoting-

1832-1905





"All God's giants have been weak men, who who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them..."{Taylor, Dr. Howard and Mrs. Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission, The Growth of a Work of God.1918) London: China Inland Mission. p. 279


 

 
  Bereavement -

 The biblical book of Job presents for us a truly  godly man who has had his life turned    upside down by experiencing a successive series of losses. He was not a man of pat answers, pithy sayings or faulty syllogisms  (a type of reasoning).  Listen to what he says,

 "Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it on the scales! For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea.  Therefore my words have been rash, For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; My spirit drinks in their poison; The terrors of God arrayed against me" (Job 6:1-4,NKJV).

He wanted to die.  He felt that God had given him more than he could bear but he persevered.  This reminds me of the book of James which  mentions Job and the prophets suffering. 

James 5:11, says, "we count those blessed who endured," In the (Greek the word is translated -hupomone, which means  a patient enduring, to remain faithful under and throughout the trial). You have heard of the endurance (same word), of Job and have seen the outcome,( (Gk. telos the end), of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful, (NASV).

You may be in deep waters and under the rushing torrents of grief.  Consider the attributes of God mentioned here (compassion and mercy).in James.I like the old song which says, "I will be the first to testify on the witness stand of your life; JESUS NEVER FAILS!

Rev. Steve Bloem.

 






 Anxiety Disorders

Pastors must learn to  differ between anxiety as a disorder of the mind and anxiety which may manifest it itself as undue concern over ones specific life situation, i.e. worry about money, worry about the future,concern about how you are viewed by others, etc.

Some anxiety disorders of the mind include: Panic Disorder, (PD) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The type of anxiety which stems from anxiety disorders is "a vague state of emotional distress, associated with feelings of nervous tension, uncertainty, and fear. Physical responses include palpitations of the heart, increased blood pressure, fainting, shortness of breath and rapid breathing," (Donald Goodwin).  Productivity is diminished.  Prolonged anxiety of this type requires seeing a psychiatrist who is a medical doctor.
Seek the Lord in regards to  medical conditions and trust in Him as you go for needed medical treatment.


Would you like to subscribe to our E-letter? It is published anywhere from every two weeks to a month.  It is no cost.  Just go to http://heartfeltmin.org/how-can-i-get-involved.html 

Beware! A Satanic device is to call a physical problem, a spiritual problem

Dr. David Martyn Lloyd Jones

First let us look at the mistake of regarding the physical or psychological as spiritual.  Sometimes Christian people are in great trouble because they mistake what is nothing but a purely physical condition for a spiritual condition. 
Remember, we are body, soul and spirit.  Christians may be taken ill with some diseased condition and may not even be aware of it.  All that they know is that they do not feel as they used to feel.



  A kind of lethargy overtakes them, they do not enjoy reading the Bible as they used to do, they cannot pray as they used to do, they are in a depressed condition.  They cannot understand themselves, and the devil comes to them and suggest that it is because they are slipping in a spiritual sense.
 
 
 


 Perhaps he even raises the question as to whether they have ever been spiritual at all, and thus torments them and worries them and agitates them.  They are not able to concentrate as they did formerly, and they feel that they cannot be as active as they used to be.  The devil comes in and suggests that God is somehow displeased with them, that they are being punished, and so on.  So they find themselves in an agony of soul. 


An example will help.I remember on one occasion, some twenty five year ago, receiving a letter from a lady, asking me to try to help her, and to listen to her story.  She said that she had been experiencing the kind of thing that I have been describing--this kind of lethargy, her interest  not as it once was, inability to do things.  She was in spiritual agony feeling that things had gone seriously wrong. She had heard of a certain well-known preacher who claimed to be an expert in matters psychological and spiritual, and she had written to him; and for many months he had been treating her by correspondence.  

But the lady, far from getting better, was getting worse.  

 

  When I met her one glance told me that she was suffering from pernicious anemia.  As the result of her anemia she had lost her energy and her power of concentration.  A person cannot have pernicious anemia and still feel bright and energetic and keen and enthusiastic.  Now if you try to help a Christian who is suffering from pernicious anemia. and not being medically treated for it, by merely telling her to pull herself together and to try to think beautiful and positive thoughts, not only are you not helping her, you are being cruel to her, you are aggravating the problem.  All she needed of course, was the recognized treatment for pernicious anemia; and she made a complete recovery in every way.  



 That is an example of confusion as between the physical and the spiritual, and regarding something that is essentially a physical condition and problem as if it were a spiritual problem.  Ignorance underlies this confusion, but the devil take advantage, (Lloyd Jones, D. Martyn, The Christian Warfare, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, c. 1976, pp.228,229).




Please click on the link below to learn about our support group material.
 


 
http://sbloemreflections.blogspot.com/2015/10/what-is-cami-guide-and-why-should-you.html

Firm hires expert who believes wearables may one day track our mental health

Google could soon know if you're depressed... or even suicidal:

• Former director of National Institute of Mental Health has joined Google
• Dr Thomas Insel said details of his new job are 'still under wraps'
• But he did discuss the idea of sensors that can track moods and language
• They could reveal signs of anxiety, psychosis and help tackle suicide rates

Google Life Sciences recently hired leading mental health expert Dr Thomas Insel (pictured).  He envisages sensors that will one day monitor mood. Wearables can already track your steps, sleep and heart rate but in the future they could also be used to monitor your mood.  Dr Thomas Insel and in a recent interview he discussed plans for sensors 'that give you very objective measures of your behavior.'

These sensors could analyse a person's language for early signs of psychosis, monitor levels of anxiety, or encourage wearers to take clinical tests in order to measure mental health.

Dr Insel was previously director of the National Institute for Mental Health for 13 years. Speaking at Chicago Ideas Week, he said: 'Technology can have greater impact on mental health care than on the care for heart disease, diabetes, cancer or other diseases. 
'It could transform this area in the next five years.'

He made particular reference to the fact that there has been no reduction in mortality in terms of suicide because America's system for treating mental illness is 'dysfunctional'.      Dr Insel sees tech as the answer to 'detecting, diagnosing, and treating' such mental illness.

During the interview he praised the work of companies including Big White Wall, which is a community that lets people post anonymously about how they're feeling and take clinical tests online.   

He admitted that his new job was still under wraps, and even he wasn't sure what he would be doing but believes the firm's access to data could be crucial for developing new research on mental health
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3296635/Google-soon-know-depressed-suicidal-Firm-hires-expert-believes-wearables-one-day-track-mental-health.html?ITO=applenews 


 

AVATARS CAN BOOST CONFIDENCE

Last year, an international team of psychologists led by University College London developed a a self-to-self situation using avatars and computer game technology. 

It was designed to cure self-criticism and involved using virtual reality so people could experience the world through a life-size virtual version of themselves.

Each was trained to show compassion towards a distressed virtual child while in their adult virtual body and as they talked to the crying child, it appeared to listen and respond positively to the compassion.

Some participants saw themselves being compassionate through the eyes of the virtual child, while others saw a third person view of the scenario.

The experts found that the self-to-self situation was the most effective and revealed how virtual reality and avatars could be used to treat depression and feelings of insecurity.

It was designed to cure self-criticism and

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3296635/Google-soon-know-depressed-suicidal-Firm-hires-expert-believes-wearables-one-day-track-mental-health.html#ixzz3qMCOdGi5
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