Mental Health Awareness Month
By Cammie Easley, LPC, MHSP-S, Director of Child & Adolescent Services
As many of you know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. We, at HeartLife, have dedicated this month to spreading the Word about mental health, showing appreciation to the courageous clients we serve, and expressing gratitude to the beautiful group of counselors who make up our team.
I wanted to give you an inside scoop this month about what we as a staff have been studying together that informs the way that we counsel. The goal of this piece is to help you see mental health in light of the hope of the Gospel and find encouragement that we are all fellow journeyers in this life. You are not alone!
Over the last four months, we have been reflecting as a staff on our Creation-Fall-Redemption Model of Counseling. This framework is significant for many reasons, one of which is that it informs how we, as counselors, view YOU!
Through the Creation-Fall-Redemption lens, we believe that EVERYONE is created in the image of God. We are all created as unique beings with personalities, attributes, intelligence, empathy, emotion, and giftings—created to reflect Our Triune God. Because of this, every person who walks through our doors has inherent worth and value—no matter what they have done, where they have been, or how they are struggling. Because you are created in the image of God, we are committed to celebrating what is good and beautiful in you, what reflects the Spirit of God in you and what the Lord wants to nurture and cultivate more and more in you.
Through this lens, we also are aware of the fall of mankind recorded in Genesis 3. We all have sinned and chosen to go our own way (Romans 3:23). We all have desired to be captains of our own ships rather than submit to the will of God. And, we all bear in our bodies and souls the weight of this fall. The Bible states that creation groans waiting for redemption from God (Romans 8:22-23). Because of this truth, when you step into the counseling room, we can hold space that there is brokenness in your story because of things that you have done, things that have been done to you, and brokenness simply because you were born on a broken planet to live among broken people.
This truth frees us from the need for hiding, shame, or “faking” in counseling. You don’t have to pretend to have it all together. Instead, we promise to welcome you exactly as you are, acknowledging that we, too, are born into brokenness as well. No one is above another, and there is space for you here to be honest and real.
Finally, because of the redemption Christ purchased for us, we believe there is hope for your story. Romans 8 promises that the Lord “works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” Therefore, no matter the ache or depths that you are walking through, we commit to holding onto hope for you. We do not hold out hope because we believe in your ability to muster through. Nor do we hold onto hope because we believe that we are promised an easy life. We hold onto the source of hope Himself, Jesus.
Because of Him, we can have hope that no suffering will be wasted, your times are held in the Father’s hands, and nothing will happen to you outside of His sovereign care. We also believe that any situation can be redeemed. While we cannot guarantee what the ending of the story will be, we do know this: this is not the end of the story.
Therefore, here are our commitments to you:
To celebrate what is good and beautiful in you, because you are made in the image of God
To welcome you as you are—in the midst of sin and struggle—knowing we are all journeying together toward health and wholeness, which we cannot find apart from Jesus Christ
To hold onto hope for you, even when you cannot see it for yourself
With this in mind, we ask you to reexamine your own thoughts towards mental health and counseling.
We pray that if you find yourself in a season of needing care, support, guidance or grace, that you would courageously reach out a hand for help. We promise to meet you there. And to those of you who have already bravely begun your own healing journeys, we applaud you. As we celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month, we celebrate you, and we give all praise to the Lord who is the One who truly heals, redeems, and reauthors our stories. If you have experienced this transformation for yourself and are walking in His peace and freedom, be sure to share your story. It just might encourage another weary soul who needs a nudge to take the next step.
Meet Cammie Easley, LPC-MHSP, Director of Child & Adolescent Services!
Cammie graduated with her Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in May of 2014 from Denver Seminary in Denver, CO.
Throughout her career as a counselor, Cammie has been passionate about helping individuals of all ages overcome anxiety and depression, heal from past traumas, process their own grief, and develop into the healthy and whole people that God designed them to be.
She believes firmly that seasons of hardship are God’s tool which He uses to make us more like Himself and to reveal Himself to us in ways that we would not otherwise come to intimately know. One of her greatest joys in counseling is helping individuals figure out how they can heal in a holistic way that incorporates their body, mind, and spirit.