In today’s podcast episode, Catherine interviews Rachael Newham from Kintsugi Hope, a UK-based mental health ministry that has developed a theology of mental health, and is spearheading a mental health friendly church project.
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Catherine Boyle: Well, welcome to the Key Ministry podcast. I'm Catherine Boyle. I am delighted to introduce you today to Rachael Newham. Rachael works with an organization called Kintsugi Hope, and they are based in the UK. I am delighted to be able to have this conversation, so welcome Rachael to the podcast!
Rachael Newham: Thank you for having me; it's good to be here.
Boyle: Tell me a little bit about yourself, Rachael: who you are, how you came to be connected with Kintsugi Hope, and what Kintsugi Hope is and is all about.
Newham: My whole working life really has been around the area of faith and mental health. I have lived with a mental illness since I was 14. When I was doing my Bible college studies, when I was in my late teens, I got this real sense that we've got to speak into the space of mental health in Church; we've got to become literate theologically, when we come to speak and think about mental health.
I founded and ran an organization for a decade which basically—we just traveled around to churches, preaching and delivering mental health training naturally across England and Scotland. In the end we got to Wales and Northern Ireland.
During the pandemic things changed. I had a young family. So when it came time for that [her nonprofit] to finish, I had been friends with Patrick and Diane Regan who are the founders of Kintsugi Hope. They had a meeting with lots of mental health Christian leaders in the UK, and the thing was [that was discussed in these meetings] was that it's great that Kintsugi Hope is seeking to provide safe and supportive spaces—which is what we do; we run 12 week well-being groups—but what happens when the Church itself isn't a safe and supportive space? It kind of stopped everybody in their tracks, really.
And what happened from that was this idea of a mental health friendly church project—that actually we kind of go back a step and we have a think, and look at what the Bible has to say about mental health, and how we can make our churches places that actually are supportive and not condemnatory of mental health or mental illness in particular.
Boyle: Wonderful. So what are the three main priorities of Kintsugi Hope? Because I know you guys do some very specific things within your organization. You mentioned one just a second ago, and we'll talk a little bit more about that, but what are those three main priorities?
Newham: Our vision really is to see a world where mental and emotional health are accepted and understood with safe and supportive spaces for everybody.
Within that, the mental health friendly church project which is what I'm in charge of—to elevate understanding, eradicate stigma and encourage compassion within church communities around issues of mental health. We do that through the Kintsugi Hope well-being groups and then through our mental health friendly church training days.
Boyle: Wonderful. You guys are based in the UK and you know we're in the US. Probably most of our followers are familiar with support groups that we're connected with in the US, like Fresh Hope for Mental Health and Mental Health Grace Alliance, just to name a couple. It sounds to me like Kintsugi Hope’s well-being groups are kind of similar. Tell me a little bit about those groups: do you have a curriculum that you've developed, or do you use other materials? Are they online, or are they in-person? How do these groups work?
Newham: Yes, so they're peer-led, so there's no one standing at the front teaching; in that sense they are very much discussion-based. We have churches who sign up as partners to work alongside us, and then the churches really take ownership of the group. There's a set 12-week curriculum, with topics from healthy relationships to anger, depression, grief, anxiety and some others. Churches can run those things, and then they have a bank of resources that they can kind of pick and choose the activities and the exercises that are going to be most helpful within their setting; a big database does that for us. The idea is to make it as personalizable as possible. They [the groups] run everywhere—from prisons to mother and toddler groups to church small groups; so obviously, the needs differ really drastically across that.
We wanted the material to be as dynamic as possible. Originally, they were designed just to be in person, but they launched in January 2020…
Boyle: Wow, what timing!
Newham: Indeed. So within three months, obviously everything had changed. Everyone was saying, ‘that's it,’ but our wonderful tech guy pivoted everything online—all that training, all of our resources. So actually, probably for the first two years of the groups—2020-2021—the majority were happening online. Over the last 18 months or so, we're seeing more and more in-person, and some run in a hybrid way—and do a bit online and a bit in person—and we've recently piloted one amongst those who have chronic illnesses, which was all online and which was brilliant, because it was so accessible for them. It obviously means that people can access a group a lot quicker, because they don't necessarily have to be geographically close.
Boyle: That's something that we talk about, too—do not drop those online options, just because we're able to be in-person again. It's been so meaningful for so many people to be able to connect like that.
Newham: Definitely.
Boyle: So are you all just operating in the UK, or can others outside the UK start one of your groups? How does that work?
Newham: At the moment, the groups are only registered as a charity in the UK, so we can only have UK church partners and organizational partners. Anybody can access our resources. We have a podcast; we have the project that I run, which is the mental health friendly church project—which is a very long name!
We've recently released a paper on the theology of mental health, just to get people thinking, and get people to have a language for mental health, really, within their churches—and charting the story of scripture through the lens of faith and mental health.
We’re just doing the process of developing a resource around this concept of gentle presence, which is something that we've come up with in research. We’re using something called the polyvagal theory…
Boyle: Yes!
Newham: …the way our nervous system works, and actually how God has designed us so beautifully.
When we look at scripture, and we look at the way the nervous system works, and the things that God directs us to do are beneficial for our nervous system.
Boyle: What a concept, right?
Newham: I know. We need that gentleness; in the world we live in today, gentleness has never been more necessary.
Boyle: Yes, yes. So, when I first learned about your ministry—I'm not sure if it was our first conversation, or something I saw online—but one of the things that we advocate as a very important first step is to really understand—what is the theology of disabilities? Disabilities as a broad concept, and mental health more specifically. That’s step one on our own website, about how churches can get on board with disability/mental health ministry. So tell me a little bit more detail about the theology of mental health that you have created. I've read the document; I think it's really well done. I'd love to know who the target audience is for this, and some of the main ideas.
Newham: The target audience really is for people who would never pick up a book about theology, someone who would think theology isn't for them, or it's just not applicable to their life—and actually introduce it [theology] in a way. You know, I am a theologian at heart; that's my training; my background is in theology. I believe that theology has become so marginalized in academia—but it’s living and breathing! My real desire for the paper was that it was as accessible as was humanly possible to make it.
And part of what we do throughout the paper is look at shalom and that concept of wholeness and well-being, but also look at it through the lens of home, and kintsugi is about safe spaces at its best! Home was designed to be the safest place possible. It isn't, for so many people, but that's what it was created for. I love to actually—in the creation narrative, God creates homes before He create creates inhabitants! He creates the sea before He creates the fish. So that concept, that actually we had that first home in Eden—and we lose it. And the Israelites spend many years kind of finding and regaining their home, through that experience of exile. That experience of exile really resonated with me, in terms of what mental illness feels like, as an experience of exile. And then Jesus opened up a new possibility of hospitality, the way in which He interacted with people was one in which there was as little power imbalance as was possible. He invited people into His home; He made Himself welcome in their homes, right? But ultimately, He pointed to the recreation of a new home, and new heaven and a new earth.
So the thread of that being, that if we come home to God—mental illness isn't necessarily going to be cured—but we will find healing, there even if we don't find cure, you will find Shalom—which is wholeness.
Boyle: Yes, as much as any person can attain wholeness, this side of eternity. So we talk about mental health—that's a term that you just hear all the time, in culture and in the work that we do. I just mentioned that we can find shalom and understanding of what Christ came to do for all of us. But when you talk about mental health and we talk about shalom, describe in just a little bit more detail what that means to you or to Kintsugi Hope, because I think that's such an important perspective. And maybe if churches can kind of grab hold of that [concept of shalom], they can see more clearly what their role can be in the work of mental health.
Newham: Yes, so we have adopted the kind of language of what's called the “mental health continuum,” which is—everybody has mental health, in the same way that everybody has physical health. But equally, it's not just a case where some have mental illness and some don't; it's a continuance. So at one point in the continuum, you have somebody who has no mental illness and positive well-being, and that's great, and that's probably where we'd all like to be but probably not at any one time.
Then we have people who don't have mental illness, but have poor mental well-being, and that's where a lot of us live a lot of the time. You might be grieving, you might be struggling with childcare, you might be doing all the stuff of life that hurts, and responding to that with sadness, with worry, with anxiety—but actually, that not being a mental illness, right? And not mistaking very healthy human emotion for mental illness is vital, we think. And then we kind of go into where severe mental illness meets our mental well-being, so people—I guess, the people you think about when you think about mental illness—people who have some mental illnesses and who aren't able to live a life that perhaps they dreamed of. And that doesn't mean they can't live a good life, but actually they're struggling at that time; they might be in crisis.
And then at the top of the diagram is this this bit that gives me the most hope, which is where severe mental illness meets positive mental well-being, in that actually—just because you have mental illness doesn't mean you can never have well-being. And with medication, with council, with prayer and with all of those things that are good for our mental health, you can still live and you can still flourish, even living under the diagnosis of mental illness.
Boyle: I think there’s so many examples of that, and that's kind of not the natural thing to think about [flourishing] when you think about somebody who lives with mental illness, but it's entirely possible to have a life that is meaningful and impactful, in spite of having a mental health challenge or mental illness.
Newham: And I think it's so important for us to recognize that actually it's not the case, that you become a Christian and your mental illness will go away. Some people experience a miraculous cure, but for most people, actually, they're going to have to hold those two in tension, and that actually healing comes when we encounter Jesus, when we encounter shalom. That doesn't mean we have a removal of the diagnosis, but we do have the presence of Jesus, and the kind of aroma I guess of His shalom in our lives. We believe that's really important to keep sharing the hope of that, hope that isn't just in the fix.
Boyle: Tell us a little bit more about this idea of reimagining home. I really love that. I think that you mentioned or alluded to a few minutes ago that home is not always a wonderful place for every person, so this concept of reimagining what home is can really be very impactful for folks. So talk about that a little bit.
Newham: It's actually something I first began to think of when I ran a campaign in in my previous work called the Sanctuary Campaign. Looking back to ‘sanctuary’ in the Old Testament: in the sanctuary was the holiest of holies, the place where the priest only got to go a couple of days a year. And yet when Jesus died on the cross, that curtain was torn in two, that separated the holiest of holies, where you've got to meet God from the rest of the temple. And actually in a sense, Jesus reimagines that, because He allows us to meet God in a new way. Before Jesus, there was—we had the temple system; we had the sacrifices, and yet Jesus took that for us and He gives us this relationship with God that we couldn't have any other way. He gives us a taste of [home with God]. Jesus Himself was not a man who had no troubles.
Boyle: Exactly.
Newham: He had sorrows. And yet He is the fulfillment of shalom; He's the fulfillment of well-being, which means that actually He responds emotionally to things, but He's not overpowered by emotion. He doesn't make rash decisions. He holds His emotion and His faith and His identity completely in tandem in a way that possibly we never can, but in a way that points to what will be one day.
Boyle: Yes. That's beautiful. So when you and I talked to a couple months ago, you mentioned the need for in-between places. So what do you mean by that, and what do listeners need to know about how churches are stepping in to meet this need?
Newham: I think suddenly in the UK, the mental health provision is so stretched, that actually, unless you're [doing] really poorly, it's going to be really difficult to access mental healthcare in the long term. That doesn't mean that churches should suddenly pretend and act as if they were psychiatrists or psychologists! But it means making space for well-being within your churches, so whether that's running a peer support group, or using a resource like Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries’ resources, it's about carving out that space to talk about mental health, and to talk about it theologically as well, that in-between space where actually we are holding hope for somebody who possibly can't hold it for themselves.
You might be doing all the partial care stuff that we do naturally—bringing meals, collecting children, all of that stuff. But we do it because we want to show the love of God in a really practical way. And that's [acknowledging that life is] not okay at the moment, and it is okay that it’s not okay. We want—we pray for more; we want to do as much to alleviate the suffering that people are going through, whether that be practical or praying with somebody, or just having a chat or just sitting in silence with somebody. Meeting people where they are, rather than expecting them to kind of come into church with their traditional Sunday best, but allowing them to come as they are…
Boyle: Yes, it's much more of a ‘go’ versus a ‘come here,’ and ministry of presence, as you mentioned, it’s so important in all of this. Just being able to be a listener; it can mean the world difference for people.
As we wrap up our conversation, what are just one or two ways that ministry leaders can make a meaningful difference in their churches, for individuals and families who have mental health challenges—this year? I'm sure there's many things that they could do, but just a couple of simple things that probably most church leaders could do.
Newham: I think the first and most important one I would say is include mental illness in your intercessory prayers. When you're praying at the front on a Sunday with the full congregation, pray for those who are living with mental illnesses; pray for the [mental health] services, pray for the charities that are seeking to support people; allow that to become a really vocal part of your prayer life, and your corporate prayer life. The second thing to do with prayers is allow space for lament. 40% of the Psalms are lament; we've got a whole book of Lamentations, but we only use one verse of it, so often! But actually make that space within where you are within the church year. There’s that period of Advent; we were waiting in the dark, and the period of Lent, where we're waiting, and for Holy Week. Actually, they're great opportunities—if you are unfamiliar with lament—to practice and use the Psalms as your prayer book, to say ‘my God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Lift me out of this slimy pit.’ Use that language and get familiar with it, so that people know they don't just have to bring their shiny prayers of thanks to God. They can bring the heartbreak as well.
And I think alongside getting some education and awareness around specific mental illnesses, those are the two things that I think can make a real impact in making our churches places that people who are struggling feel more comfortable.
Boyle: That's fantastic. We've talked about lament a little bit, but that is a very under-appreciated aspect of Christian life and in the scripture, as you said, but the end result of lament is actually hope. It's actually to increase your capacity for hope, and seeing that God is with you; that He's got a plan through the circumstances. Well, that's fantastic advice.
We are going to share the Kintsugi Hope information in our show notes. Rachael, is there anything else you'd like to share, in the way of a resource, or to point people to? We're going to share your Theology of Mental Health and a couple of different links, but anything else you'd like to share?
Newham: If people want to know a little bit more about my own story, and how I developed my theology of mental health in the midst of mental illness, my book Learning To Breathe is available on Amazon and places like that.
Boyle: Wonderful. We'll definitely include that in the show notes as well. Rachael, thank you so much for taking your time! I really appreciate it. It’s exciting to see the good work that's being done not just with what we're familiar with here in the US, but in other places around the world as well, so thank you so much.
Newham: Thank you.
