A Syncretic Gospel Approach
Bringing all cultural, religious, social, linguistic, ethnically conditioned doxologies to Jesus Christ. Koyama, K. (1979). Three mile an hour God.
The Rwandan Journey
First Rwanda National MH Policy
Trauma Interventions, Training Rwandan psychologists, MH nurses, psychiatrists.
1995
Revised Mental Health Policy
Financial/Geographical Accessibility, Target groups (Children, Addictions…)
Community Mental Health
2011
Rwanda MH Strategic Plan 2020-2024
Private Practices
MH in correctional facilities.
School-based MH
MH in Rehabilitation Centres
2020
The Gentle Awakening
From Either/Or to Both/And
Many cultures hold the belief that one’s condition is either entirely spiritual/supernatural or entirely clinical. Our approach is to embrace and reconcile all that we are and have within us. Bridging this gap would have us grow in our understanding of the vast extent of mental health world.
Basic Psycho Ed
We focus on communicating the mental health world in the simplest of forms in order to break down the stigma blockade around mental health through a model called Sociotherapy.
Reconciliation within self
As one author once reflected on the complexity of a dock line’s ability to hold a ship in place, it is only able to do so because it is made up of so many single strands that are weak on their own, yet are united to become this strong line which cannot be broken. This is to say; we are most effective when the whole self is in unison. As Aristotle once said; “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Empower hand-in-hand
Kintsugi
A Japanese philosophy of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. We believe in Kinstugi as a philosophy of finding ‘beauty in imperfection.’ A re-written story is never as good as new, but will be better, and more precious than what was.
Body, Mind, Emotions, Social, Spirit
The Wellness Paradigm
Empowering the Soul
The soul is the innermost part of man. Which encompasses all of man’s inner life, including emotions, desires, personality, and consciousness. If it is alive, then it can experience struggles of all sorts. Our initial work is an invitation to be aware and acknowledge of this inner world.
Psalm 42:5
Empowering the Heart/Mind
Such a complex idea, but can one truly understand it? The mind combines all our cognitive abilities. However, we focus on what it encompasses like sensations, perceptions, emotions, memory, desires, reasoning, motives, choices, personality traits, and the unconsciouses. When the heart and mind are in a good state, it helps to balance emotions. This awareness is breaking grounds to another level of being whole.
Jeremiah 17:9. —- Proverbs 3:5. —- Romans 12:2.
Engaging the Body
It has been said that “a healthy mind in a healthy body.” This is emphasis on physical and mental well-being. Understanding the way our body works helps us steward them well. Our organs and systems work together to keep us well.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
Engaging Society
Studies have shown how much positive impact our beings get from being surrounded by others; the feeling of being seen, known and loved, safety and more… all this helps my being flourish and at the same time, the lack of these leads us into a downward spiral that we might never know the depths of it.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
Highlights…
Dive into an incarnational redemptive empowerment of reasonableness. Honest and authentic words are only effective when they land on fertile and tilled soil, then eventually comes continuous and necessary pruning.
Mental Health in a Cultural lens
101
Did you know that most warm cultures do not have many of the words that are used to describe emotions? How, then, have they found healing throughout history?
For most cultures, mental health is not as advanced as it is in the western world nor does it necessarily operate under the same policies. The ground breaking work of raising awareness faces challenges like language, outlook, concepts, and resources, yet all this has to align with the cultural context of that people group. Our approach is creating a platform that honours our cultural background, uniqueness, and modifying in response to the current needs with grace and patience. One’s mother culture cannot be purged nor purified of the individual.
Virtual reality Effect
101
Addressing the fact that social trends we experience virtually via media outlets affect us in real time.
“When there is a cultural atmosphere in which professionals, the media, schools, doctors, psychologists all recognise and endorse and talk about and publicise a social challenge (Italics mine), then people with a certain loading of this general psychopathology can be triggered to consciously or unconsciously pick social challenge pathology as a way to express that conflict.”
Watters, E. (2010). Crazy like us.
In this case, globalized western ideas about social expressions, and mental health (like anxiety, depression diagnoses) become universal, replacing unique cultural expressions of distress. The question becomes; “how do we sift through what we are virtually fed, to keep that which supports us rather than lead us to ruin?”
Intellectual & Experiential Faith
101
Can we give reasons for our faith, and yet bear the fruits of the same faith?
It has been said; “reading about swimming in a book does not make you a swimmer.” This same concept should apply when it comes to translating that which we know in our minds to be a reality in our daily lives. Our approach is creating a platform where we can openly discuss matters of faith, its sit in the practical experiences they demand, and how we respond to God’s will as it unfolds in our lives.