#2 Myth about Mental Health Coaching – Mental Health Coaching #6 – Purity 1348
Purity 1348 05/10/2024 Purity 1348 Podcast
Purity 1348 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the kitchen window view of my side yard, a prominent tree in my neighbor’s yard and the blue expanse of the Schodack Creek leading into the Hudson River in the Distance comes from yours truly as I am cleaning out the closet of my phones’ photo gallery and I came across this memory from September 11th, 2020. A lot has changed since that first year in my house “down by The River” and while my neighbor’s tree is featured in the logo for the MT4Christ247 podcast, it no longer stands. It got taken out by a storm at least a year ago, showing us that something we thought would be a permanent fixture in our lives can be taken away. Likewise as I stood taking this photo back in 2020, I was most likely weighing in at 250 lbs., maybe 240, because that’s what I thought of as “my weight” as my struggles with food addiction never really allowed me to get below 235 for extended period of time. I thought my weight and my struggles with food were permanent. But today I weigh in at 203 pounds after being motivated to flip the script of my weight story and went to war with my food addiction and renewed the mind to change my relationship with food. If you have been reading the blog over the last year, you know that it has been an ongoing battle but, I am confident it’s a battle that I’m winning because although somewhere in my mind I thought I would always be overweight and out of shape – currently I am in the best physical shape of my life at age 51 and I have left the neighborhood of 250 lbs. with the intention of never returning again. For all of my adult life my shirts sizes were at least XL – now I wear Large, showing us that even concepts like “My size” can be a “lie” that we can be free from.
Well, It’s Friday thank God! And as I rejoice over the victory and freedom that the Lord has given me; I want to point out that a major factor in achieving freedom is believing you can have it and in renewing your mind to change the way you think.
Increasing self-awareness, presenting alternative solutions, encouraging thinking outside of the box, and helping others to redirect their thoughts into productive, positive streams are strategies that mental health coaches use to help their clients manage their symptoms and increase the quality of their lives. And that brings us to our current series on mental health coaching, as we pick up from where we left off yesterday by reviewing some of the common misconceptions about this alternative form of mental health treatment.
We are sharing from Matthew Boone’s 2023 blog post (https://www.lyrahealth.com/blog/what-is-mental-health-coaching/), where he presented the second mental health coaching myth as:
“Myth #2: Mental health coaches aren’t highly trained.”
Boone writes: “Many mental health coaches are rigorously trained. For example, the mental health coaches in Lyra’s network undergo extensive vetting, credentialing, and training. To be considered as a prospective Lyra coach, a candidate must have graduated from a program accredited by the ICF, one of the most renowned professional coaching organizations worldwide. Only the most highly trained candidates are accepted—in fact, Lyra accepts just 2 percent of all applicants to its mental health coaching program.”
Our mental health coaches complete a comprehensive, four-month orientation program designed and overseen by a team of clinicians that focuses on CBT principles and techniques. All coaches are given opportunities to practice this approach before meeting with clients. And just like therapists, coaches are trained to maintain professional boundaries and confidentiality in their relationships with clients.”
If you couldn’t guess, “Boone’s blog” is actually Lyra Health’s blog so it may be a little self-promoting but I applaud their mission all the same because there is definitely a need for mental health coaches and their company provides those in need with the access to mental health services they wouldn’t receive otherwise. I admittedly only found this company by researching material on mental health coaching, so I will shy away from endorsing them completely, if at all.
Many secular counseling programs and psychological theories, in general, hold an atheistic, humanistic, or pagan-eastern mysticism worldview and if the focus is on the superiority of these theories and the power of the self (a subtle form of idol worship – believing you can “be like God”), you have to realize that they may be leading you to health and wellness that is only temporary, most likely fleeting, and ultimately lost in eternity.
I am a Christian Life Coach after all and so I would prescribe a Mental Health Coach that would be just as concerned with saving your soul as saving your peace of mind.
Despite all this, Boone’s Lyra commercial does a good job of debunking the myth that Mental Health Coaches aren’t highly trained.
In my case, even though I haven’t been “Lyra approved” (I haven’t applied and don’t plan to), I have been highly trained as well. Most recently, I have completed Light University’s certification programs for Mental Health Coaching and Professional Life Coaching. These certifications prepared me as a “coach” but prior to that I had a bachelor’s degree in psychology, one in Biblical Studies, and a master’s in Christian Counseling. Although I am not a licensed counselor, I also have work experience in the field of mental health, as a residential counselor for two years full time, a few years as per diem support in various residential settings in my youth, and more recently as a psychiatric technician for Columbia-Greene’s Mobile Crisis Assessment Team a couple of years ago – all with the orientations and training that qualified me to work with the full spectrum of mental health services – from chronic cases and maintenance to crisis management and intake assessments. So, I am confident that my credentials and experience also debunk the myth that mental health coaches aren’t highly trained. Most of us are, I would think, but it’s not a bad idea to ask about your provider’s education, training, and experience.
For me, I have decided to “throw my hat in the ring” as a Christian Life Coach, and act as a Mental Health Coach, because I wanted to DO SOMETHING more to help others to experience the abundant life that is available through Jesus and I know that there are not many “providers” out there that provide the life-changing coaching and wisdom that comes through a Christian Biblical worldview and a deep relationship with God. That’s why I don’t work for a mental health agency and why I won’t be applying to Lyra. They don’t know what I know in terms of the power of living by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit and they don’t know Who I know in terms of God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and even if they did, they’re not really allowed to talk about Him with any degree of depth or meaning.
So Mental Health Coaches can be highly trained, but I would suggest that you seek a Christian Mental Health Coach – one not in name only would be nice – because they have wisdom and power of God at their disposal, and they won’t be shy in sharing it with you.
We will continue with the next myth about Mental Health Coaching tomorrow, until then keep walking and talking with God.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s Bible verses come to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
( While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This morning’s meditation verses come from the section on Death and Eternal Life
1 Corinthians 15:12-23 (NLT2)
12 But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead?
13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.
14 And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.
15 And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead.
16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.
18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost!
19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
21 So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man.
22 Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.
23 But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.
Today’s verses fall under the twenty-seventh point of our counseling reference guide resource’s section on Death and Eternal Life.
27. Jesus’ resurrection guarantees ours.
Today’s verses show us the order and meaning of the resurrection. Christ was the first to be raised from the dead proving that He was who He said He was – the Son of God and God the Son. Not just a good teacher or some demi-god, Jesus is fully God and fully man. And the order of the resurrection, is Jesus first and His followers follow after.
And as Jesus said in
John 11:25-26 (NKJV)
25 … “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
I do believe this! And I have put my faith in Jesus as LORD and Savior and thus I believe that although I die, I will live and when Jesus returns to the earth to reclaim it – if I die before then, I will be resurrected and return with Him!
The resurrection is the proof of Jesus as God and is our hope for the future and all eternity.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament” By Stephen F. Olford – A Collection of Devotional Journals: 1940-1941.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Olford’s books for your own private study and to support his work. This resource is available online for less than $10 at many sites.
EVENING READING: ACTS 19
“God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul.”
– Acts 19:11
What a powerful man Paul became for God! So surrendered was he that God could use him “unusually.” The King James Version translates it “special” miracles. It is the greatest honor possible to be used at all. But to be unusually or specially used for God is the privilege of only those who surrender themselves to God for His service.
The character of the powers or miracles which he performed was previously unheard of. Paul had every reason to be puffed up, yet he could say he was “less than the least of all the saints” (Eph. 3:8), indeed the chief among sinners (see 1 Tim. 1:15).
Lord, reveal to me the whole secret of this man’s life
that I may be used for Your glory. Amen.[1]
—————————more tomorrow————————
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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1] Stephen Olford and Heather Olford, According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, A Collection of Devotional Journals 1940-1941 (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2008).
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