Christian leaders need to expel the myth that faith and mental health are incompatible

In the midst of Mental Health Awareness week and writer, Maxine Harrison shares her own journey of seeking therapy after Christian influencers showed her the importance of emotions.

Mental health and Christianity have long had a complex relationship. This is because conversations around mental health in the church, in my experience, have often been seen as something to either dismiss under the guise of “being strong in the faith” or have been equated with something demonic that needs to be cast out in a particular way.

But both approaches lack nuance and neglect that God made us with emotions. Therefore, emotions can’t be negative by default. We see this in Ephesians 4:26, which distinguishes between human and righteous anger.