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How This Church Is Fighting the Belief that 'If You Get Counseling, You're Crazy'

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NASHVILLE, TN – As a college senior, Dacari J. Middlebrooks received a dreadful phone call from the mother of his best friend: he had been killed the night before. The man he hoped would stand up for him at his wedding and become his children's godfather was gone and the impact sent him spiraling downward.

"For three years after his murder, I woke up in the middle of the night in sweats and I was having dreams about his death," Middlebrooks told CBN News.

While at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School, a professor noticed his struggles and said he should go see a counselor.

The Stigma Surrounding Mental Health Struggles

"I said, 'I appreciate your suggestion but black people don't go to counseling – we just pray about it,'" he explained.

Middlebrooks is not alone in his struggle. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that one in five US adults experience mental illness every year.

That includes 48 million people who struggle each year with an anxiety disorder, 17 million who experience a major depressive episode, nine million with PTSD and seven million with bipolar disorder.

For young people, it can literally be a life or death struggle. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10-34, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

The Benefits of Counseling

Fortunately for Middlebrooks, he eventually made his way to a therapist and found healing while in counseling for two and a half years.

"I was able to talk about my past, who I was, who I was connected to," he said. "I was able to really talk about my childhood and not feel embarrassed about what I went through as a kid, talking about not having my father in the home, him going away and marrying someone else. I was able to really talk and work through other issues that I didn't know bothered me."

Middlebrooks began attending Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Its pastor, Bishop Joseph Walker, had also suffered in his own mental health journey and talked openly about it from the pulpit.

A Wake-Up Call for the Church

It started after Walker lost his first wife to cancer. He told CBN News "I found myself in a place of depression and didn't know what it was. I knew I was in a dark place."

Walker also eventually sought out counseling and as he healed, he realized his own church needed a wake-up call. 

"I think there is in the African-American community this whole idea that – this phobia – this stigma – that if you get counseling you're crazy," he said.

Walker says he began to understand more about the stigma around mental health in his congregation and realized that many sitting in the pews, like him, were also struggling with mental health issues.

"ChurchFit" Program Helps the Whole Person

Now remarried, Walker and his wife Dr. Stephaine Walker, a pediatrician, are bringing mental health to the forefront at Mt. Zion. They started ChurchFit, a holistic wellness program that incorporates physical exercise classes of all types offered at the church, along with mental health education and awareness.

This includes regular talk from the pulpit about what it means to grapple with struggles of the mind.

Dr. Walker says the pulpit mentions are intentional. "We now make it a part of our everyday conversation as opposed to something that's whispered," she said. "Or opposed to something that's only talked about in the corner. It's a part of everyday conversation. So, 'you need help? How are you feeling today?' and asking three questions beyond that because what is the common answer? 'Well, I'm fine. Well really? So tell me more.'"

Dr. Vanessa Bell, a psychologist and member at Mt. Zion, says the new direction has been huge.

"I think what he did, in essence, is normalize it from the pulpit – that what you're experiencing is real. We can pray about it but there are also resources available."

Dr. Walker has developed a referral system for the church so that members or people in the community can call and easily find a counselor, psychiatrist or support group. 

"As a church, we don't have to recreate the wheel. They have the resources. We serve as the connectors," she explained.

Mt. Zion also trains its lay leaders to know how to help, by asking the right questions in conversations and not letting go when someone is hurting until they've found a resource.

"It's not an option to leave you," says Dr. Walker. "It's not an option to hang up the phone. It's not an option to tell you 'we can't help you.' Where do I need to send you next – and they're trained to figure out immediately in that moment – what are the next steps in terms of getting that person help and getting that person connected."

Dr. Matthew Stanford, a Houston-based psychiatrist who connects churches with mental health resources, says research shows that people struggling with their mental health often turn first to a clergy member. 

He says that welcoming churches can improve the quality of life for those in the midst of a dark place. 

"We find the supportive community of a faith community is a protective factor," he told CBN News. "Do you have a faith community that is open and caring and grace-oriented, where people can talk about their problems and connect with one another?"

For Middlebrooks, he's gone from shame to healing and transparency. He writes about his journey in his new book, The Depressed Millennial: Surviving Unmet Expectations.

Middlebrooks, who both attends and works at Mt. Zion, says the church's culture around mental health is improving.

"I think the church is now aware that there has to be a space and I think that's what we've been here at Mt. Zion, is carving out a space for dialogue. A lot of people were afraid to share that 'I'm broken.'"

The Path to Wellness is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Bishop Walker says Mt. Zion wants to help its members while they work through their issues and afterward as well.

"I think the beauty of a community that cares is that when people are in their process they are constantly being ministered to. They are constantly being supported. They're not being ostracized. They're still being part of a community," he said.

"When they come through that process we then tell them 'how did it go? But guess what? It's not a sprint. It's a marathon.'"

It's a joy, said Walker, when these people can share their testimonies, although that's not always possible.

"The essence of being liberated is the acknowledgment of my own personal incarceration. What was I liberated from? What was I set free from?" he explained.

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About The Author

Heather
Sells

Heather Sells covers wide-ranging stories for CBN News that include religious liberty, ministry trends, immigration, and education. She’s known for telling personal stories that capture the issues of the day, from the border sheriff who rescues migrants in the desert to the parents struggling with a child that identifies as transgender. In the last year, she has reported on immigration at the Texas border, from Washington, D.C., in advance of the Dobbs abortion case, at crisis pregnancy centers in Massachusetts, and on sexual abuse reform at the annual Southern Baptist meeting in Anaheim