Foolish Hosey: Speaking

Upcoming Events:

For an updated list of speaking events, check out the Christ on the Psych Ward website!

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Invite me to speak:
Is your organization, faith community, or conference interested in having deeper discussions about mental health, mental illness, and spirituality? I'd love to come and talk with you!

I'm happy to do any of the following:

give a sermon for a weekly worship gathering
lead a Bible study relevant to those struggling with mental health
speak about my upcoming book, Christ on the Psych Ward, and create a safe space for others to share their stories
facilitate a workshop on ministry with folks struggling with mental health crises

If you're interested in having me speak to your community, organization, or conference, just send me an email!

Speaking at the Wild Goose Festival in July 2015

If you're curious about the kind of thing you might hear when I give a talk, here's a few examples:

This blog post summarizes the talks I gave at this past summer's Wild Goose Festival
We did a live recording of our podcast at Wild Goose, which gives you a bit of a taste of my approach to Bible study
And you can follow this link to hear a recent sermon I shared during a Sunday morning worship service

Want to know more, or just chat about possibilities? Send me an email!

Mental Health Resources

Since I write and speak about my experiences with mental health and mental illness, I think it's important to share resources for folks who are struggling:

-- Remember, the most important resource for folks struggling with mental illness is people and communities who are willing to just show up -- to listen non-judgmentally and to reduce isolation

-- If you're in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255. You can find out more about the Lifeline at their website or the website of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

-- Many denominations have begun developing mental health resources for use in churches, such as the UCC's Mental Health Network and the UMC's Caring Community Program

-- Mental Health First Aid training, which I highly recommend for anyone, but particularly people -- from pastors to from security guards to church front desk volunteers to parents -- who often end up being the 'first on the scene' during mental health crises.

-- A number of organizations like NAMI and Recovery International have peer-to-peer support groups.

-- For pastors and leaders of faith communities, the best book-length resource I can recommend is John Swinton's Resurrecting the Person: Friendship and the Care of Persons with Mental Health Problems. It combines insightful research on mental health, theological depth, and practical proposals for ministry contexts.

-- Sarah Lund's book, Blessed are the Crazy, has a number of helpful resources in an appendix. Other books that have been helpful to me in my journey have been Andrew Solomon's The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression; Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness; Monica A. Coleman's Not Alone: Reflections on Faith and Depression and Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman’s Journey with Depression and Faith; and Jean Vanier's very short and easy to read Seeing Beyond Depression.

Foolish Hosey

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