Providing for emotional, physical, and spiritual needs of women and their children

You can tell right away that this portion of our “Living out our Mission” statement is over three years old. Today, we would have emphatically put in “mental” as a key need that we provide for. What makes the outcome of this statement is important? They all provide a dignified and safe community – and that is essential to us.

In today’s world, we call this type of ministry, holistic. That means we do not focus on the problems, the “why” our women are with us, but rather look at the “what” of their whole being we can be part of in the healing process. It is more than the reason they are with us and more on the woman’s life in its entirety, including career, physical, familial, and spiritual aspects.

It comes back to the relationship they have with their own thoughts, feelings and behaviours. It is about establishing and allowing for healthy responses to those thoughts and feelings i.e., creating an environment that meets need.

We love seeing women strengthen their own self-awareness and ability to self-regulate. When they can monitor their own emotional state, they become more adept at communicating with others, and manage stress without needing to engage in something like substance abuse.

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it." - Victor Frankl

When we move into the physical realm, women who engage in substance abuse may experience more physical effects in their heart and blood vessels.

Addictions are further messed with as hormones, physical changes, and mental health will influence what is looks like as it is developed. Now, mental, and physical healing will have to come through comprehensive and professional attention.

Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross would use descriptions like “cloud of the unknowing” and “dark night of the soul” to describe a crisis of faith in themselves or others that would push to seek help in the realm of the spiritual. Anxiety and depression which comes from a sense of loss and disruption from the comfortable or known are very much like boulders on their shoulders. Those boulders can be named – sadness, fear, anxiety, anger, and rejection. Those can block out mental and emotional progress but also blind to the importance of prayer and the healing process that includes the spiritual. These are the same learning blocks that affect children’s mental, emotional and spiritual maturation.

There are two sources of these “boulders” --

Abuse: physical, sexual, emotional, mental, or spiritual.

Abandonment: physically, separation and divorce, or death; and emotionally through a verbal threat to abandon. 

I read an article titled, “The Importance of Spirituality in the Lives of Domestic Violence Survivors.” It came out of a study from both Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Michigan State University in East Lansing.

The results of their study revealed that the more women attended religious institutions, and viewed them as a source of strength and comfort, the less depressed they were and the higher was their quality of life.

The same study showed that women’s number of children was significantly correlated with both self-esteem and depression. The greater number of children they had, the greater their self-esteem and the lower their level of depression. The study suggests that survivors of domestic violence who by virtue of their abusive relationships are not receiving positive reinforcement from their intimate relationships, may receive added mental health satisfaction from their responsibilities as mothers and the closeness of their relationships with their children.

Some final thoughts on this “Living out our Mission” portion. When there is violence and/or verbal abuse in a family, it brings suffering that lasts generations. Add substance abuse and we add serious health effects on unborn children. Substance abuse poses a threat to every aspect of life. No matter what, they will suffer physical effects and most will suffer from mental health issues. When the women are teenagers, there is even greater risk of anemia, hypertension, and depression disorders.

This is what makes this “Living out our Mission” statement so powerful. It is why it is our first statement. We look at the whole of the women providing a holistic approach to ministry that brings completeness, healing and restoration and purpose.