Over the years I’ve received many emails from Christian parents, teachers, and pastors who have been deeply concerned about the mental health of their high schoolers. Like me, they are alarmed about the widespread depression, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies among the teens they know and love. I’ve tried to help as much as I could, but I’ve always felt that I could do more to help more. I just don’t have the capacity to offer individual counseling to people outside my immediate circles of responsibility.
In addition, I’ve also wanted to teach preventative care, to get ahead of mental illness, and provide teens with strategies and resources to not only avoid mental illness, but even flourish and thrive in their mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Hence my new book, The Happy Christian.
But are teens going to read it? I hope so; but I fear not.
So what about free mental health seminars for high-schoolers, conducted via Skype video?
That’s what I took part in yesterday. A Christian school teacher in another state arranged for me to Skype into his class and speak for 20 minutes about depression and then answer questions for 10-15 minutes. From what I could see, the students listened very well, took good notes, and asked some great questions. It only took 30-35 minutes of my time and about 20-30 young people received instruction on vital issues that are often totally neglected in school curricula. That to me is a great use of time for them and for me.
So, I’d like to offer other Christian schools the opportunity to do something similar. If you’re interested in this, please contact my assistant sarah.perez@prts.edu and we’ll see what we can fit into the schedule.