Bishop Fintan Monahan, of Killaloe Diocese in Ireland, and Clare-born, Lichfield-based Sheila McMahon, a Registered Mental Health Counsellor, have come together in a new podcast to discuss ‘The church and mental health’.
One of the many mental health issues they talk about in the podcast, which is part of a new series from Sheila entitled ‘Counsellor Convos’, is suicide.
Last August Sheila delivered a talk about suicide prevention in County Clare, which won the Bishop’s support, and followed in the wake of Sheila discovering that a number of lives had been lost in Co. Clare, especially at one particular location.
Sheila, who is from Newmarket on Fergus said: “One of the issues I’ve found in chatting to people about my talk on suicide prevention, is the stigma that suicide is still seen as a sin. This can create a lot of guilt and confusion around mental illness.
So I wanted to create this podcast so people can hear a healthy conversation between a bishop and a counsellor about mental illness that wasn’t about stigma, shame, and blame, but more about compassion, understanding and hope.”
Bishop Fintan and Sheila both acknowledge the sad reality that many lives are lost to suicide in Co, Clare and the impact that it has on families and what support is out there. The podcast also sees them explore why there was a stigma around suicide.
Bishop Fintan voiced how the record of the church is not great and how much there was a huge regard for all aspects of life, that the church was trying to protect people in saying that suicide was wrong and regarded as deeply sinful in the past.
He also added that: “In the past, for the reasons of protection of the value of life, and the knock-on effects of family and society, the emphasis would have been on the wrongness of people taking their own lives.
“Whereas now, people would look more at what are the root causes. Why does someone get into a dark space like that? And what are the help that can be given?”
Other parts of the conversation included Sheila’s experience of some of her church-going clients feeling guilty when they are unhappy in their lives, believing that they are disrespecting God. Fintan quoted from the early stages of the Gospel of St. John where a sick man asked Jesus if there was anything he had done, or that his relatives had done, and how Jesus reassured him that it wasn’t him.
Sheila hopes that conversations like these, may offer comfort and remove the blame from people who are struggling with guilt.
Bishop Fintan went on to say how the understanding of mental illness has deepened hugely since the turn of the century and how the church can offer the benefits of spirituality and hope.
Sheila hopes that by creating this podcast, she can help to encourage positive change and conversations to promote hope and understanding for mental illness. Fintan finished off by praising Sheila’s work with mental illness.
As Sheila says: “When we come together and come from a place of understanding and compassion, this can bring peace to families who have lost loved ones to mental illness, and help us to also move forward with understanding and support of mental illness.”
The podcast between Counsellor Sheila and Bishop Fintan, which is split into two parts, is now available on Sheila’s YouTube Channel – @SheilasYouTubeChannel – and will also be available to listen on Spotify and Apple podcasts .
Sheila also plans to deliver another suicide prevention talk in Ireland this April where Fintan hopes to attend. Exact details will be announced shortly.