The Mental Health Handbook for Ministry: A Practical Guide for Supporting the Church's Mental and Emotional Well-Being - Paperback

by Mark Mayfield (Editor)

Biblical and clinical guidance for understanding and responding to common issues

- Quality mental health resource from a biblical worldview
- Equips pastors, church leaders, and church members
- Chapters dedicated to common manifestations of mental and emotional distress, including depression, anxiety, trauma, suicide, self-harm, addiction, personality disorders, grief, and more


Poor mental and emotional health are two of the great crises of our times, and yet most pastors and ministry leaders are not adequately trained or equipped to understand and come alongside the hurting. As a result, our efforts to help those who are wrestling with mental or emotional health struggles are at best inadequate and at worst harmful.

Combining the best of clinical research with a biblical worldview, The Mental Health Handbook for Ministry is a practical and accessible resource to help pastors, church leaders, and others who are called on to offer counsel
- identify the symptoms of particular mental and emotional health challenges
- express love and support to those who are hurting
- recommend healthy coping strategies
- discern when to offer help and when to refer someone to a mental health professional

With chapters dedicated to common manifestations of mental and emotional distress, including depression, anxiety, trauma, suicide, self-harm, addiction, personality disorders, grief, and more, this will quickly become the go-to resource for ministry leaders who long to offer help to the hurting.

Back Jacket

Biblical and clinical guidance for understanding and responding to common issues

Poor mental and emotional health are two of the great crises of our times, and yet most pastors and ministry leaders are not adequately trained or equipped to understand and come alongside the hurting. Combining the best clinical research with a biblical worldview, The Mental Health Handbook for Ministry will help you

- identify the symptoms of particular mental and emotional health challenges
- express love and support to those who are hurting
- recommend healthy coping strategies
- discern when to offer help and when to refer someone to a mental health professional

With chapters dedicated to common manifestations of mental and emotional distress, including depression, anxiety, trauma, suicide, self-harm, addiction, personality disorders, grief, and more, this will quickly become your go-to resource to offer help to the hurting.


"A timely and vital resource for addressing the issues every community and church faces today."--Chap Clark, PhD, author of Hurt 2.0: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers and executive director of Institute for Ministry Leadership: Increase Your Influence

"Accessible and practical, The Mental Health Handbook for Ministry meaningfully adds to the necessary conversation we must have about how the church can flourish in its role as a place of hope and healing for all of our wounded souls."--Curt Thompson, MD, psychiatrist and author of The Deepest Place and The Soul of Desire

"This book will be an invaluable resource to all who desire to care for those who suffer and provide solid counsel from a spiritual perspective."--Dr. Jack Graham, senior pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church

Author Biography

Dr. Mark Mayfield is an author, speaker, leadership coach, counselor, and professor. He is an assistant professor of clinical mental health counseling at Colorado Christian University and also partners with the AACC as the director of practice and ministry development and editor of Marriage & Family: A Christian Journal. Dr. Mayfield lives in Texas with his wife and their three children.