Marin religious leaders talk about limits of spirituality in helping the mentally ill

Nov. 21--A representative group of Marin's religious leaders brought together by the county found points of intersection between spirituality and mental health.

"A fundamental teaching of the Buddha is that -- excuse me for saying so -- we're all mentally ill; there is kind of a spectrum that we fall on," said Furyu Nancy Shroeder, the abbess at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, which is located in a valley near Muir Beach.

"We can all relate to what it means to be afraid, or to be angry or to be lustful," Shroeder said. "The Buddha taught that our primary engines of pain are greed, hate and delusion. In many ways, I think that Green Gulch Farm is a residential treatment program that all of us have joined."

The group gathered during a workshop Wednesday sponsored by Marin County's Mental Health and Substance Use Services division.

Shroeder was joined on the panel by a rabbi, a Catholic priest, a student of Sufism, and one Pentecostal pastor and two other Protestant ministers, including the Rev. Paul Gaffney who serves as Marin's Interfaith Street Chaplain ministering to the homeless. More than 50 people turned out for the afternoon workshop, which was held at the county's Health and Wellness Campus in San Rafael.

Several of the speakers were quick to note their lack of expertise when it comes to addressing serious mental illness while acknowledging their responsibility to counsel troubled individuals as best they can and refer them to mental health professionals.

Avoiding problem

Father Romulo Vergara, the administrator of Saint Raphael Church in San Rafael, said many members of his church are immigrants who resist discussing mental illness due to the stigma that surrounds it.

"The problem is there, but people turn a blind eye on the problem," Vergara said.

Vergara said, however, because his parishioners trust the church they do sometimes seek advice on how to cope with emotional problems. Vergara said he often avoids using the term "mental illness" until after he has developed a rapport with the person he is counseling.

"I find it helpful to call it any other name like disoriented or troubled," he said.

Vergara said the ultimate goal is to refer the individual experiencing problems to a mental health professional for treatment.

"The acknowledgement of the boundaries of my capacity to deal with mental health care cases are always set forth," Vergara said. "I know my limitations."

Vergara said he has even resorted to contacting police and obtaining a restraining order against a mentally ill parishioner who persisted in disrupting services at Saint Raphael Church. He said that person was eventually admitted to a hospital for long-term care.

Focus on humanity

Johnathan Logan, senior pastor of the Cornerstone Community Church of God in Christ in Marin City, said, "I believe faith and spirituality can contribute greatly to the overall well being and mental health of people within the faith community; I've witnessed this in my 31 years of pastoral ministry.

"I also realize there are persons who may need the intervention of professionals who are more adept at diagnosing and initiating interventions," Logan said.

Schroeder said the disciplined routine of meditation at Green Gulch is probably not suitable for some people who are struggling with mental illness.

"If they're disruptive, it's really hard," Schroeder said, "because then we don't have the training or the capacity to be very supportive."

Street chaplain Gaffney, however, made the case for embracing the mentally ill as individuals and, whenever possible, making them welcome members of congregations.

Championing the ideas of Scottish theologian John Swinton, a seminal figure in the development of disability theology, Gaffney stressed the importance of not losing sight of the humanity of the mentally ill.

"Diagnosis is giving a person a new name, one they may not want or identify with," Gaffney said. "Does the person who is diagnosed as schizophrenic just become schizophrenic, or are they still John?"

"The role of spiritual care is to help people with a mental health diagnoses in reclaiming their original name," Gaffney said, "to look at the person as who they are before their diagnosis."

Meeting goals

Rabbi Meredith Cahn, director of J School, the religious school shared by Congregation Ner Shalom in Cotati and B'nai Israel Jewish Center in Petaluma, told a story by a 19th century Hasidic master to illustrate the importance of relating to the mentally ill on their own terms.

According to the tale, a king's son became convinced he was a turkey so he took off all his clothes, climbed under the dinner table and began gobbling bits of bread. A wise man, however, convinces the king's son to put on his clothes and return to his seat at the table. The first thing the wise man does is take off his clothes, climb under the table and also begin eating bread. The wise man informs the boy that he too is a turkey and then slowly demonstrates that turkeys can also wear clothes, eat human food and sit at a table. The king's son follows his lead.

"So he met him exactly where he was, literally and figuratively," Cahn said.

Amineh Amelia Pryor, a licensed marriage and family therapist who also leads Sufist meditation in San Francisco and Marin, said, "The only place we can start with anyone is where they are now."

Pryor said religious teachers should avoid pushing an agenda or belief system and make sure they're trying to meet the goals of the person with the problem, not their own goals.

Gaffney held out the Belgian city of Geel, where hundreds of families take in the mentally ill as boarders in return for a stipend, as a model for integrating the mentally ill into the community.

Geel is the home of Saint Dymphna, the patron saint of the mentally ill. In the 13th century, the mentally ill flocked to a church built to honor Saint Dymphna in hopes of a cure; the church became so overwhelmed that local families began to take in the afflicted and the tradition has continued to the present day.

"I just wonder what it would be like to live in a place that valued caring for people so much that we opened our homes to them," Gaffney said. "Because I feel like in our current political climate that we dislike people so much that we banish them to a life outside."

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