Author: aberry

The Samaritan Counseling Center of Montgomery is pleased to offer Soul Shop™ for Congregations workshops for congregations wishing to learn more about suicide awareness and prevention.

The mission of the Soul Shop™ Movement is to equip faith leaders to minister to those impacted by suicidal desperation within churches and communities. Through this workshop, curriculum, and other resources, we engage the imagination and creativity of leaders in faith communities about the ways that they can be part of the solution to suicidal desperation. We do this by teaching basic suicide awareness and intervention skills as well as challenging the church to take seriously the mandate of Jesus to bind up the broken hearted. This involves an examination of ways to preach about, pray about, and build infrastructure around suicide and its upstream causes.

Soul Shop is the only approved provider of faith-based suicide prevention training through the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and has been in existence for 11 years.

In a Soul Shop training, participants will learn….

· What makes it so hard to talk about suicide.

· How prevalent suicide is in various demographic groups.

· What to look for to identify suicidal desperation.

· How to ask the question of someone who is thinking about suicide.

· How to find the resources that leave people in good hands and leads them to safety.

· What Scripture has to say about suicide.

· What the contributories are to suicidal desperation and what the church can do about each one.

· What outreach can look like to various community members how are at risk.

It is particularly relevant to the work of boards, ministry teams, program and office staff, parish nurses, lay ministers, worship leaders, and fellowship group leaders who serve faith communities.

Soul Shop™ for Congregations is a 60-90 minute presentation. For more information about hosting a presentation at your church, contact Cary Kuhlmann, Executive Director, of The Samaritan Counseling Center at (334) 262-7787 ext. 217 or email at ckuhlmann@tsccenter.org