Navigating Group Dynamics and Mental Health

How can Christians know if they are managing their relationships in a healthy way? What does it look like to treat people with mental health disorders lovingly and respectfully? When should parents of young adults speak up, and when should they let their children learn on their own?

These are the types of inquiries that you, listeners of Being Human, have shared with us. Listen as the Cusses answer:

• What are family systems theory and internal family systems theory, and how do they relate to faith?
• How can Christians discern between healthy, gospel-based differentiation of self and becoming detached or cynical?
• How can leaders operate so that those around them can air their differences without dumping all their projections onto the leader?
• What does it look like to navigate settings where an individual’s mental health struggle is setting the tone for a group?
• Since most well-meaning laypeople are not trained therapists, what is the church’s role in dealing with mental illness?
• What are some words of wisdom for parents whose children will soon exit their teen years and enter young adulthood?

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

• Bowen family systems theory
• Internal family systems theory 
• A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix by Edwin H. Friedman
• Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
• “Introducing ‘Being Human with Steve Cuss’”
• Managing Leadership Anxiety: Yours and Theirs by Steve Cuss
• The Expectation Gap: The Tiny, Vast Space between Our Beliefs & Experience of God by Steve Cuss
• Capable Life

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