Church & Mental Health with Laura Howe
The Allender Center Podcast
The Allender Center
4.7 • 648 Ratings
🗓️ 3 October 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What does it look like for the Church to become a true place of hope, healing, and care when it comes to mental health? In this week's conversation, Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen are joined by Laura Howe, a clinical social worker and founder of Hope Made Strong and the Church Mental Health Summit, a free online event coming up on October 10, 2025.
Laura shares her journey into bridging faith and mental health—born out of frustration and a longing to see the Church rise to its calling as a safe, caring community. Together, they explore the unique role the Church can play in mental health support: not as a replacement for clinical care, but as a vital presence of peer support, belonging, and discipleship that helps people feel seen and held.
This episode touches on:
-
How churches can move beyond programs to cultivate a culture of care
-
The power of peer support as the "missing piece" in mental health conversations
-
The theological and cultural obstacles that keep communities from engaging suffering honestly
-
The very real challenges of compassion fatigue and burnout for leaders—and practices for resilience
Whether you're a pastor, ministry leader, caregiver, or someone longing to see your church embody greater compassion, this conversation offers both hope and practical wisdom for building communities where people can truly experience the canopy of care we all need.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | At the Allender Center, we know story and relational healing can reshape the way we see ourselves and the world. |
| 0:13.9 | What if theology could be approached with the same care? |
| 0:16.8 | The certificate in living theology, hosted by the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, |
| 0:22.5 | is a fully online, one-year program that explores how theology is formed, challenged, and renewed |
| 0:29.6 | in conversation with culture, history, and lived experience. |
| 0:34.5 | In this program, you'll engage in live online classes that invite rigorous and reflective |
| 0:40.8 | dialogue, and you'll join in listening labs that cultivate presence, discernment, and deeper connection. |
| 0:48.1 | With the guidance of experienced mentors, you'll learn to integrate theological insight |
| 0:53.3 | with psychological awareness and relational |
| 0:56.1 | depth, shaping a faith that can engage the complexities of our time. Discover how theology |
| 1:03.0 | and story can come alive together. Learn more at the Seattle school.edu. |
| 1:26.1 | Thank you for listening to the Allender Center podcast. |
| 1:28.1 | I'm Dr. Dan Allender. |
| 1:29.7 | And I'm Rachel Clinton-Cent. |
| 1:34.0 | We're fiercely committed to providing hope and healing to a fragmented world. |
| 1:36.3 | And restoration for the heart. |
| 1:38.0 | Thank you for joining us. |
| 1:39.7 | Let's get this conversation started. Thank you. Rachel, when we talk about mental health, one of the places we know it's hardest to engage that topic happens to be what? |
| 2:04.6 | Unfortunately, a place many of us have spent a lot of formative time, the church. |
| 2:09.8 | Yeah, and again, what we would argue and what I think most people would want to know is that it's the place that it is safest, most honored |
| 2:21.9 | to engage the issues of the heart, the mind, the body. |
| 2:27.7 | And yet, I think it's one of the great tragedies, and that is, it's often the place that's most difficult. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Allender Center, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Allender Center and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.