INTERVIEW
MENTAL HEALTH CARE Ruth Limkin interviews psychologist Peter Hayton on navigating challenge and caring for mental health for pastors..
T
he difficultly of navigating through the pandemic continues, with many impacts on churches and pastors, including mental health. Ruth Limkin interviewed Peter Hayton, a senior psychologist who has been practicing for over 20 years who is the Clinical Director of The Banyans Health and Wellness. Peter has also been a missionary and pastor, so understands the context in which pastors live and work. Ruth Limkin: Thank you for taking the time to talk with me about mental wellbeing and pastors.You have pastored and also worked with pastors in your private practice over the last 20 years. Is there anything at this season in time, particularly with COVID, that you’re really noticing about pastors’ mental health? Peter Hayton: It’s a very new existence for pastors and any time we do something new, it increases stress. The effect on each person, as to what and how this season may affect them, will vary, according to how much other stress and agitation they’re carrying. I notice that some pastors are doing quite well and reinventing ways of doing church and feeling quite energized about that. Others are not doing so well and feeling a little like things are falling apart. There are mild mental health issues presenting
in many people. I’m sure that there are also pastors, who are people just like anybody else, who may be experiencing more moderate to severe mental health issues as well. Ruth: When you’re talking to pastors about looking after their mental health, have you noticed that there are barriers in either understanding or feeling comfortable talking about mental health? Peter: Yes, on occasions. When I first trained as a psychologist 25 years ago, there was a little bit of apprehension about the whole idea of psychology in the Christian context. I think that’s still there, and not just in the Christian context but across the wider community. For example, when you take a concept like suicide, people aren’t really even sure - in any realm - as to whether it’s something that we can talk about. They wonder, “If I talk about it, is that going to make it worse?” There’s a lot of fear and apprehension in the community. Ruth: Are you noticing people experiencing thoughts of suicide? Peter: This year, there is more space for people to think thoughts that could be considered suicidal thoughts. We call it suicide ideation, which is where someone realises that they are experiencing thought about suicide or harming themselves. This can happen to pastors, just as much as to anybody else. Like any other thought, those thoughts are not 26
something that we have to hide away from. There are many thoughts that come to us, and we don’t have to hide away from them. Instead, we can bring them into the light. This includes when pastors have people in their church come to them to talk about self-harm or suicidal thoughts. We don’t have to hide away from these thoughts. Pastors are able to acknowledge them and help connect that person to the right kind of help and support. Ruth: Can you explain what you are referring to when you mention selfharming? Peter: There’s generally two forms of self-harming: what we call non-suicidal self-harming and suicidal self-harming. Sometimes, suicidal self-harming can be experimentation, where people may be experimenting around the idea of ‘doing something to harm myself to threaten my life’. There is non-suicidal self-harming, which is a releasing of emotional pain but in the absence of any suicidal ideation or thoughts. Ruth: Going back to what we were talking about earlier about the stress occurring. What are some of the stresses that you’re finding people are experiencing? Peter: Change is a stress. Pastors, like many other professionals, have really busy lives. When you’re living a busy life, you don’t always know how to cope with a slowdown. Certainly, I’ve noticed
