Objectives:
This network deals with the interactions of psyche, faith. and migration and/or multiculturality. The goal is to equip and connect pastors, mental health professionals, and researchers that work with Christians with a migrant background and that are busy with questions concerning this theme. Among other things, there is room and attention for questions amongst christian migrants with mental problems, migrant pastors that give pastoral care to congregants with mental difficulties, and caregivers that want to include multiculturalism in their care process.
Background:
The HUB Mental Well-being for Christian Migrants originated in 2019. Pastors Esther van Schie and Marien Kollenstaart were leading a multicultural church and noticed that some migrants were having trouble with psychological/mental difficulties, they noticed that it was hard to refer them to psychologists that were not christian and/or did not share a cultural background. They were curious if this was something the christian GGZ (mental well-being care) was busy with, so they contacted Prof. Dr, Hanneke Schaap; rector of the Institute of Knowledge Christian GGZ and extraordinary professor in clinical religious sciences at the Free University of Amsterdam. Right at that time, Hanneke had come in contact with her colleague Dr. Danielle Phillips-Koning, who, from within the Center for Theology of Migration at the VU, had started researching migrant churches, pastoral care, and mental healthcare. From the shared query, the four of them decided to explore these themes further, and so the ‘HUB Mental Well-Being for Christians’ arose. The first expert meeting was held in 2019 and in the following years they hope to come in contact with many more experts from the field to think about the collaboration between faith, psyche, and migration.
Publications
- Hanneke Schaap-Jonker, Daniëlle Phillips-Koning and Esther van Schie-Hofman, ‘Christelijke migranten en het stigma op geestelijke gezondheidszorg. Interview met Hedwig Komproe‘, Psyche & Geloof 33 (2022) , nr. 3, 135-139.
- Esther van Schie and Francina de Pater, ‘Migrantenvrouwen en traumaverwerking. Een case study over de Freedom Focus cursus‘, Psyche & Geloof 33 (2022) , nr. 3, 185-190.
- You can read the congress report of 27 October here. The report has been published in Psyche & Geloof.
Think along
Do you also want to be involved with the HUB and think along as expert? Then leave your contact information behind in the contact form down below.