May is Mental Health Awareness month.
During this month, I want to try and reflect about the vocation of the mental health professional. A vocation that is as Christian as it is human.
On Day 1, I want to start with what strikes me the most: the etymology of the term “psychopathology” … or quite literally “the meaning (logos) of the suffering (pathos) of the soul (psyche).”
The hope in the term “psychopathology” is exactly that: suffering that we bear and can give meaning to does not burden the soul but allows the soul to grow.
But when suffering is unbearable, it can crush the soul.
But what is this seemingly unbearable suffering that crushes the soul?
“Soul” is the breath of life that animates. The source of Life flows into the organism not just to give life, but to sustain life and to allow it to become abundant. But that source, of its very nature, flows. Air is breathed in and breathed out with every breath that sustains Life. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat until one’s last breath.
The same goes for soul. Our soul is nourished not in “ourselves” but in relation.
And just as poor breathing harms the body, so does poor relating harm the whole person through impoverishing soul.
Relationships are our lifeblood.
Through relationships we suffer;
through relationships we heal.
We are living in a world of pervasive proximity, ubiquitous connection — but still, seemingly little relation. We are so immersed in an oxygen tank that inhaling and exhaling become physically impossible. So we are connected — but lonelier than ever. And that loneliness, a defensive posture against too much connection, is burdening our souls.
There is an antidote to such poison. Life always finds ways of healing itself.
That antidote is counter-intuitive. Not struggling more, but doing less.
Pausing.
Choosing.
Just one intentional connection at a time.
My body sensing the earth.
My soul regenerating through breathing together in synchrony.
Both literally and metaphorically, that is how all psychotherapy tends to start.
And that first breath—sometimes after many years of oxygen deprivation—can feel like a tiny step toward rebirth.
Seek a breathing partner if life has long felt unbearable. You are really not alone in this.
