How to CARE: Crisis, Trauma, and Mental Health Ministry with the Arts

When hearts break, creativity can become a lifeline. The needs around us are growing—crisis, trauma, and mental health struggles touch nearly every family and congregation. But many believers feel unprepared to help.This book offers a way forward: a Spirit-led, arts-based, scientifically validated path to responding with both compassion and creativity. It's called CARE:Compassionate Artistic Response and Engagement.CARE is a healing form of creative arts ministry, based on proven Art Therapy practices, grounded in trauma-informed principles, and done with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.In this handbook you'll find:150+ creative arts ideas, examples, and practical directions for ministry to the hurting, contributed by professional therapists, artists, and ministers.Research-backed evidence for how the arts, creativity, beauty, imagination, and movement support healing and ministry.You'll learn:How the arts are excellent allies in the Christian mission of compassionate response and how a developing a trauma-informed faith is the Christian way.How the CARE Arts Ministry model—Spirit Led, Trauma & Art Therapy Informed, Humility Based, and Exchange Oriented—can be facilitated by any believer, from "unartistic" lay person to master artist.The principles in How to CARE can revitalize how congregations and believers support those affected by crisis and mental health challenges. If you're ready to respond to today's challenges with compassion and creativity, How to CARE provides a clear path: Compassionate Artistic Response and Engagement (CARE).Be part of the response. Pick up your copy of How to CARE today and learn how to bring healing through the arts. Read more