By: yesHEis
At an early age, Christian Gray Hering knew he wanted to help people. He dreamt of being a missionary and pursued that by becoming a member of a missions organisation. That was until he faced a crippling battle with anxiety.
On the other side of anxiety, having overcome this battle, Christian was motivated to re-evaluate his direction in life. He still had a strong passion to help people and realised he could do so in the field of psychology and decided to pursue that through study.
Now a clinical therapist at an inpatient psychiatric facility, Christian serves people facing suicidal ideation, extreme anxiety, or psychosis.
“I think of people, in a way, as computer problems. It’s like, here’s this input coming in that leads to this result, but what if I can change that input or I can affect their perception of that input. Maybe that can give them a clearer picture of things. I like the puzzle of people and helping them to understand themselves a little clearer so that maybe they can understand the world a little clearer”, Christian said.
Christian uses his faith to help his patients discover a new perspective.
“It’s really about allowing them to find more grace for themselves in their own journey”, he said.
Christian is motivated by this scripture to see people experience freedom:
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. — 1 John 3:8
Christian sees his work as his new mission: to bring his patients out of the darkness and into the light so they can experience God’s goodness — just as he has.
“Our responsibility is to fight back against the way the enemy has negatively influenced people’s lives,” he said. “In that, it may just be as simple as doing God’s work by pointing someone in the right direction, or upholding their value, or helping them overcome their most pressing psychological need right now.”
Christian believes that each of us has a gift which God has equipped us well to use in order to see others experience true freedom.
“God has empowered us all in unique ways to push back the darkness.”
Article supplied with thanks to The Journey by yesHEis.
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Feature image: Supplied