As people begin attending Healing Through Christ meetings, the most common reaction is “I wish I had known this years ago!” The principles and concepts which we discuss focus on increasing faith in Jesus Christ through a step-by-step process to feel the healing power of the Savior’s Atonement on a daily basis.

Spiritual healing for individuals and relationships comes as a result of the following concepts, among others, that can be applied in many different situations:

• Learning how to distinguish between negative thoughts and negative emotions and the appropriate way to respond to each
• Respecting agency and honoring the process of personal growth
• Setting healthy boundaries
• Emotionally detaching from obsessing over others’ problems without detaching from the person
• Understanding the emotional stages at work in our own and other’s lives
• Recognizing in ourselves codependent rescuing, persecuting, and suffering behaviors
• Trusting God to work in another’s life
• Placing hope in our Savior, Jesus Christ
• Learning how to believe in and experience the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ
• Clearing away clutter that interferes with our ability to hear and respond to the Spirit
• Using tools such as a gratitude journal, fear list, and forgiveness practice to combine the power of emotional and spiritual healing

No problem-solving that happens in meetings; there are no discussions or cross-talk, so no one is giving advice to another person. These are not classes, and we do not teach a lesson or lead a discussion. All solutions come through the Spirit. In meetings we simply read the steps and the Spirit teaches and inspires the individual’s action to find solutions and healing through the Savior’s Atonement. We have a time to share our experience, faith, and hope, but we listen silently in appreciation and support as each of us shares or passes.

People come to meetings as a result of a wide variety of experiences. We often don’t know why a participant is there—the focus is on the solution, not the problem. But these are some challenges that have been helped by participating in Healing Through Christ meetings:

• Strained relationship with a spouse
• Need for new healthy ways of relating with adult children
• Ability to preserve relationships in spite of concerns over wayward child such as
  • Children who leave the church
  • Children who develop drug or other addictions
  • Children who have come out as gay or lesbian
• Life-threatening health crisis in children or grandchildren
• Diagnosis of chronic health condition
• Caring for children or adult family members with special needs
• Caring for aging parents
• Adult children who make poor financial, educational, or relationship decisions
• Crisis of faith
• Loved one’s addiction
• Loss of a loved one to suicide
• Ability to face relationship challenges without resorting to negative responses
• Need to create internal boundaries that prevent rushing into rescue or fix children or teenagers
• Increased ability to allow children to make decisions and learn from their own experience, rather than trying to manage their lives
• Need to understand emotional stages of response to trauma, loss, change in circumstances, etc.
• Strained relationships as a result of codependent behavior
• Deep, hidden anger and learning how to heal through the 12 Steps and the Atonement of Jesus Christ
• Sexual tensions in a marriage— trying to set boundaries for what is acceptable behavior
• Recovery from anger at family and church leaders after the overdose death of a spouse
• Fear as a result of job loss or marital problems; learning tools to process fear and let go and turn everything over to God
• Struggles with depression and feelings of isolation
• Struggles with anxiety and fear
• Aftermath of childhood physical and sexual abuse
• Struggle to stay faithful to covenants as a member with same-sex attraction
• Emotionally abusive marriage
• Effects of attachment disorders from childhood
• Sexual and other addictions; we have a number of participants who find HTC helpful and encouraging for coping with their own addictions, especially for dealing with the underlying emotions and triggers
• Bitterness from a contentious divorce
• Anger at church members or leaders that led to inactivity
• Need to develop a deeper ability to forgive
• Struggle to understand the nature of addiction and why loved ones turn to the addiction when they promise and intend to stop
• Need for a place that is safe to process difficult memories and find hope for the future
• Opportunity to see others who are in the process of using the Atonement to overcome a variety of challenges we don’t feel safe discussing at church

If this seems like a very broad array of problems, it is because Jesus Christ is the solution to most problems, and Healing Through Christ helps us come unto Him. Will you join us and decide if there is something to bless your life in these meetings? We have call-in meetings every day of the week; find more information at www.thearborkalamazoo.com or email thearborkalamazoo@gmail.com.