Mind Over Matter

God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.

– Ecclesiastes 7:29

“I don’t know if God has given me a way to make complicated things simple, or if I’m just simple-minded.” Dr. Lyn Westman’s smile lights up the room as she delivers this profound statement summarizing a life and a career that spans the globe.

From a Registered Nurse to degrees in nursing and psychology, to a master’s and Ph.D., to becoming an ordained pastor, Lyn found her career. Along the way, she grew in faith and discovered her passion. When education and belief intersected, she designed a program for mental health and trauma healing training to prepare formal and informal health care providers within a holistic framework.

The integration of faith into practice melded the secular and the spiritual as Lyn realized that, “I could not survive without Jesus.” Her practice became Nouthetic, using prayer and Scripture concurrently with counseling. It required her to rely solely on the Holy Spirit for support. Although she had already begun to travel, the call to take her expertise on the road came after a trip with Mark Geppert to “the high places in China” in 1996. She found this time to be “very impactful.”

In Bosnia, she began working with NGOs to bring awareness and training for mental health and trauma. Initially, she used handouts but found them insufficient. WHO fact sheets and global stories helped to hone her presentation. God sent her the model of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—a five-tier theory in psychology of human needs—that she amended into a unique, faith-based compilation of the secular and spiritual. The resulting manual focuses on understanding people, stress, stress management/counseling, mental disorders, and specific populations. No subject is off-limits.

The latter has made this a flexible tool to use in any culture or society. With a focus on the value of people and an awareness of prejudice, a bigger view is put forth. Why do people think what they think? Why do they do what they do? How can they be engaged with compassion? Which situation that’s a mountain to one person is a molehill to another? An African proverb states: “To know where it leaks in a house, you have to live there.” An understanding of the nation being addressed is key.

Although faith-based, this program works with any group because the verbiage substitutes Scripture-based words with secular language that is universally understood. Learners are “getting Scripture, but they don’t know it.” Spiritual concepts are presented without proselytizing. There is an addendum in the materials for “church leaders” that is referenced throughout. It isn’t used in classes—but is available to all.

Lyn has found that reaching out to teach those whom society rarely includes has yielded fruit. Animists, Muslims, traditional healers from all cultures come to three-day workshops. Using the material she has written, she builds relationships through which God moves hearts. “Whole-person care,” which is conversational and straightforward, avoids a rigid checklist of diagnoses and treatment. Instead, it uses Jesus’s model. By melding limited pertinent components of her own story with their story and God’s story, a genuinely all-inclusive approach emerges.

Working with Mercy Ships, Lyn enters a nation before the ship arrives, and stays after it leaves to build and nurture relationships. She has been to many, many countries in addition to China and Bosnia. Think Liberia after fourteen years of civil war and many other off-the-beaten-path areas around the world. Mercy Ships now focuses on African nations. Going forward, Lyn hopes to continue with that organization while expanding to meet needs in other countries. She has traveled to Cambodia for SEAPC to train house parents in the New Hope for Orphans program and is interested in further partnerships with SEAPC projects. She also wants to address attrition. Kids and leaders eagerly receive teaching while Lyn is there. But they drift away from what they have learned after she leaves.

Lyn has published two books, Understanding People, Mental Health, and Trauma and Baby Finds Grace. A new book, Fire Quenching Thorn, is in the final review stages before seeking a publishing home.

Dr. Lyn Westman wants her teaching to be “faith-based but simple enough.” And in determining right and wrong, she advocates considering these basic questions: Does it build life and relationship? Or does it destroy life and relationship? Godly versus worldly. Wrapped up in a simple package.

Dr. Lyn Westman has an amazing mind. And she knows what matters. She is simply following His will, one hurting soul at a time throughout the world. May God bless her work, her travel, and her heart for His people.