The Human Condition with Chenele Shaw
By Mercedes Shirts
The Human Condition mental health advocate Chenele Shaw is working to change the narrative about mental health and faith.
In the spring of 2020, Kristen Deasy, friend of Chenele and founder of The Human Condition, invited Chenele to become a board member for the organization. Together, the duo has invited people into deeper conversation about the importance of seeing mental health and faith as unified.
“We try to inspire hope and healing in people by doing all that we can to broaden the conversation of our mental wellness and our faith working together,” Chenele says. “We are a body/soul composite. Our body is just as important as our soul and our mind, and God has given us all of that as a gift.”
By creating partnerships with counselors who are experts in different concentrations and affiliated with dioceses from different states, The Human Condition website connects people with mental health counselors in their area.
“It is really important for us as Catholics to feel that we can be equipped...beyond spiritual tools,” Chenele explains. “The idea is that therapy, counselors and other resources can be tools that God is going to use to get you to heaven.”
In changing the discourse about mental health and faith, The Human Condition expresses the value in acknowledging mental illness and suffering as important parts of the journey to sainthood.
“We are all made to be saints, and having a mental illness or something that you are struggling with doesn’t mean that you can’t be the saint that God is calling you to be.”
Follow Chenel on instagram @chenele_k or visit www.thehumanconditioncommunity.org to learn more
