We recently connected with Patricia and Jared Carter and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Patricia and Jared thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

In 2018, Trish was a homemaker and home-educator, caring for our three boys, and I (Jared) was working for a startup. We were married then for 12 years. This was the year that would change the trajectory of our lives forever. The year that the symptoms of undiagnosed mental illnesses, we had both been living with for over a decade, became more than we could handle. Just months apart from each other, Trish was diagnosed with Severe Social Anxiety and Major Depression, and I was diagnosed with Bipolar I and Social Anxiety Disorder. It was a tough year to say the least. It was one that brought us to our knees and caused us to depend on God and one another. It’s the year we started on our path to recovery. A path that would ultimately lead us to starting Bless This Brain Mental Health Ministry.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Trish and I co-founded Uncharted Chapter LLC in Spring 2020. We knew we wanted to do something to advocate for mental health and battle the stigma plus COVID was a fire burning under us making us need to take action. But we didn’t know what helping would look like. We spent 3 years throwing ideas around. Finally in Spring 2023 the vision for a charity called Bless This Brain was born. Bless This Brain is a mental health non-profit program of Uncharted Chapter LLC and a program of Fiscal Sponsorship Allies Inc.

Trish is our Director of Operations and I serve as our Executive Director. There were three blaring difficulties that we experienced over our years together. Looking back over our first memories of the onset of our symptoms through our current recovery these experiences have informed the services Bless This Brain offers: Difficulty navigating the mental healthcare system, isolation as we pursued recovery, and lack of understand from the faith communities we were a part of. Because of our experience living with mental illnesses, experiencing healing and recovery, and years of working in churches, we knew that we could tackle all three in a way that was different from other community services.

Bless This Brain works to come alongside Christians as they start the journey (The Birth of Recovery), as they pursue healing (The Work of Recovery), and as they participate in the faith community (The Church of Recovery)

The Birth of Recovery
At this stage in the journey we provide Recovery Advocacy. This looks like coming alongside a Christian in prayer, helping them get the professional care they need while navigating a difficult and burdensome mental healthcare system. We have an ever-evolving directory of local resources that we refer people to based on their treatment preference (psychiatry, therapy, addiction recovery, etc..), their insurance or lack thereof, and their budget for out-of-pocket expenses. We help coach them into getting started on the path to recovery through these resources, answer their questions, and will even help them get to appointments as needed.

The Work of Recovery
Recovery is hard, and it’s made even harder by the sense of isolation many feel as they pursue help. That’s where Recovery Cohorts come in. Recovery Cohorts act as a base camp, where those who are climbing the mountain of recovery (Seeing a psychiatrist, taking their meds, talking to a therapist, etc..) can meet with peers who are on a similar journey, pray for one another, and study God’s word together with a special focus on reframing our recovery journey through the lens of the gospel. We meet once a week for six months.

The Church of Recovery
We want to ensure that those we serve have access to faith communities where they can find love, compassion, and understanding. We help to create welcoming environments by speaking at churches and other events where we share our personal stories and preach a message that acknowledges the fullness of our created selves (we are physical and spiritual in nature) informing others of the reality of mental illness and the need for recovery. We also connect churches to local resources that provide Mental Health First Aid and Suicide Prevention Training. Our goal is to become trainers to certify in MHFA and suicide prevention ourselves.

It is an absolute privilege for us to advocate and work together. We’ve been through so much over these 17 years of marriage. From the difficulties surrounding hallucinations, panic attacks, and effects of trauma all while raising a family and serving in a local church. We have learned a lot about suffering, endurance and maintaining a sense of humor. We look forward to every opportunity we can get to reduce the silence around mental illness, suicidal ideation and how these experiences interact with faith.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Jared had just started as Chief Operating Officer at an advertising agency, and we were living a comfortable lifestyle, when we felt the strong need to enter into this much needed work. Abandoning certainty we entered into this vocation not knowing how we would fund it while caring for a family, whether it would be well received by churches in our community, or whether we were up to the task. A number of friends were surprised by our step of faith, but God has been meeting our needs all along the way.

We are continually finding new partners who are joining us in this work through the giving of finances. We’re making many connections in the community that increase our network of recovery resources. We’ve been welcomed with open arms by churches who see the value of the services we provide. Both of us make our own mental health a priority and see separate therapists along with a family therapist. We are intentional about taking care of ourselves and gaining resilience because we know the work we are entering into will be trying. We try to make time to create art together. Jared makes a science-fiction podcast as a creative outlet as well.

We still live with many of the symptoms of our illnesses and even our children have their own mental health struggles. Bipolar type 1 is chronic. As we do this work of stepping into others’ hard stories and sharing our own we can get vulnerability hangovers. We’ve also encountered some stigma but overall many people are ready to start their own recovery journeys and grow in awareness to care for their loved ones. Recovery is possible and there is so much hope.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

We are not doctors or therapists. We’re peer advocates with lived experience. I (Trish) this patience and empathy may be the most important things to bring into this work. Working with individuals who are suffering from a mental illness, while living with symptoms of our own chronic symptoms present a unique challenge. But having experienced the a depth of loneliness and fear has created in us a lot of empathy. I encourage anyone who wants to relieve human suffering to have patience. People are messy and progress can be slow. More than anything we all need accompaniment. The gift of presence is a great help in many challenges. I recommend caring for yourself and being careful not to overwork, burn out, or become jaded. Jared and I remind each other often of the stories that inform why we do what we do, the countless emails, conversations, and text messages we’ve received from individuals who are suffering. These provide us with fresh energy to pursue this work with diligence.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.blessthisbrain.com
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/5RMmLW9NCuA?si=Hn9Ici9ufTD_QcIi
• Other: GiveLively: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/charitable-allies-inc/bless-this-brain-a-ministry-of-uncharted-chapter-llc

Image Credits
Shayla Sandoval