How do we thoughtfully approach grief, trauma, and mental health, both within ourselves and with loved ones?

This week’s episode features, J.S. Park.

J.S. Park is a hospital chaplain, a chaplain for the homeless, former atheist/agnostic, sixth degree black belt, suicide survivor, Korean-American, and loves Jesus.

J.S. is a future author with Moody Publishers. The book is titled The Voices We Carry: Finding Your One True Voice in a World of Clamor and Noise.

J.S. currently serves at a 1000+ bed hospital, one of the top-ranked in the nation, and as a chaplain for Metropolitan Ministries, one of the largest nonprofit charities for the homeless on the east coast.

Some duties of a hospital chaplain: grief counseling, attending every death and Code Blue, help with end-of-life decision-making, notifying family members of loved ones in the ER, and advocating for patients and families in crisis.

Some duties of a chaplain for the homeless: trauma-informed care, grief support, church wound recovery, faith-based programs for low income families, and staff care for coworkers.

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J.S. completed four units of CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) at Tampa General Hospital, which includes a six month internship and a year long residency. This is an accredited program with a cap of five chaplain residents per year.

In 2012, J.S. gave away half his salary to fight human trafficking, a check for $10,000.
Matching contributions raised another $10k.
[Part of this story was in Eugene Cho’s book Overrated (pp. 164-165), and his blog here.]

J.S. has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of South Florida and a M.Div from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
He likes Cuban food, cold brew, tomato juice, and old black and white noir movies. He has a German shepherd named Rosco, and is overly fond of C.S. Lewis. He has two toenails growing out of one toe. Really.