Marriage, Parenting, Pressure: Kinus Wellness Summit Opens The Conversation
The Wellness Summit returns with sessions on overwhelm, marriage, parenting, and knowing when someone needs professional help.
by COLlive Editor · COLliveShluchim arriving in Crown Heights for the International Kinus Hashluchim will find a day of the program built to strengthen the home and the heart behind their shlichus.
The Wellness Summit, back for another year, offers practical tools for the pressures shluchim face most: overwhelm, marriage, parenting, and knowing when someone needs professional care.
The program is built on one idea: wellness is part of sustainable shlichus, not a distraction from it.
“The Rebbe sends shluchim to give for a lifetime, and to do that, a shliach has to be strong himself,” said Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, executive director of Merkos 302 and chairmandirector of the Kinus Hashluchim. “A shliach’s home is his first shlichus. When he is healthy and present there, his whole community feels it.”
“Shluchim do deal with serious clinical situations, but what the average shliach carries is everyday overwhelm, compounded by roles few people ever juggle at once,” said Rabbi Zalman Abraham, director of The Wellness Institute at JLI. “It makes raising children harder and puts real strain on a marriage.”
“The Rebbe often emphasizes the importance of preventive medicine, and that applies to our emotional well-being as well,” said Mrs. Chani Goldberg, director of Chabad on Call. “Shluchim dedicate their lives to caring for others. But their own well-being, and that of their families, is equally important.”
“We want to take some of that off their shoulders,” Rabbi Abraham said, “with skills most people only discover in therapy, if they’re lucky: managing overwhelm, strengthening a marriage, helping children regulate big emotions, and knowing when someone needs professional care and how to find it.”
Several of this year’s presenters will address shluchim at the Kinus for the first time.
The summit opens with “Moving Beyond Overwhelm,” led by Rabbi Eliyahu Schusterman, shliach to Chabad Intown in Atlanta, and Rabbi Moishe Shemtov, a marriage and family therapist who mentors shluchim worldwide. The session will address competing priorities and staying present at home and in shlichus.
“Shluchim and shluchos are people too,” Rabbi Schusterman said. “They face real challenges, just like everyone else, while dedicating their lives to the Jewish people.”
His session, he said, will explore how to navigate those competing demands “and find the clarity and balance to show up for their communities, their families, and themselves.”
Moshe Zev Lamm, LCSW, director of The Marriage Center at Achieve Behavioral Health in Monsey, will present tools for communication and handling conflict in marriage.
Matis Miller, LCSW, founder of the Center for CBT of New Jersey and author of “The Uncontrollable Child,” will lead a session on parenting through big emotions. The workshop draws on the story of the Alter Rebbe hearing a baby cry, and focuses on validating children’s feelings while keeping healthy expectations.
Rabbi Binyomin Babad, director of Relief Resources, will speak on when to refer someone for professional mental health support and how to guide them toward the right care.
The day concludes with a panel featuring Rabbi Babad, Miller, and Lamm on finding the right support.
“Every session is designed to be practical and insightful,” Rabbi Abraham said. “Every shliach should walk out with at least one concrete skill that relieves some of the emotional burden of shlichus.”
The Wellness Summit takes place Thursday, November 5, 11:30 AM- 6 PM at Ulam Chana, 556 Crown Street. It is open to all shluchim at the Kinus. Registration is available through the Kinus portal.
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