A focus on families

Missionary lessons, feel-good television ads and thousands of family history centers are among the most visible signs to the world at large that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints puts families at the center of its faith and theology.

Now the LDS Church looks to be expanding its focus on members' emotional health, in addition to their spiritual well-being.

Word this week that the church plans to establish branches of LDS Family Services in several nations to offer family counseling services to a broader swath of its membership provides yet another extension of that focus on bolstering the traditional family — an institution church leaders say is under attack both at home and abroad.

Sermons to be offered this weekend during the LDS Church's 176th Annual General Conference, which opens today at 10 a.m. in the Conference Center, are likely to feature counsel on strengthening family relationships and defending against such societal ills as pornography, addiction and abuse.

Fred Riley, commissioner of LDS Family Services, told scores of LDS counselors and psychotherapists Thursday that his agency has received approval from church leaders "to put together a worldwide strategy to start helping members around the world" in dealing with such issues.

He said LDS Family Services — which already has offices in Australia, England, New Zealand and Japan — opened an office in Mexico in January, and it will be opening new offices in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Santiago, Chile, in July. Pilot programs will be offered in those locations, he said, anticipating that, in "three to five years, we'll be opening up significantly more offices around the world."

While many people associate the agency with adoption — in fact, it is believed to be the largest adoption agency in the United States — Riley said that, "at least initially, there will be no adoption services, only clinical services," in the new Family Services locations. "I think that's a huge validation of the work you (as therapists) do, as well as its relationship to spirituality," and the importance the church is now placing on both emotional and spiritual health, he said.

Part of that expanded focus includes publication within the past 30 days of "A Guide to Addiction Recovery and Healing," a 12-step handbook produced by LDS Family Services and now available not just to local church leaders, but to church members through LDS Distribution Centers. In the past, similar resources have been made available to church leaders only.