How do we help people who are very lonely? Jonathan Andrews, a clinical psychologist and author of The Reconnected Heart: How Relationships Help us Heal, explains that it is the quality of relationships that positively impacts loneliness, not quantity. People need deep connection, not a large number of friends.
Loneliness can lead to depression, insecure attachment and social phobia. Conversely all those three can lead to loneliness. Supporting people on the road to reducing loneliness therefore involves helping them to overcome insecure attachment, depression and social phobia. There are initiatives they can personally undertake; but we can help by taking an interest in them and making them feel valued. Churches can play a particular role in this by helping people understand how much they are valued by God.
