What Is Inner Healing Prayer and Why Do We Need It?
Hi there, Pastor Lisa here 👋
When I sat down to write this blog, I felt torn. Part of me wanted to avoid anything too heavy — after all, who wants to read about hard things? But, another part of me knew I couldn’t write about inner healing prayer without first being honest about the pain so many are experiencing.
The Landscape of Mental Health in America
Here’s the truth: as a nation, we’re struggling. Spiritually. Emotionally. Relationally. Even if you’re doing okay right now, I bet you know someone who isn’t. Someone walking through a dark season. Someone hurting. If you’re unsure, just glance at the headlines; our world is filled with stories of trauma and pain.
I believe God’s heart is to meet us right in the middle of that reality. And that’s why I’m passionate about inner healing prayer. But before we talk about that, let’s set the stage.
A Sobering Reality
According to the 2024 State of Mental Health in America Report, the current state of mental health in the U.S. is marked by a significant and growing crisis:
Nearly 60 million adults (23%) experienced a mental illness last year — about one in five adults.
Among youth, the numbers are even more alarming: 1 in 5 young people aged 12–17 experienced at least one major depressive episode in the past year, and over 3.4 million youth had serious thoughts of suicide.
Anxiety disorders are the most common, affecting 42.5 million adults.
Major depression touches 22.5 million adults, and 19.5% of youth aged 12–17.
Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among people aged 10–14, with 13.2 million adults reporting suicidal thoughts and 1.6 million attempting suicide in the past year.
Despite this, access to care is severely limited: over 28 million adults with mental illness received no treatment last year, and 60% of youth with depression didn’t receive care either. Provider shortages, cost, stigma, and a lingering post-pandemic mental health toll have made it harder than ever to get help.
Sobering, right? But this is precisely why I think inner healing prayer matters. Because God has a remedy — not a quick fix, but a deep work of restoration that transforms hearts from the inside out.
What Is Inner Healing Prayer? My Story
My first encounter with inner healing prayer was in 2010. At the time, I was a believer of nearly two decades, but still deeply hurting — battling depression, coming from a broken family unit, carrying anger I didn’t know how to release.
The first time I experienced God’s fathering heart through inner healing prayer with a spiritual director, everything shifted. My own father left before I was born; I had no framework for what a good father was. But in that moment, I discovered my true identity as a beloved child of God right in the middle of my brokenness.
Through inner healing prayer, God’s presence began touching places in me no amount of self-help or talk therapy could reach. My soul started to heal. Truth, identity, and hope began to take root.
Just like an external wound needs care to heal, our inner wounds do too — and they can hurt even more than the wounds on the outside.
I’ve always said, “The healing God does in you, He can also do through you.” Shortly after my first encounter, I received training in an inner healing prayer model called Sozo, which set me on the road I’ve been walking for the last 15 years — helping others encounter God’s healing love for themselves.
When Do We Need Inner Healing Prayer?
Inner healing prayer can be powerful for anyone, but especially when there is:
Persistent depression, hopelessness, or despair
Anger, fear, or anxiety that won’t go away
A history of broken or difficult relationships
Confusion or anger at God
Addiction or unhealthy control patterns
Past abuse or trauma
It can also simply open the door for someone to experience God’s relational love for the first time. Religion and relationship are not the same thing — God created us for connection with Him and with each other in life-giving ways.
Why We Need It
Picture this: two people in a relationship stand back-to-back, never looking at one another. Disconnected. Now imagine them turning face-to-face, making eye contact, and being fully present. Do you feel the difference?
That’s what inner healing prayer does. It turns our hearts back toward God, back toward others, back toward life. It heals. It restores. It transforms.
Inner healing prayer helps us:
Encounter the love of God personally
Receive God’s truth in the midst of pain and trauma
Experience breakthrough, transformation, and restoration
And when we’re trained in inner healing prayer, we can walk alongside others in their healing journey. Healthy communities create healthy people.
Introducing Integrate You
Out of years of prayer, dreaming with God, and longing for more, Integrate You International was born. Integrate You (“IU” for short) is a holistic, faith-based approach to mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
We bring together the best of evidence-based psychotherapy, spiritually integrative trauma care, and spiritually directive inner healing prayer to help people find holistic, deep, lasting healing in mind, soul, and spirit.
Imagine a life where:
Your emotions no longer control your life
You experience deep peace and healing
Your faith and mental health work in harmony, not opposition
Your church or organization is equipped to support mental wellness
That’s the heart of Integrate You.
A Call to Action
We invite you to journey with us — reaching the hurting, the lonely, and the broken, as Jesus did in Isaiah 61:1
Will you prayerfully consider supporting IU?
Subscribe: Get our newsletter to stay up to date
Experience it yourself: Set up an inner healing prayer-infused coaching or spiritual direction session and discover God’s transforming power and love by completing the Contact Us form.
If you would like to have a Sozo inner healing session specifically, I would be happy to support you through our sister organization, Sozo Freedom Ministries.
It’s time to turn sobering statistics into praise-worthy transformations.
Together, we can create spaces of healing, connection, and wholeness in the Lord.
