Therapy and counseling center joins MSC missionary family | Baptist Life

PADUCAH, Ky. (KT) – A faith-based therapeutic and counseling company in west Kentucky will bring another branch of help and healing to the Kentucky Mission Corps Service Missionary family of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
The Papillion Center in Paducah, a fully licensed non-profit company, brings expertise in mental health with faith as its base, said Executive Director Erin Goodman, LCSW. It has therapists who are licensed through statewide boards.

Erin Goodman, LCSW, is the executive director and TBRI practiitioner of the Papillion Center in Paducah.
“I personally think there is a lot of uniqueness to the services we provide,” she said. “We have something more unique and unfortunately not more common throughout our state. We are happy to be part of providing that. There is a scientific method to it. It has been tested and proven. It is something that bridges the gap between church and science. They don’t have to be so opposite. We are 100 percent believers and use theory and scientific methods with our faith as a base. It’s God who brings help and healing.”
The agreement to be a Kentucky MSC missionary is a full circle moment for Goodman, who related a story that when she was 17 or 18, she walked the aisle at First Baptist Church in Paducah and surrendered to be a missionary.
“I felt God was calling me to missions and announced it to the church,” she said. “I was naive and honestly never thought that much since then. I did do a summer missions in Arlington, Texas, and remember a lady there who said, ‘You’re a missionary where you are. Wherever God has put you, that’s your mission field. You have to go across the street before you can go around the world.’ I went on in life, got married, had kids, adopted kids and was a stay-at-home mom. All that went to the background of my mind.”
Then because of some of the family issues with adoption, she opened the Papillion Center in 2020. There were four Zoom clients that year, but the ministry has grown exponentially. In 2023, 1,500 clients came through the doors looking for help.
“Right before my husband and I went to the missionary retreat, I said to Jeremy, ‘This is really weird. This all circled back around. When we went to the conference, I got my nametag that had my name and missionary underneath. I was grateful. To me there’s really hope in the way that God uses our past.”
Goodman met with Cory Bledsoe, the mobilization and community ministry associate with the Missions Mobilization team of the KBC, at the request of a board member. She had only a 15-minute window until a client cancelled giving her another hour to speak with Bledsoe and understand the MSC missionary program.
“Corey spent a good chunk of time with me, and we talked and got to know each other,” she said.
Goodman said there are many ways the Papillion Center can be a good service for Kentucky Baptists, including pastors.
“Partnering with pastors and churches, we can take some of that load,” she said. “What I hear a lot, pastors are not trained or equipped for mental health. They find themselves serving people with mental health issues because they come to them. We can do that, provide a safe place for them to send their church members, a spiritually safe place where they’re going to provide highly skilled, trained and licensed professional skills with a deep foundational faith of trust in Christ.
It’s a place that pastors can trust not only for church members, but also themselves and family. As a therapist and executive director, I treat, through mental health counseling, pastors and their families. It’s treatment we use with sheriff’s deputies because of PTSD and secondary PTSD.”
Most MSC missionaries are providing basic needs such as food or a place to stay, both which are critically important, Goodman said. The mental health aspect comes after those needs are met. So, from that aspect, they are providing a different service that is just as much needed, she said.
“What I realized is the other missionaries are wonderfully and thankfully meeting those basic needs – people who are hungry, can’t pay bills or don’t have a place to live. I know we are not typically going to fit with people meeting those basic needs. They must have those needs met — and then we can come down the road once those things have been established. We can help the helpers. People who are the helpers have a lot of their needs too. That’s where we step in.”
The Papillion Center is in 19 counties in Kentucky, including as far east as Somerset. It offers training at churches and provides Telehealth. Churches can sign up for some programs at a reduced rate.
The Papillion Center specializes in wraparound service provision for children and families. They operate on a community-funded sliding fee scale so everyone can afford services.
The center uses Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). It is an attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention that is designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children.
“It’s a gift that God has given us. We want to be able to use it to further the mission of the gospel around the world,” said Goodman. “This is how we feel like God has gifted and equipped us.”
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