Jul 15, 2025 | Catholic Psychology, Faith, Featured Content, Popular
And for many dads, this constant state of responsiveness comes with a hidden cost: the slow disappearance of their inner life. When Every Moment Belongs to Someone Else If you’re a father, your life is no longer your own. That’s not a complaint—it’s a vocation. But...
Jul 11, 2025 | Catholic Psychology, Faith, Featured Content, Popular
I was heading down to the basement to work out. That was the plan. But as I descended the stairs, I passed the storage closet—recently emptied of a few boxes—and noticed how disorganized it had become. And suddenly, reorganizing that closet felt… necessary. Urgent,...
Jul 4, 2025 | Catholic Psychology, Faith, Featured Content, Popular
As we celebrate the Fourth of July, it’s worth asking a question most Catholics probably haven’t considered: Can you be holy and still be American? Or more pointedly, does the American mindset help or hinder the spiritual life? In 1899, Pope Leo XIII wrote...
Jun 28, 2025 | Catholic Psychology, Faith, Featured Content, Popular
For a long time, Jesus’ mother meant nothing to me I knew Mary was important—she had a statue in the church, she was in the prayers—but she wasn’t for me. I grew up Catholic, but Mary wasn’t emphasized much in my formal formation. I never disliked her, but I never...
Jun 25, 2025 | Faith, Mental Health Awareness Month, Popular
Loving Your Spouse’s IFS Parts Like Your Own: The Key to a Thriving Marriage When we start doing the inner work of healing and integration, we quickly come face to face with our “parts.” These parts—fearful, angry, defensive, shameful—can feel like little...
Jun 18, 2025 | Faith, Mental Health Awareness Month, Popular
The Love That Sets Us Free: A Compassionate Path Through OCD OCD can be a torturous experience. Not a quirk or a desire for tidiness, but a dread-filled urgency that demands the elimination of uncertainty. Which is, of course, an impossible task. Living with...
Jun 18, 2025 | Faith, Mental Health Awareness Month, Popular
Where Trust is Rebuilt: In the Presence of the Eucharist Attachment Theory, the Eucharist, and the Healing of Trust Fear is woven into the human experience. We fear that things won’t work out. That we’ll be hurt, abandoned, forgotten. That we’ll fail. So what do we do...
Jun 11, 2025 | Faith, Mental Health Awareness Month, Popular
The Goodness of a Perfectionist Part I am a perfectionist. And it isn’t all that bad! People tend to trust us perfectionists with responsibilities. We are seen as reliable. We are often praised for our attention to detail, our thoroughness, and our ability to produce...
Jun 4, 2025 | Faith, Mental Health Awareness Month, Popular
A People Pleasers Guide to Saying Hard Things Saying something hard but true is a people pleasers worst nightmare I’ve laid in bed late at night, paralyzed—heart pounding, throat tight, mind racing—because of the things I’ve been afraid to say. I picture the person I...
May 27, 2025 | Faith, Mental Health Awareness Month, Popular
Did You Know There Are Two Types Of Narcissism? Why Narcissism Sometimes Sneaks Up On Us. When you hear the word “narcissism,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For many people, it’s an image of someone loud, arrogant, and aggressively...
May 9, 2025 | Faith, Mental Health Awareness Month, Popular
Habemus Papam! We have a pope, and his name is Leo XIV. White smoke has risen from the Sistine Chapel chimney, and the Catholic world has a new shepherd. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been elected as the 267th pontiff and has chosen the name Leo XIV, a choice...
May 2, 2025 | Faith, Mental Health Awareness Month, Popular
A Reflection on May the 4th, the soul and the fallible Mentor Spirituality entered into my consciousness through Star Wars. The original film carried with it the weight of transcendence beyond the material world, and it blew my six-year-old mind. I couldn’t articulate...
Feb 13, 2024 | Faith, Gender and Sexuality, Popular, Relationships
Here’s one missing distinction and three false dichotomies to sum up the issues with the Vatican Declaration at first glance. We are now in a time of the battle between a culture of life and a culture of death.” – Pope St. John Paul II The Vatican...
Feb 13, 2024 | Communication, Faith, Human Dignity, Popular, Relationships
In this excerpt from the Being Human Podcast, Dr. Bottaro discusses why we should try to listen with curiosity to opinions held by “the other side,” something Jesus Himself has taught us to do. Excerpt from Being Human Podcast Episode #123: Fake...
Feb 12, 2024 | Anxiety, Body-Spirit Integration, Catholic Mindfulness, Catholic Psychology, Popular, Trust
We aren’t just spiritual beings. Rather, we’re human beings, which means we have both a spirit and a body. And that is why body spirit integration is so important for our growth. Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things are passing...
Feb 9, 2024 | Human Dignity, Popular, Relationships
Labeling relationships as “toxic” is widespread right now; let’s take a Catholic approach to difficult relationships and examine why they’re not always meant to be easy. Navigating difficult relationships Why is this relationship so draining?...
Feb 9, 2024 | Catholic Mindfulness, Popular
Recently there have been one or two threads of concern popping up in regard to my teaching of Catholic Mindfulness. As my concern is always to lead people towards greater flourishing through a deepening encounter with Christ, I publish my response here to...
