St. John Paul II is essential to providing deep and transformative care because he gives us the most complete understanding of the human person we have.
Not just spiritually. Not just morally. Not just psychologically. But all of it, integrated, together. He helps us understand why the psyche works the way it does and how healing actually happens.
The Psyche Has Its Own Dynamism
John Paul II teaches that the psyche has its own spontaneity and dynamism.
In other words, there are things happening within us, emotions, drives, reactions, that have their own energy before we ever consciously choose how to act. We don’t decide to feel fear. We don’t decide to feel shame. We don’t decide to feel the terror of being unimportant.
Those experiences happen to us.
Freedom enters not at the level of having feelings, but at the level of choosing how we act in response to them. And that choice requires something essential: Awareness.
True freedom only exists when we are conscious of what is happening within us.
Why Parts Form
This is where John Paul II’s anthropology connects so beautifully with parts work.
When experiences overwhelm our capacity to make sense of them, especially in childhood, they exceed the threshold of conscious awareness. We don’t have the internal resources to understand what’s happening, so those experiences are buried in the subconscious.
But they don’t disappear.
We are still affected by what has happened to us, even when we don’t know exactly what it was.
Over time, the psyche responds by forming different parts, ways of relating, coping, protecting, that allow us to function while keeping deeper wounds out of awareness.
From the perspective of those parts, they are doing something good. They are protecting.
Protectors Are Not the Enemy
A narcissistic part is not a monster. A controlling part is not a villain. Nor is a martyr part proof of holiness.
These parts emerge to guard against very deep wounds, often wounds of shame, neglect, abandonment, or the terror of non-existence.
John Paul II helps us see that this is not a moral failure first. It is a human response to being overwhelmed.
Healing begins when we stop trying to crush these parts and start understanding what they are protecting.
Awareness Is the Doorway to Freedom
John Paul II makes a crucial distinction between conscious acting and being driven.
When something remains buried beneath awareness, it continues to move us without our freedom being fully engaged. We react. We compensate. We defend.
But when awareness increases, when the light of consciousness reaches what was once buried, freedom becomes possible.
This is why healing is not about willpower alone. It’s not about trying harder. It’s not about suppressing behavior. Healing happens when awareness leads to freedom. And freedom to integration.
Integration, Not Elimination
When parts are unburdened, they don’t disappear.
There’s a new goal. Integration.
The gifts beneath those parts, drive, leadership, sensitivity, responsibility, creativity, are real and God-given. When the wounds beneath them are healed, those gifts no longer need to defend against terror or shame.They are freed to serve a new purpose.
This is not about becoming someone else. It’s about becoming whole.
Why This Brings Hope
John Paul II never reduces the human person to behavior. He insists on subjectivity, the interior experience of being a self who acts, chooses, and grows.
That means no part of you is beyond redemption. No wound is meaningless. No defense is without a story. There is a dynamism toward healing built into who you are.
Healing doesn’t come from erasing what’s broken. It comes from bringing light to what was once hidden. And when light reaches the subconscious, freedom follows.
That’s not just psychology. That’s a profoundly Catholic vision of the human person…and a real reason for hope.
Speaking of hope, if you are in need of hope that things can get better please reach out to our team for a free Mentorship consultation.