CatholicPsych Blog
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A Mosaic of Hope: Rebuilding Life After Loss
My husband Tom died suddenly in 2019. He was 46, healthy, and we’d just had a wonderful weekend together. In the middle of the night…
ADHD in Marriage — When Two Brains Share a Life
When ADHD enters a relationship, it doesn’t just affect one person. It becomes a third partner — shaping communication, rhythms, and even…
Loving Difficult Parents: What St. Francis Teaches About Family and Freedom
It’s one of the hardest spiritual and emotional challenges a person can face: trying to honor your parents when the relationship feels…
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Proposing Love
Misguided ideas about gender and sexuality have infiltrated schools, homes, families, marriages, parishes, and communities, causing many Catholics to feel lost in how to approach conversations related to those topics. How do we react? The possibility for conflict and...
Who Are We, Really?
Guest blogger and CatholicPsych Institute psychotherapist, Sean Faulkner, LPC, shares what should define our identity, and what shouldn't. God is in our identity There are many ways that we try to define ourselves. We so often seek to determine our identity based on...
Become Who You Are
Are you waiting for life to look a certain way before focusing on faith? The truth is, you have everything you need right now to become who you are - a saint! Once/Then Reasoning It's easy to fall into thinking in “once/then” terms when it comes to...
The Key to Resolving Conflict
Conflict in relationships is unfortunately unavoidable. But how we get through said conflict is a skill we can try to develop. Here are my thoughts on how to get better at resolving conflict. Consider the last argument or disagreement you had with a loved one During...
“Brother Ass” or Masterpiece: How Do You View Your Body?
What do you think of when you consider who "you" are? Do you feel like you are a spiritual being, living in a body but separate from it? Do you have a positive or negative view of your body? While it's true that there is a difference between the...
The Influence of Your Inner Spiritualizer
Shawn van der Linden, IDDM Master Mentor & CatholicPsych International Programs Consultant, shares how your "inner spiritualizer" can have more of an impact on your psychological life in this article! Unearthing the "inner spiritualizer" Let's embark on...
Why Catholic Mindfulness?
Human experience is fraught with a multitude of problems, most of which stem from doubt. Our lives begin without much complication until we start to worry if everything is really going to be okay. Are we doomed to live in anxious doubt for the rest of our lives? No!...
Catholic Guilt Is A GOOD Thing?!
Catholic guilt gets a bad rap. But guilt is actually an amazing spiritual survival instinct that God built into our humanity to reorient us back to our proper identity - back to who we really are. In other words, the fact that you feel guilt is because you're so good!...
Why You Don’t Need to Fear Failure
When we view failure through the lens of our faith, it becomes possible to see how failure can actually be a doorway to growth, development, and conversion. Failure The word itself is enough to give some of us a mild panic attack. Generally seen as something to avoid...
How to Win at New Year’s Resolutions
Every New Years the blog posts sound the same. If I hadn’t learned a few game-changers in the last year, I wouldn’t be adding to the noise. I want to share with you a few simple brain hacks that, if put into practice, will help you not only win at your New...
A Match Made in Heaven: 5 Tips for Online Dating
I want to give some tips for online dating, to the very large population of single men and women using the same means to find their vocation that Barbra and I did. The love of my life I married the love of my life. I met the one woman in the world chosen for me from...
An Excerpt from Kathryn Anne Casey’s Book, “Journey In love”
We are sharing an excerpt from Kathryn Anne "Casey's book, "Journey In Love, A Catholic Mother's Prayers After Prenatal Diagnosis. (You can find a link at the bottom of this page to purchase the book) The ultrasound was our first opportunity to see our child. The...
What’s the One Secret to Living a Faithful Life?
Living a faithful life comes down to one thing: trust. It all comes down to trust. I suppose I shouldn’t start with that if it all comes down to it so I will back up. So many things stem from distrust Anxiety, Neuroticism, Eating Disorders, Phobias, Depression,...
St. Therese: Just a Cute Saint?
St. Therese is generally regarded as a cute saint. But there was much more to her as found in her writing and way of thinking that we can apply to our lives today. St. Therese's not-so-cute writing In her autobiography, she wrote the types of things that might make...
Gosnell, Sex, and “The Walking Dead”
In a world of culture wars and absence of thinking, it is vital that we preserve culture and civilization in ourselves. This is true as a group wherever possible, but primarily and most importantly as individuals. What I've learned about culture wars from The Walking...
On Having a Baby
My wife gave birth to our first son, Elijah. This event has turned my life upside down. Here are some of my thoughts on having a baby. 3 thoughts I've had over the past year What I thought I knew before was only a shadow of knowledge, and what I felt before was...
Show Me Your Face: Being Present With Your Children
Jenny Uebbing shares how you can try to be more present with your children during the times when you'd rather escape parenting. Parenting in 21st century America “Mommy, make a happy face at me.” I look up from the glow of my laptop, irritated, hearing for perhaps the...
What Does Catholic Psychology Mean?
Catholic Psychology is built on the premise that we are on a journey for purpose, and we can find happiness if we look in the right place. In the image and likeness of God Catholic Anthropology (the study of human beings) is built on the principle that human...
The Darkness of Time and the Light of Faith
Though we are limited by our mortal understanding, our souls can find reassurance when we remember the promises of God and Jesus Christ, who is the light of our faith. Light and darkness In his encyclical Lumen Fidei, Pope Francis talks about faith as...
Who Would Win – Chuck Norris or the Dos Equis Guy?
If we know it or not, the natural need for male role models is inside all of us. Awe-inspiring men Every day I take the subway to my office and I spend a few minutes staring at the ads in the train. On the NYC trains, one company sometimes buys all of the ad space in...
Abortion Hurts Women, Despite Flawed Research
There is no doubt in my mind that abortion hurts women. Let's talk about the research that would have us believe otherwise and why I'm so upset about it. A flawed study “Abortion is found to have little effect on women’s mental health.” WHAT?! Is this...
CatholicPsych Is Back in Manhattan!
You can now find CatholicPsych in Manhattan! A new collaboration: CatholicPsych and the Gianna Center We are excited to announce a new collaboration between the CatholicPsych Institute and the Gianna Center in NY. As we are a union of body and spirit, treatment for...
Banana Chips, Motherhood, and Mindfulness
Guest blogger Barbra Bottaro reflects on how both motherhood and mindfulness can exist at the same time, especially when it seems impossible. 10:47am on a Wednesday We were enduring the 4th snowstorm in three weeks, and it was the first day of Spring. We...
The Masculinity of St. Joseph
What does "non-toxic" masculinity looks like in today's culture? Does "non-toxic" masculinity exist? What's the first image that comes to your mind when you think about "masculinity"? The image will most likely differ drastically from person to person, and could range...
A Word on Acceptance and Infertility
Thanks to Amy Sherlock of Healthy Homes Fertility Care for this guest post on acceptance and trust in the face of infertility. Why do we hate acceptance? I started this blog post over two weeks ago. I wrote the title, then placed the cursor into the body of the...
Facing Racial Inequity & Answering the Call to Respect Life
Guest Blogger Dr. Emily Dowdell, CPI Psychologist, shares her thoughts on standing against racial inequity as a committed Catholic. The #BlackLivesMatter socio-political movement is a call to action It is a cry to be seen, to be heard, and for an end to...
5 Lessons for Bishops from a Married Man
I’d like to humbly share five lessons for Bishops from my own marriage and those I have worked with. To the Bishops of the Catholic Church Who Are Not Complicit in Scandalous Crimes: (To the Bishops who did know about the scandals and coverups, I’m not ready to write...