Our first interview is with Scott Weeman, founder and director of Catholic In Recovery (https://catholicinrecovery.com). In this interview, Scott talks about the resources for mental health and recovery that CIR provides through its website and elsewhere, as well as his hopes for the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SahFhYphAZg
Our second interview is with Joan McCarthy, CSJ, a Sister of St Joseph in Brighton, Massachusetts, a spiritual director for many years (and Michael’s spiritual director and teacher of spiritual directors for almost a decade). You can learn more about Sister Joan and her work through her Spiritual Direction Internship Initiative (https://spiritualdirectionii.org). Although Sister Joan’s approach to spirituality is through the five hundred year old Catholic tradition of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, spiritual practices and prayer can have a profound impact on mental health. We asked Sister Joan to give us a brief summary of Ignatian prayer.
Our third interview is with Joseph Coyle, a Catholic psychologist based in Norwell, Massachusetts. Dr. Coyle has been in practice for more than a decade and is much in demand as an individual counselor. Before Covid, Dr. Coyle also gave talks and led retreats, often at the Espousal Retreat Center in Waltham. Before branching out on his own, Dr. Coyle was part of Newlife Counseling, Associates, a Christian counseling group in Waltham that I am still a part of. Dr. Coyle has helped the Archdiocese of Boston to screen candidates for the priesthood and provided consultation to them on counseling issues. We have asked him to reflect on his experiences in combining conventional secular mental health counseling techniques with prayer and other aspects of the Catholic faith. Before going much farther we should also note that Dr. Coyle has a long waiting list for new referrals..