Psychology

InFormation Bulletins - InFormation 2018 No.2 Summer

"Several years ago, our congregation established six standing committees as resources for life and mission. These committees ordinarily meet quarterly to review, study and share with the entire community various aspects of living our Dominican charism of Preaching. The Ongoing Formation Committee (OGFC) consists of eight to twelve members who volunteer for a term of three years, renewable for a second three-year term. During the past three years the committee has focused on the integration of all areas of lifelong formation."

Click here to access the full article.
Members must be logged in to view this content

InFormation Bulletins - InFormation 2018 No.2 Summer

"Ongoing/lifelong formation focuses on the continual growth of the whole person to promote a deeper, fuller commitment. Again, it is not about professional recycling or giving more information or helping members to be better informed. Ongoing formation is not the complement or correction of initial formation. Contrary to much of our thinking and structures, it doesn’t begin when initial formation is 'completed'."

Click here to access the full article.
Members must be logged in to view this content

On the way to the deep and full joy that Jesus desires for us, we feel profound anxiety, deep rage, powerful shame, and intense grief in response to the ordinary experience of life that can challenge our faith, shake our hope, and limit our love. This webinar will help participants to deepen awareness of our emotional lives as invitations to transformation, growth, wisdom and peace all opening us to deeper faith and genuine hope. In addition to naming and removing the obstacles that block life giving emotions, this webinar will also discuss ways of expressing emotion that will deepen our intimacy with God and with others.

Ray Dlugos, OSA is an Augustinian friar from the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova in the eastern United States. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Ray was ordained a priest in 1983 and served in secondary education, parish, and vocation ministry before pursuing graduate studies in Counseling Psychology at the University of Albany, State University, New York. After earning his PhD in 1999, Ray joined the clinical staff at Southdown Institute in Aurora, Canada and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2003. In August of 2008, Ray became Vice President for Mission and Ministry at Merrimack College in North Andover, MA, a sponsored work of the Augustinians. He currently holds the position of Vice President for Mission and Student Affairs at Merrimack while also serving on the provincial Council of his community. Fr. Ray presented at the 2012 Transformation of Religious Life: An Action-Oriented Initiative together with Luisa Saffiotti, PhD. on the topic of “Engaging Resistance in the Service of Communal Discernment”.

Click here

Being resilient in the face of adversity requires us to look inward rather than outward and examine our approach, our expectations, and our reactions to situations. This webinar will focus on the following topics: the definition of resilience, the factors that enhance our ability to be resilient, the distorted scripts that lead to burnout, the difference between healthy vs. unhealthy self-sacrifice, and the importance of establishing a self-care plan. 

Eran Talitman, Ph.D., C. Psych. is a registered psychologist in the province of Ontario, Canada. He has provided assessment and treatment services to individuals, couples, and families in both a hospital setting and private practice. He has also been a consultant to individuals diagnosed with HIV, cancer, and traumatic brain injury. For the past 16 years, he has been at the Southdown Institute and has provided individual and group therapy as well as assessment services to religious and clergy. He has provided workshops and presentations on Intimacy, Healthy Sexuality, Developing Healthy Ministerial Boundaries, Keeping Our Soul Alive, Effective Leadership, and Working with Personality Disorders. 

Click here

Mindfulness been introduced and accepted into the mainstream of mental health treatment as an important tool in assisting the regulation of emotion, flexibility in responding to life situations, and the development of healthy relationships and self-concept. However, mindfulness has a deep religious context and origin as a spiritual tradition, including the Christian contemplative tradition. In this Advent webinar participants will explore mindfulness, as a Christian discipline and practice that helps us uncover the sacred in our everyday experience.

Benjamin Williams, Ph.D., is on the clinical staff at Southdown in Ontario, Canada. For more than fifty years, Southdown has offered compassionate care to vowed religious and diocesan clergy.

Click here

Hope is a powerful emotion that arises from the most basic human longings – it is a life- sustaining force, rooted in relationship and our relationship with the future. In our challenging and chaotic present time, hope is more essential than ever.

In our time together, we will explore the connection between reality, grief and hope, how our thoughts and feelings create the unique energy of hope, some core competencies to help us move beyond our personal and present limits to create a better tomorrow, understanding hopelessness and how hope can be learned and is a ministry shared with others.

In this Year for Consecrated Life we have been urged by Pope Francis to make a grateful remembrance of the recent past and to embrace the future with hope. If not now, when? If not us, then who?

Artwork credit: “Journey of the Soul” © Doris Klein, CSA. Used with permission. See additional work by Doris Klein, CSA at www.doriskleincsa.com

Lynn M. Levo, CSJ, Ph.D.

is a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, and a licensed psychologist, lecturer and consultant. She received her Ph.D. from the University of New York at Albany, completing her clinical training at The University of Kansas School of Medicine. Lynn consults with religious congregations of women and men, dioceses and health systems on mutuality, transitions and stress, anger, managing conflict, aging and healthy personal, sexual and spiritual development across the life span. Lynn has presented nationally and internationally to women and men religious, intercommunity novitiates and seminaries, on fostering healthy integrated sexuality, celibacy, relationships, intimacy, mutuality in community, emotional intelligence, collaborative leadership, hope, living at the edge of chaos and the call to be evolutionaries. In addition, Lynn also facilitates team development for several leadership teams of women religious, utilizing her experience as a former congregational leader and consultant.

After completing 12 years of ministering as Director of Education at Saint Luke Institute, a residential treatment facility for women and men religious, Lynn currently is a Consulting Psychologist in private practice, offering consultations and presentations/workshops both in the U.S. and abroad.

Click here

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) publishes resource for members and others to use in reflecting on grief and trauma.

Click here

Formation Resources - Resource Manuals - Volume IV

III. Formation for a Prophetic Way of Life

• 3.5. "Forming Ministers for the 21st Century", Luisa Saffiotti

Click here to access the full document.
Members must be logged in to view this content

Formation Resources - Resource Manuals - Volume II

Part IV : Psychological Care

• Resources & Bibliography

Click here to access the full document.
Members must be logged in to view this content

Formation Resources - Resource Manuals - Volume II

Part IV : Psychological Care

• George Schemmel, SJ
  "Contrasting Spiritual Direction / Counseling Therapy / Formative Direction"

Click here to access the full document.
Members must be logged in to view this content

Formation Resources - Resource Manuals - Volume II

Part IV : Psychological Care

• Joseph W. Ciarrocchi, Ph.D. & Anna Marie Ciarrochi, MSW, LCSW-C
  "Problem Gambling"

Click here to access the full document.
Members must be logged in to view this content