"Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayst be wise in thy latter end" (Proverbs 19:20)
Let the Holy Spirit animate your journey of healing as you work through psychotherapeutic treatment.
get started. schedule your initial session.
Our Catholic psychotherapy program combines Catholic-based techniques and spiritual practices with modern psychotherapy. For example, we rely on St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises and his teaching on consolation and desolation to help our clients work through distressing thoughts, elevated emotions, and unhelpful, sinful behaviors.
We combine St. Paul’s letters with Person-Centered, humanistic therapy. We also rely on St. Paul’s teachings in Ephesians 5, on marriage, in tandem with our Structural Family Therapy and other modalities. We combine the work of St. John of the Cross and St. Thérèse of Lisieux with our identity-based introspective therapy for individual counseling.
The Catholic counseling program is optional. If you choose this option, your therapist will encourage you to choose a patron saint for your therapy sessions and your journey of change and growth. Your therapist will also give you “assignments” to do between sessions. The assignments will be animated by Catholic spirituality and involve cognitive-behavioral techniques to help your growth in virtue and to strengthen your will.
Our practice of psychotherapy is animated by Catholic spirituality and moral teachings. While we will not impose Catholic teaching or any spiritual practice on anyone, our staff is motivated by our own expression of Catholic spirituality and a joyful reciprocated love of God.
This means that we will not give advice or direction which is gravely contrary to Catholic moral teaching.
Ask for our Catholic counseling program when you set your first appointment! We are here to help, with an absence of judgement and an abundance of empathy.
There is no additional charge for the Catholic counseling program. See our services page for prices and packages.
Catholic counseling has a long and rich history.
Throughout Western history, the seeking of counsel from an impartial person was considered not only normal, but a wise and prudent thing to do. A selection from St. Thomas Aquinas demonstrates this:
“Now there is much uncertainty in things that have to be done….Now in things doubtful and uncertain the reason does not pronounce judgment, without previous inquiry: wherefore the reason must of necessity institute an inquiry before deciding on the objects of choice; and this inquiry is called counsel.” Summa Theologiae, I-II, Q14, A1.
Ordination de saint Vast (The ordination of Saint Vaast, Vedast). Français 185 , Fol. 201v. Vies de saints, France, Paris, XIVe siècle, Richard de Montbaston et collaborateurs
Why get counseling if I’m already seeing a priest and going to confession?
Because even popes and saints seek counseling. St. Gregory the Great, in the late 6th century, mentioned the need for seeking the counsel of his bishops in one of his letters (Registrum Epistolarum, Book I, Letter 34: to Venantius, Ex-Monk, Patrician of Syracuse).
St. Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century wrote an entire section of his Summa Theologicae on “counsel” as it was a common and accepted practice to seek the counsel of others. He wrote about counseling as an analytical process to aid the person when they are confronted with life choices:
"Hence the inquiry of counsel must needs be one of analysis, beginning that is to say, from that which is intended in the future, and continuing until it arrives at that which is to be done at once" (ST I-II Q14, A5)
The sacrament of Penance (going to confession) is focused upon sins and their forgiveness. The work of Christ from the Cross removes sin and makes the person whole and clean again (cf. Catechism of the Council of Trent, Art. 10; also “The Sacrament of Penance”). This is a spiritual and moral reality.
However, God does not “brainwash” anyone after confession. He respects our humanity and thus we retain our memory, our intellect, our reason, understanding, imagination, and free will. We also retain synapses, neurotransmitters, and other parts of our brain matter. Thus, whatever grave habits you have built over the space of months or years are still remembered by your mind, which is triggered by your automatic brain processes. This activates an emotional response, and when we act on our emotions, we often make poor choices and commit sin against God.
You may freely choose to repent and then to receive cleansing and healing sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist, but soon enough, you encounter random automatic thoughts of your past sins. Is this the devil at work, tempting you? Perhaps. How does he tempt you? As a pure spirit without a body, he can “read” your own bodily movements, including your brain matter and your emotions, especially as they are manifest in the body (trembling, elevated heart rate, clenched fists, and so on). We truly have three sources of temptation: the world, the flesh, and the devil!
Catholic counseling differentiates between the natural and supernatural. If you already have a habit of regular confession, we encourage you to continue. Catholic psychotherapy looks at the compelling natural reasons behind your habitual sins. What compels you? What keeps driving you to sin? What are the patterns in your life that link your thoughts, feelings, and behavior? Psychotherapy sessions take the time to look into your own unhealthy patterns. Then the real you may emerge, and you may draw much closer to God without the obstacles of frequent sins getting in the way of your relationship with Jesus Christ.
Schedule your first session and get started.
Intercessory Counseling & Wellness, PLLC, is an independent counseling agency and not affiliated or associated with the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, nor with any parish. We offer a program of psychotherapy utilizing evidence-based cognitive and behavioral techniques. Our Catholic-based counseling program is rooted in doctrinally orthodox Catholic spiritual and moral practices, which rely on your own spirituality. See our Mission Statement for further information.
Our staff respects and will not interfere with your own choice of church attendance. We neither impose nor insist upon any particular rite of Catholicism. We encourage our clients who identify as practicing Catholics to further deepen their own faith within their chosen parish environments.
Intercessory Counseling & Wellness, PLLC, does not discriminate. We accept clients of all faiths and backgrounds.