“Won’t you be my neighbor?” Mr. Rogers as an ethical model

I do believe that Mr. Rogers and his show influenced me to become a clinical psychologist. I knew of no psychologists or other mental health professionals while growing up. My mother, however, was an elementary school teacher and thought highly of public television in general and Mr. Rogers in particular. I believe that Mr. Rogers taught me that men can be thoughtful, sensitive, and open in discussing their feelings, and can see all of life as special. On reflection, I now see him as both an ethical and spiritual model

Psychological consultation with the Roman Catholic Church: Integrating who we are with what we do

The purpose of this article is to detail one professional\u27s experience in developing a close and collaborative professional working relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. This article highlights the integration of one\u27s religious tradition with professional activities that are congruent, including assessment, psychotherapy, research and writing. Three principles for effective collaboration with clergy are presented: understand the faith tradition, develop a shared language, and expand the boundaries of professional activities

Goodness

And what does the Lord require of me? To love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with God. -Micah 6:8 This quote from the Hebrew Bible has been one of my favorite quotes from sacred scripture in the Judea-Christian tradition for a very long time. It well summarizes how we should live. It well articulates how to live a good life. In this brief and simple statement in response to what God wants of us, it makes clear that there are three things that we should do throughout our lives if we want to follow the dictates of the God in the Jewish and Christian tradition. Even if one isn\u27t affiliated with the JudeaChristian traditions, it is still pretty good advice regarding how one should live

St. Ignatius as psychotherapist? How Jesuit spirituality and wisdom can enhance psychotherapy

The great wisdom traditions associated with various religious and spiritual practices and institutions have offered a variety of helpful strategies for more effective living and coping with life’s many challenges. In most recent times, efforts to secularize these strategies have been made in order to appeal to the general population as well as to secular mental health professionals as tools for their clinical practices. Although mindfulness meditation and yoga are perhaps the most notable examples, many other intervention strategies have been and can be borrowed from various religious and spiritual traditions to use in a secular manner if so desired. In this brief reflection, the wisdom and a few of the strategies of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Roman Catholic religious order called the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, are offered with examples presented in and for clinical practice

Celibacy and the child sexual abuse crisis

Celibacy has received a great deal of media attention recently due to the well-publicized sexual abuse crisis in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church. The Boston Globe reported in January 2002 that a Roman Catholic priest had sexually abused 138 children over 30 years as a parish priest and that religious superiors including Cardinal Bernard Law knew about the sexual abuse allegations and did nothing to stop them. After national and international media began to investigate these and other allegations of child sexual abuse committed by priests, within just a few months approximately 255 American priests including several bishops were accused of child sexual abuse and volunteered, or were forced, to resign. The Church has paid almost a billion dollars in legal settlements regarding child abuse allegations during the past 20 years

Nurturing Compassion Development Among College Students: A Longitudinal Study

Little research exists on the development of compassion among college undergraduates. This study tracks changes in compassion and identifies factors associated with these changes over the course of undergraduate students’ college careers, from the time of admittance to the time of graduation. Compassion levels assessed at the point of college entrance accounted for 25% of the variance in compassion at the time of graduation. These findings provided evidence for the notion that compassion can continue to be cultivated once in college. Predictors such as diversity training, the frequency of religious service attendance, participation in community-based service-learning, political identification, and feeling valued as a member of the university community accounted for an additional 10% of the variance in compassion scores at the time of graduation. Results suggest that compassion development in college students may increase through the use of particular intentional educational experiences

A Survey of Ethics Training in Undergraduate Psychology Programs at Jesuit Universities

Training in ethics is fundamental in higher education among both faith-based and secular colleges and universities, regardless of one’s academic major or field of study. Catholic colleges and universities have included moral philosophy, theology, and applied ethics in their undergraduate curricula for generations. The purpose of this investigation was to determine what, if anything, Jesuit college psychology departments are doing to educate psychology majors regarding ethical issues. A survey method was used to assess the psychology departments of all 28 Jesuits colleges and universities in the United States. A total of 21 of the 28 schools responded and completed the survey. Five schools (23%) reported that they offered a course specifically on ethics in psychology, and three (14%) additional schools offered related courses. Of the eight (38%) that offered ethics-related courses, only one required its majors to take it, and only if they were enrolled in the mental health or forensic psychology tracks. For two (10%) of the schools, the ethics in psychology course counted as a university core ethics requirement; for two others (10%), the class met an elective university ethics requirement for psychology majors

Promoting Hope, Healing, and Wellness: Catholic Interventions in Behavioral Health Care

In this chapter, we will outline, highlight, and review some of the Catholic traditions and pastoral tools that can be integrated into any professional clinical practice in behavioral health care. We will focus our attention on six tools in particular that are particularly popular and unique within the Catholic faith tradition. We will also offer brief case illustrations to provide examples of how these Catholic tools can be effectively integrated into professional clinical practice

The psychological assessment of applicants for priesthood and religious life

The recent clergy sexual abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church have focused a great deal of attention on how we evaluate applicants to the priesthood and religious life. The crisis has underscored the critical need to ensure that men who have a sexual predilection towards children be barred from entering religious life and priesthood. Additionally, men who have other significant psychiatric conditions that put them at risk of harming children or others have no place as Church leaders or clergy in positions where they have access to and power over vulnerable others

Are people getting crazier?

Terrorism, murder, suicide, drunken driving, addictive gambling, pornography, and religiously inspired violence all provide plenty of evidence that behavioral and emotional problems that are ultimately destructive to self and others are often at the root of so many global, national, and local crises. All these troubles in the world prompt several basic and fundamental questions