The Blessed Virgin and Saint Anne, adapted from a photo by Paul Flores; used with permission.


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Psychological Healing
in the Roman Catholic Mystic Tradition

Self-help Menu

In everything you do . . .
prove yourselves innocent and straightforward,
children of God beyond reproach
in the midst of a twisted and depraved generation—
among whom you shine like the stars of the sky.

—Philippians 2:14–15

 

THE PAGES ON THIS MENU PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT VARIOUS PYCHOLOGICAL TOPICS YOU CAN STUDY TO ASSIST YOUR SPRITUAL GROWTH.

Throughout this website, links on pages will take you to various other pages of this website on which the linked subject is described, even though in some cases it may not seem that the title of the page to which you are taken has any relevance to the linked subject.

 
Introduction to the Basic Concepts | Healing | Psychological Traps | Clinical Issues | CD Relaxation Recordings | Books

 

NTRODUCTION TO THE BASIC CONCEPTS

Self-help

The Way of the Cross: Parables; A World Filled With Impiety; Psychology and Spirituality; Asking While Doubting; Sacrifice, Obedience, and Prayer; Where Has Love Gone; What You Can Do; Increase My Faith

Outside the Box

How to find freedom from social fraud and game-playing: The Nine Dot Puzzle; The Real Box: Fraud and Games; Contempt of the World; Detachment from the World: Chastity, Modesty, and Humility

HEALING

Healing

Emotional hurt and giving the pain to God: including Spiritual Healing; Hurt, Anger and Revenge; Transformation Through Prayer;Giving the Pain to God; Four Summary Counsels

Four Steps to Humility

What humility really is: Humiliation; The Difference Between Humility and Masochism; Recognizing Emotions; Recognizing Psychological Defenses; Learning How the Past “Lives” in the Present; Learning New Behaviors

Motivation

The psychology of motivation and how to overcome repeated impulses to sin: including an explanation of Desire; Hidden Needs; Triggers for Impulses; The Hidden Desire for Self-destruction

Helping Children Heal

Reality and Faith

PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAPS

Being Wretched

How falling short is nothing to be ashamed of: The Refusal to Acknowledge Wretchedness; Scrutiny; Wretched {period}; Bypassing Denial; Wretched {gracefully}

Catholic Compassion

When they tell you that the Church is wrong about sexuality: Compassion; Chastity; Responsibility; Serving the Self; Disobeying God; Identity; To Die in All Things; The Proof

Available as a booklet

Children Fallen Away from the Church

When children fall away from the Church: Things Don’t Just “Happen”; Drawn Away from God’s Will; Trust in God; What Your Children See; How You Lose Credibility; Exposing the Fraud; What You Can Do Now

Disasters and Trauma

Natural disasters and other traumas: The Imaginary; The Real; The Symbolic; Blame; Breaking the Cycle of Hatred

Disobedience

How disobedience results from family hypocrisy: The “Stain”; Resistance to Authority; The Call Back to Faith; The Call Away from the World and Self

Educating Children

The price of being lukewarm in faith: How the devil undermines the Church by brainwashing children in school

Evil

How mental health, unconscious defenses, and demonic influence are all related: Evil as Something Harmful; Evil as the Refusal to Serve God’s Will; Why Did God Make Hell; Demonic Influence or Mental Illness; The Unconscious; Vulnerability to Evil through Psychological Defenses; The Desire for Revenge; What You Can Do; Three Final Points

Fantasies and Distractions

How to understand and cope with fantasies and distractions during prayer: Understanding, not Ignoring; The Definition of Fantasies (a k a Temptations); The Relationship Between Thoughts and Feelings; Sexual Fantasies; Fantasies of Grandiosity; Evil Fantasies; Self-destructive Fantasies; A Benign Example; Practical Suggestions

The Father

How the emotional or physical lack of a father leads to insecurity, confusion, and a lack of spiritual growth: The Role of a Mother; The Role of a Father; Lack; Unconscious Consequences of Lack; Saint Joseph; The Remedy; Prayer to Saint Joseph; Modern Prayer to Saint Joseph

Fear

How fear holds us back from living genuinely holy lives: Fear; Fear of Love; Do Not Be Afraid; Feeling Afraid vs. Being Afraid; Self-sabotage and Fear of Dreams; Accepting Love; Fear of God; Fear of Hell; Unforgiven

Judgment

The difference between making judgments and being judgmental: “Don’t be judgmental!”; Silenced by “Diversity”; Necessary Judgment; Forbidden Judgment; Judgment can be Negative or Positive; Lying to Evade Judgment; Summary; Psychological Counsels

Love

The real relationship between love and sin: Love’s Opposite: Sin; Forms of Love; Charity Raised to the Divine; Sin’s Antidote

Modesty

Christian Modesty: Sexual Morality and the Body; Purity of Soul and Body; The Body as a Temple; The Body’s Role in Our Salvation; Lust of the Eyes; The Body Serves Love and Holiness; Modesty; Summary

New Age Healing

The errors of confusing healing with the divine life: The Chill; Seduction; Forgiveness and Transformation; The Goddess; The Real New Age; New Age Healing Practices (Buddhism, Centering Prayer, Reiki, Spiritism, Wicca, Yoga)

Peace

How to work for true peace on earth: Men of Good Will; Willing to do God’s Will; Either Peace or Division

Politics

The current realities about the State vs. the Church: The Illusion; Diversity; Activism; In God We Trust; Holiness is a Personal Struggle

Responsibility

What spiritual responsibility entails and what obstructs it: Liability and Tort Law; Lawsuits and Christianity; Christian Spiritual Liability; Purification, not Compensation; Responsibility; Victimization; Blame and Hiding

Sexuality, Romance, and True Love

True Christian love: Goodness; The Call Away from Sin; Love is of the Spirit; Eroticism; The Allure of Common “Love”; Erotic Arousal in Romance; The Emptiness of Common “Love”; Holy Matrimony: True Love in Real Marriage; The Call to be Holy; Freedom, not Repression

Suffering and Obedience

The role of suffering and obedience in spiritual healing: Job Wasn’t Self-righteous; Beyond Our Comprehension; A Dilemma—and a Mystery; A Testament and a Penance; Obedience Lets all Suffering End in Love; A Deliberate Decision of Free Will; The Subversion of Obedience: Quietism; The Defeat of Satan’s Bet; Postscript: Wisdom

The Vanity of Protest

The choice between protest and prayer: Compensation for Injury; To Condemn the World; For the Sake of Love; A World Littered with Corpses

LINICAL ISSUES

Smoking Cessation

Step-by-step instructions to stop smoking with visualization and prayer: Enslavement; Stopping Smoking through Faith and Prayer; Visualization and Prayer Technique; Coping with Cravings

Treatment of Bipolar Disorder

Recommendations for the treatment of mania and hypomania: Mood Stabilizers; Expansive Fantasy; Healing from Grandiosity; A Complication to the Healing: Religiosity; Deceived by “Trust in God”; Psychotherapy—not Arguing

Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder

Recommendations for healing feelings of abandonment and rage: The Rage from Feeling Abandoned; The Rage Continues: Pushing Away; “It’s Your Fault!”; To Heal the Rage; Love: The Imitation of Christ; The Mystical Price of Love

Treatment of Depression and Anxiety

Recommendations for healing the failure to trust in divine providence and justice: The Unconscious Aspect of Emotional Trials; Encountering Emotional Trials with Faith; Medication vs. Self-Scrutiny; Self-help Recommendations

Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Recommendations for healing feelings of repressed anger and guilt: Unconscious Guilt; Healing Guilt through a Holy Lifestyle: Christian Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment, Understanding Emotional Hurt, and Desire for the Holy

Treatment of Personality Disorders

Recommendations for understanding personality gifts and correcting their misuse: The Problem with “Personality”; Personality Disorders; Personality Gifts; Catholic Treatment Recommendations

Weight Reduction

Step-by-step instructions to lose weight with visualization and prayer: Body Mass Index Calculator; Points to Ponder about Overeating; Weight Reduction Assisted by Fasting; Weight Reduction through Faith and Prayer; Visualization and Prayer Technique; Coping with Cravings

ELAXATION RECORDINGS

Guided Imagery for Relaxation and Healing

This CD guides you through a psychological experience of relaxation and healing that is faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church

BOOKS

Books

Books in print from this website and from A Guide to Psychology and its Practice

 


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A Guide to Psychology and its Practice
 
Copyright © 1997-2010 Raymond Lloyd Richmond, Ph.D. All rights reserved.
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