Therapists Only Catholic Story Groups

In a Catholic Story Group with other clinicians, you will explore your early stories of harm and formation, discovering how God—your co-Author—is inviting you toward deeper healing, integration, and holiness. As you engage your own story, you will also begin to see more clearly how your lived experience shapes the way you care and think about yourself, show up for others, and relate to God.

Here is some of what is involved in a story work experience:

Curiosity

With the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the Catholic Story Groups Writing Guide, become curious about the childhood stories you may not yet fully know or understand. These do not have to be overtly traumatic experiences. Often, the stories you once dismissed as “not a big deal” are the very ones that carry the greatest weight when they are finally named and engaged.

Crafting

You then write your story from your child-self’s perspective. Without concern for spelling or grammar, you allow words, images, and texture to emerge naturally. You describe what happened in concrete detail, letting the story take shape on the page. At times, writing with your non-dominant hand may help you access the emotional depth and embodied experience of the memory more fully.

Telling

With the courage given by the Holy Spirit, you read your story aloud to your story group. In the presence of attentive, compassionate witnesses, your story is received and honored. Through the group’s engaged listening, your wounds are gently illuminated—and so is the way God longs to redeem your story, drawing forth greater goodness, wholeness, and holiness.

Blessing

As the 10-week Catholic Story Group draws to a close, blessings emerge from your story and from your shared experience with others. You grow in your capacity to attune tenderly—to God, to your loved ones, and yourself. Many participants notice a deepening sense of joy in relationships, with less tension, conflict, or effort.

Notice: Participating in a Catholic Story Group is not therapy or counseling. Each session is designed to help attendees own and process their story more fully so they may more deeply understand the story that God is writing in their lives. During the 10-week time period, each participant is asked to write a story from their early childhood or adolescent experience and share it with the group. The writing and sharing of our story can involve emotional, psychological, and physical discomfort. This is normal. It is one of the purposes of the group: to provide a supportive context that invites each attendee to identify and begin to explore difficult issues that may have inhibited their ability to connect with God, others, and ourselves. The purpose of the facilitator is to create an environment of psychological safety, authenticity, and strict confidentiality guidelines (nothing is shared or published outside the group). The facilitator will also model how to attune and respond to one another’s stories and provide guidance for how to relational repair when and if misattunement occurs within the group.