Adult Children of Divorce (ACOD) Story Group

Within an ACOD Catholic Story Group, we heal from our dysfunctional family system in which we grew up and the devastating effects of our parents’ divorce or separation. We explore our stories of harm, seeing how God, our co-Author, is transforming us and leading us to a greater purpose in our life and holiness. Here’s what it entails:

• Curiosity: With the Holy Spirit, story work begins with a deep exploration of the stories that hold our childhood pain. We are particularly interested in the stories that we don’t really know but may be significantly impacting us in the present.   
• Crafting: In this phase, we begin to write the story that the Holy Spirit is prompting us to write. Without much thought to spelling or grammar, we simply put words and texture to our past. We describe in great detail what happened. 
• Telling: With the courage of the Holy Spirit, we read our story out loud within our ACOD Catholic Story Group  Through the active engagement of our fellow ACODs, our story is witnessed and further illuminated by the ways that we have been wounded and how God wants to redeem our stories to bring about greater goodness in the world.  
• Blessing: At the end of our 8-Week Catholic Story Group experience, blessings spring from our story and our engagement with others. We will have grown in our capacity to tenderly attune well to others, God, and ourselves. We will begin to experience more joy in our relationships rather than tension, conflict, and strife. Our ability to more clearly see reality and love others in our families and communities will expand.

Next ACOD Group Forming

Day and Time: Tuesday evenings, 8:15 – 9:45pm EST  

Dates: January 21 – April 1, 2025 (skipping March 4 & 25). There are 9 sessions total.

Location: Zoom

If these dates and times do not work for you, please add your name to the waitlist below and we will notify you of new groups forming.

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 9-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 their own Self. The purpose of the facilitator is to create an environment of psychological safety, authenticity, and guidelines for strict confidentiality (nothing is shared or published outside of 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 misattunement occurs.