Called to Heal: How to Help Others Through a Catholic Psychological Approach

0:00Recorded. So thanks for joining today's webinar. And today, I have the honor of having our presenter, Michele Drennen, who is our master's in psychology admissions adviser, and I will be moderating today's webinar. But just a little bit about Michelle who will do most of today's speaking. Michelle has been in the role of admissions for many years for professions ranging from nursing, IT, and now psychology. She has advised thousands of students and graduates in their career pathways, and her philosophy is that you spend more time with people with whom you work than those you love, so make sure you love what you do for a living. She has been married for thirty years and has four children, 10 grandchildren, and loves to play tennis and sing in the church.

0:51Thanks for joining us today, Michelle. And thank you, Ebony, for that lovely, lovely introduction and all of our guests who are on here today to learn a little bit more about divine mercy and some of our philosophies. And if you're looking for education or just information, we welcome you for both. We'll start out today, discussing, is mental health the right path for you? We find that there are many similarities in individuals who are seeking more knowledge in this arena. Questions you can ask yourself, Do you have the desire to help people, the whole person, and help people flourish? Do you want a career or in addition to your vocation that enables you to answer the question, how can I help people?

1:38What can you do to make a positive contribution in others' lives, and can you be an instrument of healing? And most importantly, if you decide to go forward with a master's, can you commit to the time that it takes to be successful and complete the program and go out in the world and be a healer? A little bit about Divine Mercy University. We are an accredited institution of higher learning comprised of two academic schools. We are dedicated to the scientific study of psychology and counseling with a Catholic Christian understanding of the whole person, marriage, and family. We were founded in 1999 as the Institute for the Psychological Psy Psychology Sciences. And we often say if a person goes online and, does their FAFSA for additional financial aid not covered by the scholarships, it'll say IPS.

2:35And so we always kinda point out that they are one and the same. In 2014, the institute launched its MS in psychology program. That's the one that I'm the admissions counselor for that offers the program 100 online with its focus on educating working professionals, both lay people and individuals in the church. In 2015, we were renamed Divine Mercy University, at which time we added the school of counseling. So I think when people look at various universities, especially when they're looking at a master's program, they wanna know what is it that makes a specific college unique. Well, one of the things, our programs offer a very integrated understanding of the human person through the Catholic Christian meta model of the person.

3:27That includes the theological vision of the person, Christian philosophical vision of the person, and psychological vision of the person. And the benefits of our meta model is it expands the vision of the person, enriches mental health practice, and supports your Catholic identity. Take a second if you will, Ebony, and share with everyone about the, the chat feature before we go to the next slide. Okay. So, throughout today's webinar, if you have any comments, questions, or concerns, you're always able to chat us in the chat box. So that is by hovering over the green area and then clicking on chat, and then that way you're able to type in your questions. And, also, if you're, accessible through a phone, if you have the ability to raise your hand, we can actually unmute you so that you can ask your questions that way.

4:37Thank you, Ebony. You're welcome. So a very important aspect of looking at any college, especially at the master's level or any level for that matter is to make sure that you're looking at an accredited institution of higher learning, accredited university. And we are pleased to say that we are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which is one of the finest in The United States, and we are accredited to award both masters and doctorates. Because we're located in the state of Virginia, we do have additional accreditations, and for our PsyD, our doctoral program, we are have the APA approval and also the ASPPB, for the provincial psychology boards, and we are in the process and on track to be, K CREP approved for our counseling degree.

5:33And if that is an area that you're interested in, we'll get you to the right counselor to discuss all the, individual aspects of the counseling program, which is not entirely a 100% online. So what is the importance of integrating faith, reason, and science? Well, Divine Mercy University's dedicated twenty years of research on the integration of theology, philosophy, and proven psychological science. We did a survey or a survey was done on therapists. So we discovered that seventy one percent of their therapists surveyed receiving no clinical training or preparation to understand or respect their clients' religious beliefs and treatment. Thirty six percent of those folks felt uncomfortable addressing spirituality or religion if the topics arose.

6:28I actually heard a statistic yesterday, which I don't usually like to quote if I can't remember where the source was, but it makes a whole lot of sense. In The United States and abroad, heroin is a a terrible, terrible problem in many states, and counselors are doing a lot better than others. But it was an interesting survey where they felt that the higher number of individuals who were able to escape addictions did have a faith based premise in their life, and that just makes a whole lot of sense. But I need to find out where I heard that, but it does make a lot of sense. Another study found that people are more likely to seek out support from their clergy, about twenty five percent, are members of their church than even a mental health professional, sixteen point seven percent, when they're facing impairing mental health disorders.

7:21I think we all agree that it's often a very, very difficult conversation about ourselves, our loved ones, people that are in our community or of our life. However, a deep understanding and respect for Catholic belief and culture can really build trust and allow more people to seek care and healing when they're in need. Alright. And, this is actually a time that we like to get a little feedback to see. Are you someone who, is always sought out for support, you know, when someone's going through a tough time, put it in the chat box. Let us know. Yes, no, sometimes. We love to get your feedback, and we'll read that off shortly. Just give you a little bit of time to put that in there. Alright. I see that.

8:12Yes. Yes. Okay. Absolutely. You are getting responses. Okay. Yes. You are seeking support and then sought out for support. Okay. Alright. So I do see that a few of you in the chat box have said that you are sought out for support, and so this could be very well a resource of trying to get better at helping other people. Thank you for your participation. One of the reasons that I asked Ebony to answer that question is we typically go through an interview, through a set of slides for anyone who wants additional information and go over questions for you, to find out a little bit about your background and what you're looking for. It's very, very interesting to me when I ask that question. I would say it has to be close to 99% of people who say, absolutely, people trust me.

9:05They seek me out. Whether you're a priest or a nun or a person who's a layperson, I I think sometimes God gives us that spark, and that spark is recognized by those around us. So it's it's a natural part of that humanistic aspect that I can turn to this person, and I trust their, advice and their coaching. So thank you, Ebony, for remembering to ask that. So we know that grace builds on nature and perfects it. We explore at Divine Mercy University the relationship between evangelization and mental health. And often in evangelization, we can feel overwhelmed or frustrated because the human person could be traumatized, addicted, depressed, ill, or broken by life. So, again, that faith foundation is very helpful in the cure.

10:05This is a hope and healing, a pastoral letter from the bishops of California that I'd like to read to you. As pastors and bishops, we're deeply concerned with the heartbreaking prevalence of mental illness in our society and are taking action to address this tragic form of misery and sorrow. Though not as apparent and familiar as general medical problems, mental illness is equally important and is uniquely challenging and burdensome. It strikes deep within the human soul, impacting and influencing a person's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, thereby affecting all aspects of a person's life, work and rest, family life and relationships, prayer, and one's relationships with God. I think at any level, whether it's mild or severe, people are needing some help in a very complicated world that we live in today.

11:05We every now and then in our webinars, we like to share some actual student success stories of graduates by which we get their permission to do so. Susie Marra was an individual that I met at, actually, the very first graduation that I ever attended, and she actually graduated from this program, in the master's in psychology. And she is the senior manager of staff care and focus missionary out in, Colorado. And I think meeting her, was very exciting because then the next year, last January, I got to go to a a focus missionary, event in Indianapolis. But in our program, we are so dedicated towards your capstone, kind of being the crescendo to your symphony of education, that we actually print the titles of our graduates' capstones in the graduation program.

12:00And so, on a recent webinar, she told the story of why she wrote her title, thriving in mission, a class on burnout for missionaries. Because if one is a lifetime missionary, you very like being a priest or another's commitment for life. And she was kind of going through that own feeling herself as she was finishing her capstone, her final project, and so she wrote it based on that. And so many individuals who come into the program know from the very beginning what their capstone or thesis is gonna be. And, so when she wrote hers, again, she did a weekend retreat on human formation through the introduction to positive psychology and virtues. And, excuse me, that was actually a cap stone from the Catholic Christian vision of flourishing vocations and virtues from our teachings.

12:52And so it is very important when one comes into the program to maybe think what is it in their life that they would like to change or impact or heal. And, I have a title on a current student that I speak to in Alaska from time to time who is working some of the indigenous population of, actually, the Eskimo population, which has a lot of abuse and alcohol issues in their population. And he's writing his on, what can I do to assist a child who's been born in a toxic environment to help them from not entering a life of crime and drugs? So you can see in some of those titles a very caring approach to how our aspect of going forward and being healers is, absence in the real world. So one of the things that people are looking for themselves or for other people in their lives, and doing some, like, exploration for their masters in psychology, they wanna know, you know, what am I professionally going to learn from a master's, in a psychology degree?

14:03Well, the degree provides professional competency in psychology while developing an integrative understanding of the human person and application to service delivery. Our program also teaches professional skills to help people become and develop into better leaders, how to build interpersonal relationships, how to negotiate, handle crisis, and solve problems, how to budget and evaluate program effectiveness, how to supervise and facilitate groups, and how to be culturally and socially aware with diverse groups. The master's in psychology degree does require, a prerequisite of a bachelor's degree. The exciting thing, it does not have to be in psychology. It can be in any subject from an accredited, bachelor's granting university.

14:50So it's interesting to know in little facts here that it's a 100% online. Again, we're regionally accredited by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It does take thirty six credit hours or two years to finish the program. The exciting thing for people who are very busy, it is just one course every eight weeks. It does require some orientation prior to going into it. Some people have had, online exposure in other degrees and others have not, and it really doesn't matter as long as you're willing to learn. We have a wonderful orientation program. You do have one month off in the summer and one month off in the winter. So even though it's intense and you're learning many, many new things that you're able to use every day in your life, there is that break each, winter and summer.

15:39It does require a minimum of a 2.5 GPA, although most people who enter the program have higher GPAs than that because we do take a lot of international students. So we wanna make sure from a a GPA or a percentage standpoint from another country that we can accept those who have the qualifications. It's very much for helping professionals in all rays of vocations, and it's rooted in Catholic Christian teachings of the human person. A lot of people, when they look at graduate school, a big part of it is, okay. Is that going to be affordable for me? We are excited from the vantage point that we do allow, some scholarships in different venues for different people and different agreements, but at least every year, every academic year of which there are two, you're going to be granted some scholarship money.

16:32Or if we have a specific agreement with your church, it can be different. So some of the kinds of aid that are available, some people are lucky enough to have employer tuition reimbursement. We are VA approved, which is very important for those individuals who have veterans benefits. Oftentimes, even a a wife or a husband will have be able to use the other, spouse's veterans, monies. And then many people can look into, student loans. There are no grants, from the federal government when you go to the master's level, but that's why we do furnish some scholarships for which you can write essays. And there are other graduate loans to make whatever is not covered by, scholarships more affordable for out of pocket as you go through the program.

17:21And other areas that people can explore are obviously, private funds, agencies and organizations that do matching funds. I know some of our Catholic brothers and sisters will use Catholic charities or Knights of Columbus. If a person just really doesn't wanna take out any loans, just cover what's not covered by scholarship. Sometimes they'll just set up a a cash plan that is interest free. We actually once a student decides to go forward, send them a link on all the different scholarships that they can apply for. And that third item is a self dedicated type of, acquisition of monies. And this, National Health Service Corps is more for that individual who maybe, is a teacher and is gonna be serving in low income areas or perhaps a missionary or someone who has had an agreement to work in a specific area can actually apply for a very nice debt reduction on their student loans.

18:20But that is something that you do on your own, but we just like to lay that out there because many of our people are going into community work, missionary work. Maybe they're seminarians going into, you know, maybe they're nuns. So there's lots of different opportunities to get, especially if it's in a low income area, an opportunity from the national health service corps. But, again, I tell you that is a student driven process. And, again, we we thank you so much for your time. We are going to as Ebony said, you will get a recording of this. You will all through an email. And we do have, because of demand that we if you apply by November 17, you can qualify for a $1,500 early admission scholarship unless you're someone on the line that we already have a better agreement through your church.

19:16I my contact information is on here. I am pretty much available all the time because I work in lots of different time zones. You may email me, and, I will email many of you and contact many of you if you have questions so that you will have, my text number and all of that. But before we close out, if there are any specific questions since we've covered a lot of areas of information, we'll be had happy to take those in the text box or by you raising your hand. Alright. Thank you, Michelle. Let me take a look to see. We have a few questions here. The first question is, as a missionary, how does the actual courses align with my day to day passion for helping others? Yeah. That's an excellent, excellent question.

20:09I'll answer it in two ways. Number one, everything that you learn, and I hear this from students time after time, that they're able to use what they're learning right away in their vocation, and I think that's full of value. Secondarily, you do not have to be on the computer at a specific time every day. It is very in much an independent opportunity. So say, for instance, your day starts with prayer at 06:00 or whatever. If you have some time in the morning before your day gets going, because I always say with our degree, you you probably have to find a couple of hours a day that are your times to look at YouTube, so listen to lectures, write your short but meaningful papers. And so whether it's at lunchtime for an hour or another hour in the evening or if you're very busy through the week, you have to take three hours on a Saturday.

21:02Most people are so excited to get back to the next assignment that it works very well in their life. I'm not gonna tell you it's a walk in the park. It is certainly a bit of a sacrifice of time. But what I hear a great deal is that because you can use what you're learning immediately in your day to day, it makes it valuable for that sacrifice or addition of time. So I hope that answers it. Now another question that often springs from that and and I say this. If you have Internet and you have a laptop, you can do your studies anywhere because it's available twenty four seven, the platform by which we, on. And so that's another question that's often an addendum. And if people are in situations where they lose their Internet for a little bit, they just have to communicate with their instructor as to why something was, you know, a a day late or whatever.

21:55We're we understand that, especially with our missionaries and our international folks that attend our online degree. Alright. My next question here is, how does science and church teachings how no. How does science and church teachings play together in the courses? I kinda I think that's kinda the same question. Well, in in many respects, someone said to me the other day, and it was a student, actually, and they said, you know, you all do a wonderful job of delivering what I call the heart sciences. And I said, well, tell me what that means. Well, you know, obviously, the psychology of any kind of mental illness or depression or addiction has a scientific point to it. However, a great deal of the healing come from equipping our graduates by learning the heart sciences of looking at the whole person.

22:56A priest once said to me, you know, now going through this, because I didn't learn some of this in theology and philosophy in my bachelor's, I find that I now really know what questions to ask, but more importantly, I now know what to do with the answers. And I'm able to dig down more deeply to help my flock or an individual that I'm counseling or working with or a married couple that's having, you know, difficulties in their marriage. So that blend is that as you write your short but meaningful papers, it may be 300, words or 500 words. It may be a short thread that you have to answer and then get to see everybody else's answers. Is the intellectual aspect of you thinking that it isn't even a medical doctor, and I was in that industry for a long time.

23:42A surgeon will say, you know, some surgeons pray before they they do surgery. And sometimes I think it's important to realize that people lose hope, and they lose the foundation sometimes because their faith, for whatever reason, dissipates or goes away for a while. When you bring that back, those heart sciences blend very beautifully with the psychology of the actual psychology of the science, if you will. I think that might answer your question. And if not Okay. Give us another I'm sorry. If not, what? I said if not, then give us another, text box question. Oh, okay. Okay. Chat box. Yeah. Alrighty. Let's see. One question is, how can I learn more about the program? So we actually have a lot of that information on our website at divinemercy.edu, so you can go straight there.

24:42And The best way is to set up an interview with me. And that way, we can go through, an entire PowerPoint so that all the details are there. Because I think it's very important that we help you find a good fit. You know, trust God and trust your gut. But to get additional information other than just the printed word on the website, it's always nice to have a conversation and get your your questions answered on the phone. And especially since this Sunday is November 17, if it was a good fit, we'd want you to have that qualification for additional scholarship. Sorry, Ebony. I didn't mean to interrupt. Alright. And we'll just answer one more question, because we will send out a email with all of this information.

25:29And if at any time you have additional questions, you can respond to that email. Or as Michelle stated, you can simply give her a call or send her a direct message. So the final question is, how are the faculty integrated with, the church teachings and missionary work in general? The bulk of our instructors, we have been blessed to have them with us, many of them, since the very beginning. And they were very much authors, or some of the writings of the the actual university foundation. I think it's important to realize, you don't have to be Catholic to be in this program. But at the same time, they understand the meta model, which anybody who wants a copy of that, I can send it to them. That in fact, we're working and and they do lectures.

26:25They do YouTubes. They do the threads. They have sometimes Zoom meetings with you so that you begin to know them, at least for an eight week period. And sometimes over the course of two years, you'll have one instructor more than once. And these individuals are people who are out there working in the counseling arena or working with married couples, or they have that educational background, that they've helped out with churches or they've helped out in the arena of really understanding that, again, health sciences and the psychology of the sciences blended will help people understand how to help other individuals. So the instructors are very prominent in your lives. They, correct your writings, give you more joy than you know when you've done something very well.

27:16But you do even though it's an online program, you get to know them pretty well over that eight week period because you have assignments and you have lectures and you have all the information that they're imparting. And their joy is to help you grow and and gather that wisdom each eight weeks. Alright. And I would like to add to that that we, do have, faculties and staff and students that go on various, mission trips where they live within a community for, sometime in the summer, and they help, communities with their, you know, mental health challenges, which could vary from, you know, abuse in a family, helping, marital couples, you know, find solutions to anything, that they have in a day to day living situation and even just going out and helping provide supplies to those communities as well.

28:19So I know that last year, well, that was earlier this year, a group of students went to Kenya. And it was not only you know, it was the missionary work, but also helping provide that, psychological assessments and treatments for, the the individuals who live there and then, you know, working with them in tandem with other organizations, you know, health organizations as well. So I do know that there are various other ways that you can get involved, here at Divine Mercy University. So, hopefully, that answers that question. And that's really a good point, and thank you for making that. I think they're actually doing outreach now for, I don't know if the deadline's over or not for a big trip next year.

29:08And the inclusivity of our, you know, our students with the instructors, that's a real blend because you have some time for not only listening and hearing, but the practical hands on application in another country. It's a good point, Ebony. Alright. Well, we're gonna wrap up today's call. Thanks again for joining us, everyone. Please look out for this recording in your inbox, which will also have information about our integrated model of of science, faith, and reason. And, again, if you do have any questions for Michelle, please feel free to jot down her information. And, we do appreciate you for joining us. I do see a a few people are jumping in. This was a shorter, webinar than usual, so we do apologize for jumping off at this time, but we are aware that people are at work.

30:05Again, thank you for your time, and we hope to answer any questions that you have in the future. And thanks for reviewing the recording once you receive that on your email. Everybody have a beautiful day. Thanks so much.