Catholic Life Coaching | Catholicism and Mental Health

Maria Montemayor

Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels

Have you ever heard of a Catholic life coach? A Catholic life coach combines life coaching practices with Catholic principles and values to help people improve in different aspects of their lives. How does secular coaching compare to Catholic coaching? And what are the differences between coaching, spiritual direction, and therapy? Veronica Ljubicic, a Catholic Mindset and Work-life Transition Coach with Boutique Coaching Connections was asked to help answer these questions for us. Her responses were edited for clarity and length.

How does secular coaching compare to Catholic coaching?

I think in secular coaching there is a tendency towards new-age philosophies, or things that are not in alignment with the dignity of the human person. Catholic coaching is unique because it really brings God into the equation, His grace and the Holy Spirit’s promptings. It’s really in alignment with the teachings of the Catholic Church, the Catechism, and the Theology of the Body.

Catholic coaching primarily deals with human formation, so it’s looking especially at the mind. We have an intellect and God has created our minds, our emotions, our bodies, and everything about us. Catholic coaching looks at the way those things come into alignment with each other.

One of the things that happens in secular coaching is what they call “thought swapping.” You’re thinking a thought and they just want you to replace it with a new thought. Catholic coaching says that our minds, our emotions, our bodies, and everything that we’re feeling are part of how we’re uniquely designed the way that God created us. We’re not supposed to fragment them. We’re supposed to bring them together, because they work like a unit. Our thoughts lead to our emotions, which lead to our actions. So, what I’m thinking is affecting how I’m feeling, and how I’m feeling is reflected in my choices and actions.

The good news is that our thoughts are optional. We can actually choose new thoughts through our will, through our reason, which will lead to emotions that are better, that are more reasonable. Those emotions aren’t triggered, or coming from a place of reaction. We’re actually intentionally choosing them. So then, they’re inclining us towards good actions.

This happens in secular coaching too: there are a lot of good tools and strategies that they use. I’d say the biggest difference is the alignment, the idea of bringing all of them together, the mind, the body, and the soul, working as a unit.

Also, one of the things that we ask clients to do is journal. If they’re Catholic or Christian, we ask them to bring God into the scenario, thought, or emotion that they’re bringing up. If we believe that Christ was both human and divine, then He had emotions. Who better to bring our emotions to than someone who felt them all, but always chose the good path? He always chose the path of virtue and so did many of the saints, so did the Blessed Virgin Mary, so we can learn from them.

What are the differences between a Catholic coach, a spiritual director, and a therapist?

There’s a need for all three of them. It’s great that they really focus on different things, but there is some crossover. A counsellor is all about restoration: they look at your past, maybe they look at an event or some trauma that you’ve gone through, and they’re acting as a restorer. They get a person to the point that they’re not ruminating. Sometimes they have mental health issues, but they’re really getting them out of that helpless, hopeless place where they’re not able to process their emotions in a healthy way, where they’re not able to think clearly, maybe because of some hurt. Also, counsellors can diagnose; we can’t do that.

Coaching is really more about: I have a goal, I have a result that I would like to accomplish, maybe there’s something I’m discerning, maybe there’s some virtue that I’d like to develop.

Usually we work with people who are in a better place, and basically take them to the next level: Do I have a weight loss goal? Am I transitioning to a new job? Am I looking for an opportunity? And we examine what gets in the way: sometimes it’s low self-esteem, sometimes a lack of good communication skills. A Catholic mindset coach really works through those obstacles so that the path is clear, so that that person can overcome those obstacles to get to the other side. Obviously with the Lord’s help, because we’re not equipped to do it on our own.

A spiritual director is more concerned with the interior movements, of helping someone deepen their relationship with the Lord and really understand those movements of the Holy Spirit within themselves.

So spiritual direction and coaching can really go hand-in-hand, and can help someone discern better. When you can understand where the Spirit is at work, you can see if it’s coming from the Holy Spirit, or from a worldly influence or even from the evil one. Also, spiritual direction is more of a long-term relationship, while coaching would be more short-term.

If someone is really struggling with something, we always recommend counselling first, then coaching, then spiritual direction. That would be the order. Or a combination, if needed in maybe two areas. It really goes from restoration, to result, then relationship. In the end, what we really want is to bring people to God and to be whole and healthy. All of these things help with that, but they come at it from different approaches based on where the person is in their journey and obviously the qualifications of the supporter.

If you have any questions for Veronica or would like to book a free discovery call, one-on-one (30 or 60 min) session or small group session with her, you can visit her website. She also has a workshop on Identity Wounds and Obstacles to Grace, Healing and Discernment on Saturday, June 8 at 2 pm at the Don Bosco Centre in Markham, Ontario ($20 admission).