Threshold Winter 2007

"Go to Help the Troubled and Console the Sorrowing"
(RB 4:18)

by Mary Joyce Meyers, OSB

In his book Toward God, Michael Casey, Cistercian monk and eminent spiritual writer, describes life as “a long journey toward ultimate beatitude in communion with God.” Using this analogy, one might identify counselors as those persons along life’s highway specially trained to help wayfarers who find themselves floundering, or who lose their way and need professional assistance to resume the journey.

Counseling is not teaching or giving advice, but diagnosing the situation, offering options, and empowering and energizing persons to resolve their own difficulties. The counselor temporarily enters a psychological-spiritual relationship with a person. When the problem is resolved and harmony restored, the counselor tactfully exits the relationship with no strings attached. When the primary apostolic ministry of the Atchison Benedictines was no longer in education, some sisters chose to become professional counselors.

Counseling for Individuals and Families

Sister Maria Heppler was drawn to counseling through her work as a residence hall administrator at Mount St. Scholastica Academy in the early 1970s. She liked helping the girls work through their problems and discovered she had a gift for being a compassionate and caring listener. With this in mind, she went to Loyola in Baltimore for a master’s degree  in counseling psychology.

For the past 25 years, she has worked for Catholic Charities in Kansas City, Kansas. Initially she served as a school counselor, providing individual and family counseling for those experiencing school-related problems as well as various spiritual and emotional struggles. She became successively director of the school consultation program and supervisor for contract counselors working at Catholic Community Services.

Sister Maria has a tight schedule. She tries to juggle demands of her job and her commitment to community. She likes her work and says that her “favorite clients are people in grief.”

As an outgrowth of her ten years as principal of St. Joseph High School in Shawnee, Kansas, Sister Joyce Meyers began taking night classes in psychology and counseling in Kansas City in 1968 with the intention of improving her ability to help students deal with their personal and academic problems. After obtaining a master’s in counseling, she was awarded a fellowship to pursue a doctoral degree. Her intention was to bring middle and lower income families the psychological-spiritual help they needed through Christian counseling.

She then joined the staff of Catholic Social Service. She and Dr. Lee Forge, as adjunct professors of Emporia State University, also gave classes in marriage counseling for the priests and pastoral workers of the diocese. They helped parishes establish parish councils and trained lead couples for the marriage preparation program.

In 1977, the two established a private practice for families, couples and individuals from the Northland area of Kansas City. After they closed the practice in 2004,  Sister Joyce volunteered at the Keeler Women’s Center.

Sister Esther Fangman, after an internship at the Child Guidance Center and Psychiatric Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, became school psychologist for Mount St. Scholastica Academy. During the 1970s and early 80s, she served in various roles for the diocese and mental health groups. In 1981, she earned her doctorate from Idaho State University.

For eleven years she directed the counseling program for St. Charles Borromeo parish in Kansas City, a parish of over 2000 families. Later, she spent several years in private practice and as a consultant to the diocese. She was a member of the sexual abuse response team dealing with diocesan employees accused of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Since she was elected president of the Benedictine Federation of St. Scholastica in 1998, she has had the opportunity to use her counseling skills in a variety of ways and locales. She has been called upon to give talks, facilitate group interactions and recently help African Benedictine sisters set up their own federation. Her career is one of service, variety and challenge, frequently calling forth the skills and insights of her counseling training.

Pictured at right is Patty McMahon, school counselor at Resurrection School, with Sister Maria Heppler.

All Faith Counseling Center

Sister Janelle Maes received a master’s degree in counseling psychology at Loyola University, then returned to college teaching and counseling. Three years later, after a two-year residency in Dallas, Texas, she became a fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and a member of the American Association of Marital and Family Therapists. This qualified her to set up All Faith Counseling Center in Atchison, which has gained momentum since it opened in 1983. 
Sister Janelle plans to retire in June of 2008. “This will give the center a marking point of 25 years and will enable new blood to come into the center.” She has obtained a grant to finance a new director.   

Sister Janelle was recently joined at All Faith by Sister Mary Palarino, who came to counseling from a background as a clinical nutritionist and dietition. She believed that by expanding into the field of counseling she could offer her clients a more holistic approach to life.

Sister Mary is a licensed clinical social worker, graduating from Barry University in Miami in 2004 with a Master of Social Work degree. As Mary explains, a degree in social work tends to make the counselor’s focus more on the client’s “relationship to the environment and social system in which they live.” Those with degrees in psychology tend to focus more on the person’s inner potential, personal strengths and weaknesses.

During her internship at Barry, Sister Mary worked in employee assistance at a medical center. She was able to see first-hand the needs and crises of the poor, especially women. When she joined the AFCC staff in 2004, she brought enthusiasm and commitment, as well as a wealth of experience about the social ills that need compassionate care.

Each of these sisters has shared the journey with many wayfarers on life’s highway. This presence, listening, skills and insights of the counselors help make the way clearer as these travellers make their way towards God.