How should we “love one another” as Christ called us to? In order to love, we also have to first be loved ourselves and experience that love. Do you have that capacity to both love and receive love from another, or has your ability to love and experience emotions been locked up due to past experiences? As Catholics, how can we achieve a harmonious relationship between our body, mind, emotions, and soul under the guidance of their reason and will?

“Importance of Affirmation and the Emotional Life as a Catholic” with Dr Sue Baars

Dr. Sue Baars has worked extensively in the field of counseling since 1986 in both hospital and outpatient settings. She provides individual, marriage and family therapy in Irving, Texas, where she is privileged to collaborate with a team of Catholic therapists and psychiatric nurse practitioners at In His Image Counseling Center.  Sue bases her treatment of emotional & spiritual problems on the integration of the Christian anthropology of St. Thomas Aquinas with modern psychological developments.  She has presented at Catholic conferences around the country and has been a guest on EWTN’s Women of Grace.  She often presents the work of her late father, psychiatrist and author Conrad Baars, a pioneer in the field of Catholic psychology. Sue cites the cultural erosion of the family as the root of the lack of affirmation from which many people in our time suffer.   Sue’s lectures include a series of talks given to priests: The Abode of Love: Developing the Heart. She and a colleague edited a collection of her father’s articles and monographs related to the priesthood entitled, “I Will Give Them a New Heart: Reflections on the Priesthood and the Renewal of the Church.”  Sue was on the faculty of the Institute for Priestly Formation (IPF) from 2008 to 2015, where she taught diocesan seminarians. Sue has also written several book chapters on priestly formation. At present, she is working on developing a curriculum to train therapists in the Baars/Terruwe Model of psychotherapy. Sue is a Past President of the Catholic Psychotherapy Association and holds a doctorate in Family Therapy from Texas Woman’s University. Information about Affirmation therapy and the Baars/Terruwe Model of psychotherapy may be found at www.BaarsInstitute.com