Mental health professionals invited to find solace, solidarity at annual St. Dymphna Mass

UTG at Work and The Catholic Psychotherapy Association promoting, Saturday, May 16 celebration

ROYAL OAK – Mental healthcare professionals are invited to gather for comfort and spiritual nourishment at the third-annual St. Dymphna Mass on Saturday, May 16, at the National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak. 

The Mass, followed by a period of networking and reflection, is hosted by the Archdiocese of Detroit's UTG at Work and the Catholic Psychotherapy Association’s Region 6 representative, Cassidy Azzow, a doctoral-level clinical psychologist who runs her own practice in Rochester Hills. 

Azzow, who represents 40 people regionally, has collaborated with UTG at Work’s executive director, Deacon Mike Houghton, to support the St. Dymphna Initiative, the Catholic Psychotherapy Association’s nationwide effort to spread its mission and build a network for mental health professionals. 

St. Dymphna is the patron saint of mental health — feast day May 15 — and has gained popularity in the 21st century among those who grapple with their mental well-being, as well as those who treat and support those struggling with their mental health.

“Our jobs can be really isolated,” Azzow told Detroit Catholic. "Our field is so different because, yes, there are people who work in big clinics and hospital systems, but a lot of people are in private practice. They go to work and are alone, and they see their patients, and it is isolating. This event is really about nurturing vocations and getting spiritual nourishment. It’s a reminder that this is a vocation, not just a skilled career.”

The first two St. Dymphna gatherings were small, intimate gatherings, Azzow said, and attendees have collaborated to reflect on their vocation and on how God is present in each of their encounters at work. 

Together, mental healthcare professionals can reflect on the difficult aspects of the job as well as those that are fulfilling, and renew their sense of purpose, Azzow said.

Deacon Houghton explained that the archdiocesan apostolate’s goal is to help people live their faith at work, no matter their profession. 

“This Mass, in particular, has a very specific audience with mental healthcare workers, and frankly, it is very much needed,” Deacon Houghton explained. “These are folks who sometimes struggle to find good ways to live their faith in their practice of psychotherapy, and Cassidy is leading the way for all of them to say, ‘Let's talk about that, let's practice this and see how we can support one another in faith.’”

Being Catholic in the workplace can feel like being on an island, Deacon Houghton explained, and Azzow agrees: sometimes it can feel like you are the only Catholic in the workplace, even if that is not actually the case.

However, Azzow has found that her profession and her faith are compatible because Catholic social teaching and anthropology can be naturally integrated into psychotherapy.

“So much of Catholic anthropology already addresses the human person and what is good for the human person,” Azzow explained. “The integration of Catholic anthropology into psychotherapy makes it a lot richer and addresses more of the human person than just the psyche.” 

Catholics are called to be in the world, but not of it, Deacon Houghton added, and the best way to begin integrating the Gospel and work is by starting with the source and summit of our faith – the Eucharist. 

“As Catholics, the most important thing that we have is the Eucharist, and we celebrate the Eucharist through Mass,” Deacon Houghton said. “We who are Catholics in the business world need to bring those two things together and say, ‘Hey, as Catholics in the secular world, we need to live our faith, and we live it in everything we do, including the workplace.’”