Catholic Charities counseling brings balance, light

Gloria Garcia, a licensed professional counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist, has been helping clients at  Catholic Charities for 25 years.

Beth Wilson for South Texas Catholic

Difficult times often bring people to their knees. The light seems to dim. The troubles mount. Faith and feelings of self-worth disappear. And then a ray of hope comes in. 

For many, this is in the form of counseling from Catholic Charities of Corpus Christi. It is one of the many services offered by the organization, which is a part of the Diocese of Corpus Christi. 

Olivia has come for counseling at Catholic Charities off and on over the last eight years. A woman nearing her 50s, she has chosen to be identified as Olivia to keep confidential the types of issues she discusses in her counseling sessions.

“Life has a way of throwing a wrench at you that you’re not prepared for,” she said. “At one of my most dire moments, when I was at my lowest, I was visiting with a Catholic priest and he suggested I meet with Gloria at Catholic Charities,” Olivia said.

Gloria H. Garcia, a licensed professional counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist, has been with Catholic Charities about 25 years. They set up a meeting, and Olivia’s healing journey began.

“Through my counseling with Gloria,” Olivia said, “I regained my faith, my self-esteem…for me it’s helped me balance my life, helped me look at life with a different lens.”

Garcia explains this idea of balance; you have the external realm with your job, your friends and family. Then you have your internal realm, your mind, body and spirit. 

The counseling is solutions-based, and designed to be as brief as needed, Garcia said. Clients come in hurting, she guides them with what she calls reality testing. “You may be feeling worthless,” she said, “but are you really? Absolutely not. You think it sometimes because of losses but is it true? No.”

As she talks with clients, she lets them know they are normal, but the situations they are in may not be. She helps them process feelings and reactions, and helps them pick up the pieces. She conducts cognitive behavior therapy, with reality framing, talking with clients to help them move forward, reflect and deal with past traumas or experiences. 

Relationship loss is a common issue. With that, she helps clients remember there was life before and, yes, there will be life after. She helps them to see that light at the end of the tunnel, to focus on what to do with that time through the tunnel.

She uses a road trip to illustrate those dark times, recalling a trip through Mathis, when the clouds covered the sun, rain fell fast, making it hard to see the road. She begged her husband to pull over, to stop. But he knew they had to keep going to get out of it, and they went slowly and safely through. 

“It’s like that with the dark spots in our lives,” she said. “We can get stuck and dwell or we have to keep moving forward. It’s not easy.”    

Catholic Charities counseling is, well, Catholic, but not in a sense that each session talks about the tenants of the Church or religion. Many clients already have a strong spiritual base with church and prayer in use already as coping mechanisms. Others have close relatives with that strong spiritual connection. 

For Olivia, the Catholic part helped frame her counseling sessions. 

“It’s soul-searching to find peace,” she said. “It’s not that I’m kooky and gonna put my feet up and get fixed.”

She clearly remembers one time when in a deep session, in the organization’s former location, which was next door to Sacred Heart Church. “I was thinking there’s no way I’m going to make it, and then out of the clear blue sky, the church bells would ring next door,” she said. “Call it what you will, but for me it was a sign–that it might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, but I was going to be OK.”

Catholic Charities’ counseling program sees about 1,100 people a year, Garcia said. She also regularly offers counseling at the Mother Theresa Shelter. 

The initial session is $20 and each appointment is up to $65 with clients paying based on the size of their family and income. “We are very flexible, and we won’t turn people away,” Garcia said.

A stigma about going to therapy still exists, but Garcia reminds her clients that people who seek out counseling are not crazy. They simply want to grow and recognize a problem, to speak confidentially with someone who can help them.

“It takes more courage to come then to not come,” she said.