Increase your self-awareness, grow in your own human formation, and bond deeply with other like-minded Catholic formators in Internal Family Systems-informed programs.

Are you seeking:

• Greater insight into yourself as a formator and better self-care?
• Better human formation on the natural level as both a person and a formator?
• Deep, personal connections within a community of other Catholic formators who understand the unique demands of our lives?
• New skills to help those you accompany help themselves?
• And do you want this all in a Catholic community of formators committed to grounding clinical practice in a Catholic worldview?

We Catholic formators (spiritual directors, coaches, therapists, seminary formators and others) need help to live out our profession for those we accompany in a healthy way.

• We need grace and the love of God our Father and Mary our Mother, first and foremost in prayer and sacrament. That’s a given.
• We also need each other, in the Body of Christ -- we need to “Bear each other’s burdens” as St. Paul tells us (Galatians 6:2).
• We formators sometimes try to minimize these realities, and that’s understandable because we naturally focus on others.  But if we neglect caring for ourselves and loving ourselves in an ordered way, sooner or later, we get into trouble.  You know this.

You might be familiar with Internal Family Systems as a trauma treatment from Bessel van der Kolk’s best-selling book on complex trauma, The Body Keeps the Score, where he devotes all of chapter 17 to IFS. That chapter is available free online here, and it is well worth reading (the books is quite good and a best-seller in the trauma world).

For those unfamiliar with IFS, please note that IFS focuses primarily on intrapsychic dynamics in one person in individual psychotherapy, counseling, spiritual direction or coaching.

For a quick summary of IFS, check out this video or a description here.

So, in a nutshell, we are nourishing our minds conceptually, learning new approaches to formation that we can bring to our clients to help them lead their own lives more effectively through our own experiential learning and growth. All grounded in a Catholic worldview.

The Formation for Formators community is open to Catholic therapists, counselors, interns, and graduate students in mental health-related programs as well as to spiritual directors, Catholic coaches, seminarian formators, and anyone else who professionally accompanies another in a one-on-one relationship.

All members must adhere to all the teachings of the Church, as stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

The FFF was established originally as the Interior Therapists Community in 2020 and recently expanded to include all formators by Dr. Peter Malinoski, Ph.D.  Dr. Peter has completed IFS Levels 1, 2, and 3 training, as well as the IFIO marriage/couples therapy training.  Dr. Peter often leads FEGs and advanced groups and has vetted and trained all the other FEG faciliators listed below. He actively participates in the online community.

Gerry Crete, Ph.D., is chief executive officer and co-founder of Souls and Hearts and IFS-informed. Dr. Gerry leads several Advanced Groups. They are available for those who have completed an FEG or are IFS Level One or Stepping Stones trained.

Check out IFS in Action in this 60-minute Demonstration 

Watch Dr. Peter as he works with a Christian therapist to unveil how this therapist's parts see God.

What are Catholic formators
saying about the FFF?

This community allows me the place and space to journey with Catholic therapists. God works in and through the relationships.

Adele Huculak, RCC, Kamloops, British Columbia