The Resilient
Catholics Community

What?

The Resilient Catholics Community:

• Consists of nearly 300 members engaged in weekly live meetings bridging IFS with an authentically Catholic understanding of the human person
• Offers a structured one-year human formation program called the Foundation Year with 44 weekly 90-minute meetings over a 12-month period. Membership costs $99 per month and the total cost is $1687. This includes the PartsFinder Pro report and the Foundation Year program. (If you need financial assistance, please complete this scholarship application. We endeavor to make the RCC as affordable as possible for those seeking human formation and who are a good fit for the RCC.)
• Offers ongoing human formation with weekly meetings and new content for those who’ve completed their Foundation Year and wish to continue in the RCC to remain connected to the vast library of resources. Cost remains $99 per month.
• Starts with the PartsFinder Pro (PFP) – a set of measures which takes about three to six hours to complete online; our PFP writing team collaborates to generate a six- to nine-page PFP report detailing a hypothesized list of parts and suggested ways the parts interact internally, externally and spiritually. [See these sample fictional reports for a man and a woman.]
• Matches you with a pilgrimage companion for daily check-ins and weekly calls for accountability, support and fellowship
• Provides an online library with hundreds of different resources – recorded didactic talks, articles, podcasts, and recorded experiential exercises to support you in your inner work
• Connects you with other like-minded Catholics from around the world, who are committed to their human formation, informed by IFS and grounded in an authentic Catholic understanding of the human person
• Meets in person every August in Bloomington, Indiana, for a 4-day Catholic IFS retreat

Where?

• Meet weekly online via Zoom in small groups called companies
• Connect with all RCC members from around the world within our dedicated Mighty Networks app
• Gather for local and regional meetups at various times each year
• Converge in Indiana each August for the in-person retreat at Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center

Why?

Members of the RCC are learning:

• To be loved and to love
• To carry out the two Great Commandments
• To love God and others more authentically
• To have an ordered self-love flowing from understanding and wisdom about our parts and our innermost selves
• To love with every fiber of our being…all of us…all of our parts
• To love with our whole hearts, our whole minds, our whole souls and all our strength
• To foster a sense of safety in relationships, internally, externally and spiritually
• To have greater self-leadership
• To tolerate being seen, heard, known and understood in all our parts
• To be more fully present in the Catholic Church, the mystical body of Christ, as beloved individual members of that body
• To understand how parts connect, clash and collaborate with the parts of others
• To gain clarity about how parts impact our most intimate relationships

How?

The RCC application and onboarding process follows:

When registration opens in February, June, and October each year, those wishing to apply to the RCC will pay the $499 application fee (non-refundable) to cover:

1. An extensive screening process
2. A 6- to 8-page personalized PartsFinder Pro report
3. A 15-minute consultation with an IFS trained RCC staff member
• When payment is received, Rose Malinoski, registration coordinator, will email a link to an online consent and agreement form to sign and submit.
• When the signed consent form is returned, Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the PartsFinder Pro will be emailed.  All three parts are online, and each part must be completed in a single sitting. [Note: taking the PFP may bring up uncomfortable material for some applicants.]
• When Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the PFP measures are completed and submitted, our PFP team will collaborate in writing a personalized 6- to 9-page report, which will be made available in PDF form. [Note: a small minority of applicants (2-3%), report that some parts felt exposed or vulnerable or experienced other painful reactions upon reading their PFP report.]
• After receiving their personalized PFP report, applicants will schedule a 15-minute Zoom (or phone) consultation with an IFS-trained RCC staff member to connect, offer feedback, address any questions or concerns, and discuss ‘next steps.’
• Applicants determined to be a good fit for RCC membership will receive an email from Patty Ellenberger, office manager, with a link to a scheduling app to submit availability for the weekly company (small group) meetings.  Pooling the availability results from all admitted applicants, Patty will form companies and communicate the meeting days/times to new members. (See below for more information about how a good fit for RCC membership is determined.)
• Admitted members of the RCC will be matched with a companion, who is someone to be an accountability partner and to share the Catholic IFS pilgrimage.
• New members will receive a payment link from Patty a few weeks prior to the first company meeting to begin the $99 per month subscription. Once payment is processed, new members will be emailed a link to join the RCC in Mighty Networks.

• Please note: If you are accepted and choose to delay entry into the RCC by one or two cohorts, retaking the PFP ($149) is required (no new report issued). If you choose to delay by three or more cohorts, you will need to re-start the entire application process.

Who is Not a Good Fit for RCC Membership and Why?

The RCC is focused on flourishing and thriving through overcoming human formation deficits, not on rehabilitation and recovery. Our small groups (companies) receive staff support for the first few weeks, and then our RCC members launch into working collaboratively within their small group settings (and in companion pairs) focusing on their own human formation work.

Our admission decisions are always prayerfully based on what we believe and trust would be best for the individual applicant as well as for the RCC.

With more than 800 RCC applications and over five years of tracking how our members have responded to the program’s various components and relationships, there are clear indications when membership would be problematic.

In about 10%-18% of cases, we determine that an applicant may not thrive or flourish in a small-group setting. This determination, while difficult, is made for both the benefit of the individual applicant as well as for other RCC members.

Common suggestions for applicants who are not admitted include:

1. Offering admission to our Independent Study (IS) program. The curriculum of the RCC fosters internal community, harmonious relationships inside of our members' own systems. Many of our Independent Study members have benefitted greatly from the curriculum offered and taken at their own pace. Some IS members have been paired with a companion (when desired and a suitable match was available).
2. Recommending individual accompaniment, ideally with an IFS-trained therapist. We may recommend therapy alongside or instead of RCC participation.

Know that we take the application and evaluation process very seriously. Our trained PFP writers collaborate, spending many hours with each and every application. Any complex profiles are reviewed thoroughly by Dr. Peter Malinoski.

While it may be discouraging for an applicant to be denied entry into the RCC, their ‘next steps’ in human formation can be greatly aided with the detailed information within their PartsFinder Pro.

Safety and Confidentiality in the RCC

Dr. Peter discusses two primary ground rules within the RCC.

Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it.

- St. Thomas Aquinas

I am Dr. Peter Malinoski, a Catholic clinical psychologist who wants to bring together a community of Catholics who are serious about shoring up our natural foundations on which to build the fullness of the Catholic spiritual life.

We are bringing together Catholics who want to learn better how to tolerate being known and loved (it’s not as easy as it may sound), and who want to learn better how to understand and love others. And I mean “love” in the sense of authentic Christian charity, in the sense of agape, not romantic love.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

- Matthew 22: 36-39

Our community is not about therapy

The Resilient Catholics Community is not about therapy. We do not do therapy in the RCC. Even though most of our members are in their own therapy or have been in the past, RCC membership isn’t a substitute for therapy.

Over the last few years, I have focused on ways that people heal outside of formal individual, group, marital, and family therapy. These therapies, as helpful and important as they are, don’t have a monopoly on healing and growing. Instead of doing therapy, we bring in approaches from life coaching, education, pastoral work, support groups, and from other fields and disciplines.

In the RCC, we have a training ground for the real hands-on work of loving and being loved. Members can stretch themselves to reach out and connect to others via discussion posts, private messages, in our online Zoom meetings and workshops, book clubs and in other ways. We work on being attuned to each other, really understanding each other and being with each other.

And it works. Members are healing. Members are growing. And members are thriving and flourishing.

What the Resilient Catholics community isn’t:

• It’s not a place for getting into political arguments or flame wars
• We don’t focus on social justice issues or social/political activism
• It’s not a place to badmouth the pope, bishops, priests, government officials, atheists, or anyone else
• We don’t try to “fix” each other. Instead, our goal is to “be with” each other, and trust that God’s authentic love reflected in us and through us heals us and our neighbor

What guides the Resilient Catholics Community 

• Humility and Charity

• A childlike trust and absolute confidence in God our Father and Mary our Mother

• A focus on contemplation and union with God and Mary

• Read our formal vision and mission statements