Catholic author, speaker, columnist for The Catholic Spirit (Simple Holiness) and retired therapist Kate Soucheray recently joined “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley to discuss ways to work in racially diverse communities and parishes. She used her own experience to illustrate the need to learn and respond.
Soucheray recalled the day in 2017 when she learned the comprehensive question she would be addressing as part of a doctoral program. Expecting to be asked a question about family dinner time, she was surprised to see a question about the race of therapists. She said therapists are almost 90% white and work with people of color.
Kate Soucheray
“As a therapist working with all people, it’s shocking that I couldn’t just snap my fingers and begin working,” Soucheray said. “So, I had to ground myself and say, ‘OK, now where do I begin?’”
She said that, unfortunately, “that’s what so many white therapists, counselors, mental health professionals, educators, spiritual leaders are met with. We just don’t know what we don’t know.”
Soucheray began reading books and articles to educate herself, and she identified recurring themes: being aware of and sensitive to what one doesn’t know, listening and being curious, responding from one’s own humanity to the other person’s — and not seeing him or her as “other” or “different” — and being competent, although not necessarily an expert, and humble.
In addition to those ideas, she also encouraged looking at the virtues, “because for Catholics … we should be interested in living a virtuous life.”
And she attended training sessions.
Soucheray believed she could not be the only therapist or mental health professional who saw this as something that was lacking, she said, “So I began to lead.”
She put together training on the subject, and said people who attended all echoed the same thing she did: “I can’t believe what I didn’t know.”
Soucheray is planning a multicultural sensitivity training day for mental health, spiritual and educational professionals this fall at St. Mary’s University in Minneapolis, her alma mater. To learn more, Soucheray suggested either emailing her at [email protected] or visiting the Institute for Family Health and Well-being website, ifhwb.com.
The training will help participants “go forth feeling like they really have a mission to accomplish,” Soucheray said.
To learn more about the topic and training, and hear the full interview, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. It airs at 9 p.m. June 11, 1 p.m. June 12 and 2 p.m. June 13 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM. Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Jeff Cavins, who describes a new course from the Catechetical Institute School of Discipleship, and with Tim Murray, who discusses how Trinity Sober Homes helps men get back on their feet during their recovery.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at:
soundcloud.com/PracticingCatholic
tinyurl.com/PracticingCatholic (Spotify)
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