Parishioners in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis were introduced to Kenna and Pat Millea, parishioners of St. Joseph in West St. Paul, when they were featured in a video series in early 2021 called “Synod at Home: Tips and Tools for Growing in Faith” as part of the archdiocesan Synod process. It was designed to help Catholics — as individuals or households — discern a practical plan that helps them live their faith intentionally.
Married 13 years and the parents of seven children, the Milleas recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to describe what Kenna has called “their eighth child,” a new venture they describe as the intersection of their Catholic faith and mental health care: the Martin Center for Integration. Through it, they will offer counseling, podcasting, and speaking and training presentations that address mental health and spiritual needs.
Pat and Kenna Millea
Kenna is a licensed marriage and family therapist in private practice. She previously worked in parish faith formation ministries for about 10 years before returning to graduate school to study marriage and family therapy. Pat worked in parish ministry for 15 years, and is an experienced speaker. He will serve as director of formation and operations at the Martin Center.
In his work as a youth minister, most recently as director of senior high youth ministry at St. Joseph until last November, Pat saw people directly impacted by mental health challenges. “And we were getting lots of questions and concerns from folks looking for answers, looking for resources, even simple day-to-day tools and practical methods to integrate our faith, what the truth of the Gospel tells us about what we were made for, with our mental health,” he said. “This became a beautiful opportunity for us to introduce Catholics to the ways that our souls and our minds are always connected, and that when we seek sanity in our minds, it’s ultimately a path to sanctity as well.”
The Martin Center will offer counseling, speaking and training aimed at parish groups, youth groups and organizations, Kenna said. The couple is launching a podcast Labor Day weekend called “This Whole Life Seeking Sanity and Sanctity.”
“It will be much more about addressing the daily things that pop up that can affect our mental health,” Kenna said, “the relationships, the stressors, the decisions to be made, how we’re really living out our values and making sure that our lives are oriented toward the good.”
Mental health struggles can present when people live a disintegrated life, a fragmented, disjointed life, Kenna said. “And so as Catholics, we have this already-built-into-us to constantly be considering, ‘Am I really attending to what God is calling me to do?’” she said.
The podcast is meant to help people, using questions and reflection activities to move more deeply and to listen more boldly and courageously to what God is calling them to, Kenna said.
To learn about the Milleas’ new venture, including services offered, visit MartinCenterForIntegration.com. To learn about the podcast and its launch party, visit ThisWholeLifePodcast.com. To hear the complete interview, tune in to the 9 p.m. Aug. 5 “Practicing Catholic” show, which repeats at 1 p.m. Aug. 6 and 2 p.m. Aug. 7 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with outdoorsman Dave Hrbacek, a photographer and writer for The Catholic Spirit, who discusses the connection between hunting, fishing, outdoor photography and being a practicing Catholic; and a reprised interview from Sept. 17 with Msgr. Jason Gray of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, who describes the process of becoming a canonized saint. Msgr. Gray had worked for the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which oversees the canonization process.
Listen to their interviews after they have aired at:
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