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Alumna psychologist Dr. Helena Orellana (�11) joined several prominent Catholic thinkers, including the Most Rev. Robert E. Barron, at a United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Roundtable discussion of the mental health crisis among young people in the United States.

While that crisis is often attributed to Covid-19 lockdowns and the impact of social media, Dr. Orellana � assistant professor and director of clinical training in the Doctorate in Psychology program at Divine Mercy University � noted that its roots are much older and deeper. 

�The family has been suffering for a long time,� she said, emphasizing that, for years, �what family purpose and values mean has been a question mark and a place of confusion.� Amplifying the twilight of the family is the decline of religion in American life. �People are not accessing the sources of stability, meaning, purpose, and just outward focus that have been so psychologically stabilizing,� she said, adding that the foremost such source is spiritual. �Religion, from the time that we began to study it as a field, has always been a stabilizing force.�

Having identified the crisis�s spiritual roots, though, Dr. Orellana was careful not to oversimplify. �Mental illness needs mental healthcare,� she insisted. Citing her own clinical experience, she laments that many Catholic patients come to therapy with �the perception that what they�re undergoing is because of a spiritual failure.� The spiritual dimension is integral to �a full picture of human nature,� but coexists alongside the other dimensions of the human person. Patients need not choose between sacraments or therapy. �You can still get treatment,� she said, �and go to church.�

�What underlies all suffering is a deep cry for meaning, a desperate cry for healing and for understanding, of �Why is this happening to me?� �Does God care?�� said Dr. Orellana. �The Church has the fullness of that answer, which is that He Himself suffers, because He sees you suffer. He meets you there.�

Grounding therapy in God�s plan of love thus provides a path for overcoming the mental-health crisis among young people, many of whom need to be reminded of their inestimable worth as children of God. �We need each person. Each person has something that only they can offer,� said Dr. Orellana. �If we can help people attend to that reality, it�s just transformative; it really moves us through suffering in the way nothing else can.�