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Nun Photo – Sister Elizabeth Segleau, SDS
Good day and welcome to our special feature “Monday is NUNDAY”! I’m Sister Julie, host of A Nun’s Life, and a Catholic sister belonging to the IHM Sisters of Monroe, Michigan. On today’s program we have a nun guest hailing from the Sisters of the Divine Savior, otherwise knows as the Salvatorians. Please welcome Sister Elizabeth “Liza” Segleau, SDS.
Sister Liza has a masters degree in behavioral health and ministers as a social worker and counselor. She lives in a rural, mountain town in Arizona called Show Low. Sister Liza currently works for a private practice but is actively working with the director to set up a nonprofit counseling/outreach center called Gabriel after the archangel. Once Gabriel is up and running, Sister Liza will work there fulltime. Says Sister Liza, “This is certainly walking out on a limb and trusting in God’s providence. I have not been involved in a start-up in quite some time. So enthusiasm, trust, joy, strength and patience will be required. Your prayers will be appreciated as we gently go about getting Gabriel started.”
The photo of Sister Liza is from when she ministered at Catholic Charities in Milwaukee. She served as an outreach working in their immigration program.
For more on Sister Liza and her Sisters, check out the Meet Sisters page of the Sisters of the Divine Savior website.
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{ 6 comments }
i’m wondering if being a counselor and a nun is much different from being a lay counselor. are there different privacy issues? different availability issues?
also, and more importantly, this: many christian counselors who are not catholic are not the best at dealing with self-esteem issues because fundamentalist christians believe people are inherently bad and so cannot encourage people with such issues by telling them they are “good enough.” what is the belief of a catholic christian counselor regarding self-esteem?
counseling is an area i’m very imterested in so i could ask questions all day, but i will leave it at this. (i’m not even certain sr. liza will answer questions!)
Hi Marla! I don’t think there is much difference, but honestly I’m not sure because it’s not my field. Let me check in with Sister Liza or others about this.
Hi Marla,
Very good questions! I most honored to answer them.
Once you have a degree in social work, counseling, psychology, or somewhere along those lines, you must comply with the responsibilities of the profession and state regulations just like any other professional. I’m a social worker who has specialized in mental health. Therefor I do counseling/psychotherapy and any area of social work required. If I have a client in crisis, I must attend to it, even if that means not arriving for dinner or having to for go prayer with the rest of the Sisters. The agency, my profession and state regulations mandate that I attend to anyone at risk at any hour. It is important if you choose this profession, to also choose wisely the house you will live in. The Sisters whom you live with must understand your duties and responsibilities in your ministry. If you are up front and explain your ministry well, the Sisters will understand if you run out the door at 2am.
No matter what your religious background is, anyone involved with counseling must know and is trained in school regarding the importance of self esteem. It is so at the core of what being human is. God gave us all healthy self esteem. But through the battles of life, it can get crushed. It is the responsibility of any counselor, social worker, nurse, psychologist to educate and help the client rebuild themselves to be whole, healthy and holy.
It is absolutely UNETHICAL to impose your points of view, belief system, or demands on the life of any client. All counselors, therapist must show the utmost respect for the belief system/values of the client. (As long as they are not harmful to self or others, of course).
I hope this helps. Sorry for the long post. Any other questions, I will be happy to answer them.
Sr. Liza, SDS
dear sr. liza,
thanks for answering my questions.
in asking my self-esteem related question, i was referring to counselors who advertise themselves as “christian counselors.” in that case, i think they are allowed and even encouraged to advocate their own belief systems. unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out well. one of my students saw such a counselor, a protestant, and was “exorcised”! another person (my brother) wanted christian values in a therapist and was told repeatedly by his counselor that he would never be good enough because people are inherently evil and that this is why we need god.
i guess i wonder if catholics see humans as basically bad or good and, based upon that, how a sister such as yourself would address self-esteem issues in a therapy setting. does your spirituality even come into it?
i know some very good christian counselors, too, don’t get me wrong. but, as you might imagine, these incidents i related upset me and made me very curious about how catholic counselors might react differently.
Thats so sad that those things happen! I heard that a Protestant woman killed her child trying to do an exorcism. She was badly abused, but the mother did not recieve charges because the governement can not speak for religion.
Well, when I read this in my Catechism, they said the Catholic Church believes that humans are neither inherently bad nor good. I suppose we are in between, and it really depends on our actions in life whether we are judged to be good or bad. Of course, we are born with original sin which must be washed away with Baptism, but after that, it is really up to us to nurture our relationships with God and others.
Pax Tibi,
discerninglife25
i always taught as a catechist that we are basically good after baptism, too. i believe it completely. god would create bad? but it leaves many questions unanswered.
sorry i went on, sr. julie.