Welcome!

“Do Not Be Afraid … You Are My Dearest Friends”*

Toxic Fear is perhaps life’s greatest hostage-taker. One psychiatrist calls it a “disease of the imagination.” Fear and disabling Worry can start off like a tiny seed and, watered by thoughts that emphasize worst-case scenarios, grow into a virus-like fiend that ends up dominating our mental state. It then holds us back from our ability to enjoy nearly every dimension of our life: our talents, our work, our love, our play, and our approach to a life in the Spirit.

This website is dedicated to three major Defense Systems that can be effective in helping us overcome the insidious nature of fear, as well as other mental health demons like depression. It will also focus on how we can better live out our lives free of those persistent foragers that roam throughout the corners of our minds… relentlessly haunting us.

Those three Defense Systems are: Spirituality, Psychology and Addiction. All three of these provide newly developed means of delving into the root causes of fear and depression and other mental health disorders, and assisting people in finding improved pathways to freedom, joy, and peace.

“Do not be afraid” – a phrase found 365 times in Sacred Scripture!

*Luke 12:32; translation found in The Bible in Contemporary Language, Eugene H. Peterson

Recent Posts

Dr. Ted’s Mailing List

Past Posts

mm Ted

Richard Rohr: What Is Conversion?

Mar 07, 2016

“Suddenly, while he was traveling to Damascus and just before he reached the city, there came a light from heaven all around him. He fell to the ground and...

mm Ted

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Mar 05, 2016

“… everything I have is yours.” Lk 15:31 Jesus loved to tell stories. He especially liked to tell them when he was being challenged by those who opposed him...

mm Tom Carney

How to be Human

Mar 03, 2016

Next time you hear a scientist say something like, “The more we know about the universe the less important we become,” don’t buy it. The reality is precisely the...

mm Ted

Richard Rohr: The Magic and Mystery of Intimacy

Mar 02, 2016

The Great Mystery unfolds even further. It seems that Israel’s God, Yahweh, who is uncovering and exposing the Divine Self in the Bible, soon desires not just images or...

mm Ted

The Psychological Dimension of Mercy

Mar 02, 2016

(The following piece is a talk I gave at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Peoria Heights, IL. Pope Francis has announced a Jubilee Year of Mercy. This was...

mm Ted

Sr. Rachel Bergschneider: Third Sunday of Lent

Mar 01, 2016

As I reflect on the Scriptures for the Third Sunday of Lent, I am reminded of an old American Indian story: “An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about...

mm Ted

Governors Unite in the War Against Opioids

Feb 26, 2016

Article posted by the Washington Post Editorial Board Governors Unite in the War Against Opioids  

mm Ted

Francis’ challenge to bishops

Feb 26, 2016

Posted by National Catholic Reporter http://ncronline.org/blogs/faith-and-justice/francis-challenge-bishops