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“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

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mm Tom Carney

Faith through Walking

Jul 08, 2021

A few years ago, New York Times best-selling author, Timothy Egan, set out on a journey to find his faith. He detailed his journey in a book published in...

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Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jul 05, 2021

“ … when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Cor: 12:10 Years ago, I worked as a therapist at a famous alcohol and drug treatment center in...

mm Tom Carney

Which Way the Wind Is Blowing

Jul 01, 2021

Following trends, I believe, is a natural human tendency. I can imagine ancient peoples following the hunting and gathering techniques of their neighbors and changing, albeit slowly, when they...

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The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jun 28, 2021

“Little girl, I say to you, arise!” Mk 5:41 “I forgive you.” These words were spoken by Nadine Collier as tears streamed down her face. She was speaking to...

mm Tom Carney

Can a Skeptic Be a Believer?

Jun 24, 2021

A well-dressed, middle-aged woman, wearing no makeup, walks along a long wall toward the camera. The footage is in black-and-white. Sadness covers her face like a dew-fall of tragedy....

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Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jun 20, 2021

Why are you terrified?” Mk. 4:40  “Do not be afraid.” These are the very first words the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary. The Bible seems particularly intent on repeating...

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Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jun 20, 2021

“… the kingdom of God … is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it...

mm Tom Carney

Seeing Things as They Are, Part II

Jun 17, 2021

My wife, Amparo, and I recently taught a 16-hour course in Spanish for 30 students in the Hispanic Leadership program of the Diocese of Des Moines on the subject...