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

  • RSVP

    My wife, Amparo, and I recently bought a car, not a new one but a late model. It seemed to make the most economic sense. What didn’t make sense as …

  • Faith Like Falling in Love?

    I’ve often quoted New York Times columnist David Brooks in these blogs because I find his columns unusually insightful. And, unlike many columnists in that publication and others, he doesn’t …

  • Do What We’ve Always Done?

    It may not come as a surprise to most readers of this blog that the presidential election did not go my way. And I’m not encouraged by the choices for …

  • A Religion of Impossibilities?

    Pigs Fly. People walk on walls. Catfish play the trumpet. All among things that are impossible, most would agree. Then there are the theoretical or apparent impossibilities. World Peace. Democrats …

  • Figuring the Odds

    Many of you, when studying physics or math, may recall learning about Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, philosopher, physicist and theologian who lived from 1623 to 1662. Pascal came up …

Dr. Ted’s Mailing List

Recent

Past Posts

mm Tom Carney

So Hard to Trust

May 07, 2020

Like many families during this pandemic, my wife, Amparo, and I have had many Facetime sessions with our children and grandchildren. In one recent session, our grandchild, Leo, who...

mm Ted

Fourth Sunday of Easter

May 01, 2020

“I came so that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” Jn. 10:10 “Stuff.”  The famous comedian, George Carlin, used to do a routine called “Stuff” –...

mm Tom Carney

The World Hidden Beneath This One

Apr 30, 2020

In her apparently successful search for God, Author Heather King experienced “that stab of joy that hints at a world hidden within this one.” But she didn’t come to...

mm Ted

Third Sunday of Easter

Apr 24, 2020

“The Lord has truly been raised.” Lk: 24:34 The Emmaus story, described only in the gospel of Luke, can easily be read as the story of our individual faith...

mm Tom Carney

The Fresco Painter

Apr 23, 2020

While he was painting frescoes in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the artist James Thornhill became so excited about his fresco that he stepped back to see it better...

mm Ted

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER, DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

Apr 17, 2020

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not...

mm Tom Carney

The Cost of Indifference

Apr 16, 2020

“Whatever,” I said in a recent telephone conversation with my daughter. “Yikes!” I thought afterward. “Did I really use that word?” Fact is, it’s hard to resist the use...

mm Ted

Easter Sunday

Apr 11, 2020

One of the finest gifts I ever received was the opportunity to do graduate work in psychology under the tutelage of psychiatrist, Victor Frankl. His best-selling book, Man’s Search...