The Catholic Therapist

Can you love yourself the way God loves you?

In this episode, Catholic therapist Adam Cross, LMFT (#116623) unpacks an unexpected fruit of intimacy with God: a healthy, holy love of self rooted in being God's beloved.

Topics covered:

Daily Lectio Divina and time with the Word as a bedrock of faith

How intimacy with God reveals how he sees us

Reclaiming "self-love" as stewardship of body, mind, and soul

What "die to yourself" does and does not mean

Why loving your neighbor as yourself is hard when you are harsh with yourself

Your God-given needs and limits as an invitation back to the Father

Before we can be a gift to others, we have to know we are already a gift.

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Have questions? Visit my website: adamcrossmft.com Adam Cross, LMFT #116623

Who's really driving your healing, you, or your anxiety?

In this episode, Catholic therapist Adam Cross, LMFT (#116623) explores a pattern he sees often in the therapy room: clients whose anxiety or OCD quietly takes charge of the healing process, driven by a fear that anything less than total control means they won't be okay.

Topics covered:

The "listing compulsion" and the fear behind needing to share everything

The anxious "healing manager" part of us that tries to steer therapy

Why forcing healing becomes an obstacle to it

The afraid-of-the-dark analogy for working with anxious parts of ourselves

Dialoguing with anxiety through imagination, and the powers of the soul

Trusting God's presence in each step of the healing process

Real healing doesn't require you to manage it alone. It asks for peace, trust, and a willingness to let someone else, including the Holy Spirit, help steer.

Have questions? Visit my website: adamcrossmft.com Adam Cross, LMFT #116623

Does trusting God's mercy mean you'll just get complacent with sin?

In this episode, Catholic therapist Adam Cross, LMFT (#116623) unpacks a fear he sees constantly in the therapy room, especially with clients struggling with scrupulosity and OCD: that leaning into God's mercy means letting themselves off the hook.

Topics covered:

The fear that trusting God's mercy leads to complacency

Scrupulosity, OCD, and trust issues with ourselves

The two false extremes: self-reliance and mercy without relationship

The good thief on the cross and salvation as gift, not merit

Rebuilding self-trust after squandering God's mercy in the past

Peace, not fear, as the real sign of the Holy Spirit's conviction

A daily prayer practice from Fr. Timothy Gallagher

The answer isn't more willpower or more excuses. It's relationship: a daily, minute-by-minute leaning into a God who is present, who loves you, and who will bring you peace.

Have questions? Visit my website: adamcrossmft.com Adam Cross, LMFT #116623

Is it possible to fear God and trust him at the same time?

In this episode, Catholic therapist Adam Cross, LMFT (#116623) sits down with Dr. Anthony Isacco, licensed psychologist and Director of Training for the PsyD program at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, for his third appearance on the show. Together they untangle one of the most common, and most misunderstood, tensions in the spiritual life: the fear of the Lord.

Topics covered:

Healthy fear versus anxiety and scrupulosity

Why so many Catholics struggle to admit they have a good relationship with God

Pope Leo's teaching on human dignity as unearned, not achieved

Discipline as an expression of a father's love, not rejection

Parts work, Internal Family Systems, and integrating psychology with Catholic spirituality

Practical tools for working through fear: thought records, perspective-taking, and the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity

Whatever your relationship with fear looks like right now, this conversation offers a path back to trust, and a reminder that God is a father, not a master.

Have questions? Visit my website: adamcrossmft.com Adam Cross, LMFT #116623

What if the scariest part of a horror movie isn't the monster, but the isolation?

In this episode, Catholic therapist Adam Cross, LMFT (#116623) reviews the horror film "Obsession" and unpacks what it reveals about consent, codependency, and what it truly means to love.

Topics covered:

The Twilight Zone episode that echoes Obsession's premise

Why no character in the film is fully consenting to what happens to them

Consent, free will, and mortal sin in Catholic moral theology

Codependency vs. real love

Becoming free to give ourselves as a gift

The devil's lie that God doesn't care

Even in suffering, we are never without choice, support, or God's presence.

Have questions? Visit my website: adamcrossmft.com Adam Cross, LMFT