Dear Robert:

I am semi-retired, and thus the St.Padre Pio Center for Deliverance Counseling was moved to another domain (saintpiocenter.org) with Joe Meineke as the director. Because of time constraints (he has children, a wife, and full-time work), he is overwhelmed, and thus it was decided to close the counseling portion of the apostolate, hopefully temporarily.

In the meantime, there are self-help resources available.

Joe still has some clients he is working with and thus does not have any schedule openings. Even though I am semi-retired I am finishing up with one or two clients. I do not know if I will accept any new clients after that.

We still have the Deliverance Counseling Training program, of which I am the Dean. Hopefully, if we can get some people trained we will be able to accept more clients. As it is, Joe cannot accept more than one or two clients at a time. Even if I return to accept new clients I would only be able to take on one or two at the most.

We know there is a great need. We believe demonization in some form (not possession) is pandemic in our culture. Finding Catholic deliverance counselors who really know what they are doing is rare. And, no one Protestant or Catholic, has the extensive training and counseling program that we have.

But, there are only so many hours in the day, and only so many qualified counselors (only Joe and me at the moment, with one student getting close to being ready. Other students are a ways off from being able to counsel).

It takes around 3-4 years to get through training (depending on how fast students work through the program; they can complete the academics in less than three years if they work hard), plus a one year internship, followed by three years of supervised work as a full counselor (sort of like a doctor's "residency" in a hospital) before they are out on their own.

The graduation rate is around one percent. The reason it is so low is that oftentimes students have family or work matters that make it impossible to participate in training, or they find that they are not called to this work after all, or we evaluate them as not suitable for this work, or various other reasons.

This work is not for everyone and it is not a game or to be taken lightly. Thus, the training is also a formation and discernment time. It is not until near the end of the training that one can know if they are truly called (similar to a candidate for priesthood; it is only in the last year or so that they are ordained a deacon and then still have a period of discernment while they finish up their studies before they are consecrated priest).

So, the point is that it is not a quick thing to get a counselor trained.

One of the things Satan wants us to do is to rush, or take on too many clients at once. He knows that if we do rush that we will make mistakes and end up helping no one. Thus, we cannot rush things and must be careful not to take on too many clients than we have time for according to our circumstances.

Pray for more students who are qualified and will finish the training and become counselors.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary