For the past two years, I’ve led online workshops about spiritual abuse in the Catholic Church. These are live workshops with small groups of people (12 or fewer). And to date, over 150 people have participated.
One thing that I’ve been asked about several times is if these workshops are recorded for people who aren’t able to commit to a live course. For a long time, I was hesitant about that. First of all, because I have a personal bias against “passive” online content that’s “consumed.” It has its place, but as a catechist, I believe there’s something deeply important about learning within the context of a relationship.
There has been other, more practical, concerns as well. Things like how recording a workshop impacts the privacy of the participants who often share personal stories. And the fact that a recorded course almost immediately becomes outdated because the content can no longer be regularly updated.
But a few things converged last year that changed my mind on this. The first was hearing from several people about how, even though a recorded course wouldn’t have the group sharing and interaction, the content in my workshops is still valuable in itself. Those conversations intersected with a friend, a professional video producer, emailing me out of the blue to ask if she could record my material about spiritual abuse.
So last spring, Mary Ashley and Nate Bannister flew to Michigan, and we spent a week recording a spiritual abuse course. (It happened to be a very memorable week because it was also the week Pope Leo was elected.)
This is an eight-module course for $250 that includes recorded presentations, slides, piles of additional resources, and access to a private online community to connect and share resources with others who have attended the course or workshop. Check out this awesome promo that Mary Ashley and Nate put together!
P.S. Don’t worry, the live workshops will continue! As great as this course is, the group discussion, personal sharing, and relational learning from the live workshops can’t be replaced. Look for the next round of live workshops to start up this fall.
Paul Faheylives in Michigan with his wife and five kids. He is a limited licensed professional counselor, retreat leader, and catechist. He is a co-founder of Where Peter Is, founder and co-host of the Pope Francis Generation podcast, and the host of the Third Space podcast. He provides counseling for those who have been spiritually abused and produces resources for Church leaders to better safeguard their communities against all forms of abuse.
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