Meet Our Pastoral Counselors
Dr. Gregory Popcak (POP-chak) is the Founder and Executive Director of the Pastoral Solutions Institute) a pastoral counseling/mental health ministry listed in the Official Catholic Directory under the Diocese of Steubenville. The author of over 20 popular books helping readers apply their Catholic faith to challenges of daily life, he is an expert on the practical applications of Pope John Paul the Great’s Theology of the Body. With his wife, Lisa, he hosts More2Life Radio, a call-in advice program heard M-F at 10 am E/ 9amC on almost 400 stations affiliated with the EWTN radio network and SiriusXM Satellite Radio Channel 130.
Dr. Popcak is certified as both a pastoral counselor and pastoral counseling trainer by the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, and a Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (FAAPC), He holds degrees in human services, clinical social work, theology, and psychology.
In addition to his ministry and broadcasting work, Dr. Popcak serves as the Executive Director of the Peyton Institute for Domestic Church Life, a partnership with Holy Cross Family Ministries dedicated to promoting family spirituality and well-being through original research, professional training, and resource development. He is the former Chair of the Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies Program at Holy Apostles College and Seminary. He has served as an adjunct professor of both psychology and graduate theology at Franciscan University.
Dr. Popcak and Lisa are the developers of Catholic Households on Mission, a digital platform dedicated to helping families become dynamic domestic churches. They also serve on the US Catholic Conference of Bishops National Advisory Board for Marriage and Family Ministry. In 2022, he and Lisa were invited by the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life to deliver the opening keynote at the Rome World Meeting of Families.
Dr. Popcak’s articles appear regularly in various Catholic periodicals. His work has been featured on FoxNews, NPR’s Here and Now, the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal, and The National Enquirer.
Andrew Proctor, MSW, MTS, LCSW is a pastoral counselor/mental health ministry associate. A member of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (the organization accredited by the US Dept of Education to certify pastoral counselors), and the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers, he has a Master of Social Work (MSW) degree with a dual concentration in mental health and addictions counseling. He also holds a Master’s degree in Theology from Saint Meinrad Seminary, where he completed his thesis on the Catholic Church’s response to the sexual revolution. As an undergraduate, he attended Marian College, receiving his bachelor’s degree in Catholic Studies with a minor in Spanish. As a pastoral counselor, Andy is passionate about helping people discover ways their Catholic faith can help them overcome life’s challenges. He particularly enjoys working with couples and families and assisting people dealing with complex grief.
Before joining Pastoral Solutions, Andy worked in various community mental health settings, including home and school-based therapy. He has worked extensively with youth and families.
Telecounseling FAQs
Services FAQs
Catholic pastoral counseling is a ministry of the Church committed to helping the faithful employ both spiritual and research-based insights to resolve personal, emotional, spiritual, and relationship problems in a manner that helps them more effectively celebrate the Catholic vision of life and relationships. At CatholicCounselors.com, our pastoral counselors have had years of experience as licensed mental health professionals, but have gone on to receive additional training in Catholic theology and spirituality and have dedicated themselves to using their skills to help Catholics live more faithful and abundant lives. Our pastoral counselors are certified through the Pastoral Solutions Institute, a pastoral counselor training program officially recognized by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and responsible to the Bishop of Steubenville for the fidelity of their work.
Catholic pastoral counseling is concerned with helping people overcome personal, emotional, and relationship problems in a manner that is consistent with the Catholic vision of the person, love, and sexuality. We have an official connection to the Catholic Church and are directly responsible to our bishop for the fidelity of our work. Although pastoral counselors can help clients deal with a wide variety of problems, unlike clinical counselors, we cannot assist people who are dealing with serious mental disorders that present a threat to their life and health, the life and health of their loved ones, or that prevent them from engaging in normal activities of daily living (e.g., basic hygiene, attending work or school, etc.). If at any point in our work together we determine that a client requires clinical counseling services, we will our extensive professional mental health backgrounds to help our client find appropriate local, clinical help, at which point, depending upon the client’s preferences, we may continue as part of the treatment team to provide spiritual care or faith-based patient advocacy/case management services while they work with their clinical counselor, psychiatrist or other mental health/addiction recovery service provider.
Absolutely. A large body of research shows that professional tele-help services of all kinds are just as effective as face-to-face, and in some cases, even more so. Pastoral tele-counseling offers the added benefit of helping clients discover how the timeless wisdom of our Catholic faith combined with research-based insights can help them respond effectively to problems in a manner that also helps them lead more faithful, abundant lives. Research shows that people make faster and longer lasting change when they are being helped in a manner that is consistent with their faith and beliefs.
We are able to meet with our clients via telephone and video. Despite the more recent popularity of video calls, we actually recommend telephone sessions over video because of both its convenience for our clients and the additional benefits offered by the “disinhibition effect” (see next question for an explanation of this term), but we are happy to meet with you however you are most comfortable.
Despite the loss of facial cues, a large degree of meaning in communication is shared through tones-of-voice, specific word choice, pauses and vocalizations ("um," "ah," etc.), and other non-verbal cues that our pastoral tele-counselors have been trained to recognize and effectively interpret. Just like many people prefer to receive Confession “behind the screen” because it is easier to be open and honest with the pastor, (this is called the “disinhibition effect”) people often feel able to be more honest and open with their pastoral counselor when they can’t be seen (of course, we do not offer absolution with our services). Under certain circumstances, where a person is being asked to be more vulnerable than they are used to being, facial expressions and body language can be more of a hindrance than a help.
We can work with individuals, couples, and families. Sometimes parents will contact us looking for help for their children and we are happy to assist them. But because we don’t wish to come between parents and their children our preference is to work with families together. This way, upon the competition of work together, children are able to turn to their moms and dads directly for help and parents have the tools to feel confident in assisting their children with the challenges they are facing. Working with parents and children together has been shown to be the best way to help children make and sustain the progress they achieve by working with us. That said, in some situations, after an initial consultation with the parents, a pastoral counselor will sometimes recommend individual sessions for motivated, older teens (16+).
Yes. Persons who experience hallucinations or psychosis or whose primary complaint is a serious addiction to drugs or alcohol, or who have persistent and serious thoughts about harming themselves or others, or who are suffering from other problems that prevent them from engaging in normal activities of daily living should seek local mental health assistance. Likewise, because our goal is to help our clients live more faithful Catholic lives, anyone hostile to Catholicism or disinterested in learning how the Catholic view of the person could help them live a more abundant life or have healthier, holier relationships (according to the Catholic vision of marriage, family life, and sexuality) would not be appropriate for our services. In all other instances, your pastoral counselor can help you determine whether your problems can be managed safely and effectively. In most cases, they can, but we will provide you with an honest assessment in our initial, free, informational interview. We are committed to helping you receive the help you need regardless of who provides it. If you require help beyond what we are able to provide as pastoral counselors we will make recommendations for appropriate local clinical mental health assistance. Please direct any specific questions to your pastoral counselor in your initial, free, informational interview.